Database Administrator at Safaricom Kenya

Job Description

Reporting to the Database Administration Planning lead, the position holder will be responsible for Administration, Performance tuning and 3rd line support of ALL Safaricom Enterprise Database (DB) Systems. The role focuses on both open-source and proprietary databases, including PostgreSQL, GaussDB, MySQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, Redis, Microsoft SQL Server, and cloud-based database platforms.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage the full database lifecycle, including installation, configuration, backup/recovery, updates and/or upgrades, automation, and maintenance.
• Ensure 99.99% availability maintained for all critical databases.
• Ensure tickets raised are responded to within the agreed SLA.
• Test Business Continuity (BCP) and High Availability (HA) solutions for critical systems to minimize downtime during maintenance and failures.
• Optimize database performance through tuning, query optimization, indexing, and system resource management.
• Ensure databases comply with security best practices and data integrity standards.
• Ensure regular reviews on information lifecycle management policies is conducted.
• Ensure optimal performance of all systems maintained conforming to the SLA agreements between business and Quality Assurance.
• Implement open-source databases as an alternative to existing proprietary solutions.
• Collaborate with developers, DevOps, and infrastructure teams to improve database efficiency and reliability.
• Automate database administration tasks using scripts and other automation tools.

Role Requirement and experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related technical field.
• At least 4 years of hands-on experience managing large-scale database environments in both open-source and enterprise platforms. 
• Expertise in at least three RDBMS and two NoSQL DB technologies from the following: PostgreSQL, GaussDB, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Cassandra, Redis and MongoDB.  
• Experience managing databases in Linux/Unix environments. 
• Experience managing Microsoft SQL Server on Windows Environments.  
• Strong understanding of database performance tuning, troubleshooting, migrations, and Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) techniques. 
• Hands-on experience with replication, clustering, sharding, and high-availability configurations. 
• Familiarity with on-premises and cloud-based database services (AWS RDS) 
• Attention to details and analytical thinking. 
• Knowledge of automation and scripting using Bash, Python, or Ansible for database administration. 
• Design and implement conceptual, logical, and physical data models based on business requirements. 
• Optimize data movement across systems while ensuring data integrity and minimal redundancy. 
• Administer, manage, and monitor databases across development, test, stage, and production environments
• Implement high-availability solutions, replication, encryption, and disaster recovery strategies for PostgreSQL databases. 
• Work extensively with PostgreSQL in AWS, ensuring scalability, security, and performance optimization. 
• Setup and administration of MySQL database for both production and test in larger or small scale. 
• Setup and administration of Microsoft SQL server databases in large scale (Version 2014, 2016, 2019, and latest).
• Setup and administration of Mongo Server database(Production and test in Small Scale). 
• Setup and administration of PostgreSQL databases in large/small scale.(Replications/Switchovers).

Preferred Skills and Certifications:

Database Certifications  

• Certifications in PostgreSQL, GaussDB, MySQL, MongoDB, Cassandra and MSSQL from recognized certification bodies.

Cloud Certification 

• AWS certified professional. 

Operating System Certification 

• Linux Professional Institute Certification
• Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)

Additional Skills:

• Knowledge of big data and distributed computing technologies such as Hadoop or Spark.  
• Exposure to Kafka, RabbitMQ, or other event-driven architectures. 
• Experience working with containerized databases using Docker and Kubernetes.  
• Oracle database administration experience.  
• Hands-on experience with AWS-hosted PostgreSQL databases. 
• Knowledge of high-availability architectures, database replication, encryption, and disaster recovery solutions.  
• Proficiency in data analysis techniques, statistics, and machine learning methodologies.