Senior Database Administrator - SQL Server, PostgreSQL & Security

• Own the security, availability and performance of our SQL Server and PostgreSQL estate across AWS, Heroku and Railway, prioritising protection of customer personal and payment-related data.
• Design and enforce least-privilege access, replace shared human logins with individual role-based access, and restrict application and service identities appropriately.
• Manage database authentication; implement encryption at rest and TLS; configure auditing and alerting; manage secrets and credential rotation; and remove hard-coded credentials.
• Identify and protect personal and cardholder data through classification, masking, row-level security and data minimisation where appropriate.
• Run vulnerability scans, patch databases and benchmark configurations against applicable CIS benchmarks.
• Support incident response and forensic investigations, including identifying what data was accessed and by whom.
• Provide evidence for applicable audits and assessments, including PCI DSS, Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001, UK GDPR and FCA operational resilience requirements.
• Install, configure, upgrade and maintain SQL Server and PostgreSQL instances.
• Own backup, restore and disaster recovery, document recovery objectives and regularly test restores.
• Monitor and tune performance, including query plans, indexing, statistics, vacuum and autovacuum, and wait analysis.
• Manage high availability and replication, including Multi-AZ, read replicas, Always On availability groups, streaming replication and logical replication where appropriate.
• Review and deploy schema changes through controlled change management.
• Maintain database documentation, runbooks and an inventory of databases, owners and access.
• Manage database services and capabilities across AWS, Heroku and Railway, including relevant security, backups, networking, access controls and platform configuration.
• Assess the security posture of PaaS-hosted databases and recommend consolidation or migration where risk or cost justifies it.
• Manage database cost and capacity across all three platforms.
• Secure database network exposure and work with the infrastructure team on server builds, hardening, patching, infrastructure as code, automation, and integration with backup, monitoring and SIEM tools.
• Work with infrastructure, development and security colleagues to maintain healthy platforms day to day.
• Occasional out-of-hours work for maintenance windows and incident response is required.

Technologies:

• AWS
• Bash
• CI/CD
• EC2
• ETL
• Flyway
• Heroku
• Support
• Liquibase
• Microsoft 365
• Network
• PaaS
• PostgreSQL
• PowerShell
• Python
• REST
• SQL
• Security
• SSIS
• Terraform
• Windows
• Office 365
• Cloud
• CloudWatch
• IAM
• Linux
• Splunk
• VPN, We are an FCA-regulated business handling customer personal data and payment-related information. This is a full-time, permanent Senior Database Administrator role focused on SQL Server, PostgreSQL and security, based at our Kennington office in London five days per week; the role is office-based and not hybrid or remote. We offer £80,000-£100,000 per year, depending on experience. Success in the first 12 months includes a complete database inventory with classifications and named owners, individual and appropriately restricted access, encryption, TLS and auditing on production databases, tested backup and disaster recovery aligned with agreed objectives, and evidence packs for applicable audits.

• At least five years of DBA experience, including production experience with both Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL.
• Strong T-SQL and SQL skills, with confidence using SSMS, psql and pgAdmin.
• Hands-on experience administering databases in AWS, particularly RDS and SQL Server on EC2.
• Practical database security experience, including role and permission design, auditing, encryption, TLS and secrets management.
• Proven backup and recovery experience, including restoring databases under pressure.
• Performance tuning and troubleshooting experience with both database engines.
• Working knowledge of UK GDPR and handling personal data in a regulated environment.
• Scripting experience for automation in at least one of PowerShell, Python or Bash.
• Clear written documentation skills and the ability to explain risk to non-technical stakeholders.
• A security-first, methodical and audit-minded approach; calm and decisive during incidents; able to constructively challenge developers and suppliers; and comfortable taking ownership in a small team with broad responsibilities.
• Appointment is subject to a Basic DBS check and satisfactory references.
• Desirable: experience with Heroku Postgres, Railway or similar PaaS database platforms; financial services, insurance or another FCA-regulated sector; PCI DSS, ISO 27001 or Cyber Essentials Plus audits; AWS networking; Microsoft 365 and Entra ID administration, including Privileged Identity Management; Terraform or CloudFormation; database CI/CD tools such as Flyway, Liquibase or SSDT; database activity monitoring or SIEM integration; data warehousing, ETL or SSIS; or relevant Microsoft database, AWS security or EDB/PostgreSQL certifications, CompTIA Security+, or progress towards CISSP or CISM.