What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior Database Administrator position at UFCU Main?
Job Summary
The Database Administrator (DBA) is responsible for managing and maintaining the credit union’s database environments, ensuring high availability, security, and performance across all systems. They are responsible for monitoring and maintaining all SQL database systems within the organization, ensuring best practices are applied to system support, upgrades, and testing. This role involves managing and executing large IT projects and initiatives, with a heavy emphasis on maintaining current system functionality and implementing tools and processes that proactively prevent issues and improve performance.
About UFCU
Founded in 1936, UFCU has grown to serve Members across Texas and beyond. At UFCU, we are more than just a financial institution, and our people are more than just employees. We are dedicated to our purpose of empowering our Members to achieve financial success and build brighter futures.
In pursuit of our aspiration that UFCU is loved by millions of Members and built to thrive for generations, we are guided by our values:
Purposefully Member-Obsessed
We are driven by a profound sense of empathy to deeply understand our Members’ needs and preferences, what brighter futures means to them, and the obstacles in their way. We act in our Members’ best interests, forever seeking to empower their financial success.
Possibilities Reimagined
We are inspired to courageously experiment, learn, and iterate in pursuit of positive impact for our Members, UFCU, and coworkers. We challenge assumptions, embrace diverse perspectives, and make use of data and insights.
Performance Excellence Rooted in Unwavering Integrity
We do the right thing, always. We champion teamwork, accountability, continuous improvement, and celebrate successful outcomes of others, fostering an inclusive environment of excellence and collaboration.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- SQL Server Administration:
- Install, configure, and maintain SQL Server instances, ensuring database availability, reliability, and optimal performance.
- Monitor database performance, implement performance tuning, and resolve database-related issues, including deadlocks, slow queries, and indexing challenges.
- Manage database backup, restore procedures, and disaster recovery strategies to ensure business continuity.
- Implement and maintain security protocols for database access, including user permissions, role-based access control (RBAC), and encryption.
- Database Maintenance & Optimization:
- Plan and execute database patching, upgrades, and migrations as necessary.
- Regularly analyze and optimize database storage, index management, and partitioning for improved performance and scalability.
- Automate routine database tasks, such as backups, monitoring, and performance reporting, to improve operational efficiency.
- Conduct capacity planning and make recommendations for hardware and storage upgrades based on anticipated growth.
- Data Security & Compliance:
- Ensure databases comply with industry regulations and standards, including data privacy laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) and financial industry regulations like NCUA rules & regulations, BSA, AMLA & Federal Credit union act
- Implement and monitor security controls to protect sensitive member information and financial data, including encryption and data masking techniques.
- Perform regular security audits and vulnerability assessments on database systems and recommend necessary improvements.
- Collaboration & Support:
- Work closely with application developers, system administrators, and business analysts to support database needs for various projects and applications.
- Assist in troubleshooting and resolving issues related to data access, database performance, and virtualization layer connectivity.
- Provide technical expertise and support to the IT team on database-related issues, acting as the subject matter expert on SQL Server and data virtualization.
- Help design and maintain efficient data structures to ensure fast query performance in reporting environments.
- Documentation & Best Practices:
- Maintain comprehensive documentation of database configurations, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and recovery plans.
- Establish and enforce best practices for database administration, including coding standards, backup procedures, and database maintenance routines.
Required Skills & Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
- 5 years of hands-on experience in SQL Server database administration, including installation, configuration, tuning, and troubleshooting.
- Strong proficiency in SQL querying, performance tuning, and database optimization.
- Experience with database backup, restore, and disaster recovery planning.
- 5 Years of hands-on experience with Microsoft Clustering Services
- Familiarity with data security best practices and compliance requirements (e.g., encryption, RBAC, NCUA rules & regulations, BSA, AMLA & Federal Credit union act).
- Basic knowledge of Power BI, including understanding data flows and optimizing database connections for reporting.
- Strong problem-solving and troubleshooting skills, with a proactive approach to identifying and resolving database issues.
Preferred Skills:
- Experience in the financial services or credit union industry.
- Knowledge of cloud-based database platforms, such as Azure SQL Database or Amazon RDS.
- Experience with data virtualization, and data warehousing concepts.
- Hands-on experience with scripting and automation tools such as PowerShell, Python, or similar.
Physical Demands
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee in order to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear.
- Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision and ability to adjust focus.
- The employee is frequently required to stand and walk.
- Employee will make extensive use of the telephone requiring the ability to effectively and accurately explain complex information.
Work Environment
The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- This position may involve periodic stressful conditions.
- May occasionally require an adjusted work schedule, overtime, and evening/weekend hours.
- Frequent computer use at a workstation up to two hours at a time.
The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.
