Director, Database Engineering

$150000 - $200000 / year

Application Deadline: 1/10/2025

Vertafore is a leading technology company whose innovative software solutions are advancing the insurance industry. Our suite of products provides solutions to our customers that help them better manage their business, boost their productivity and efficiencies, and lower costs while strengthening relationships.

Our mission is to move InsurTech forward by putting people at the heart of the industry. We are leading the way with product innovation, technology partnerships, and focusing on customer success.

Our fast-paced and collaborative environment inspires us to create, think, and challenge each other in ways that make our solutions and our teams better.

We are headquartered in Denver, Colorado, with offices across the U.S., Canada, and India.

JOB DESCRIPTION

As the Director of Database Engineering and Operations, you will lead a high-performing team of Database Engineers and Database Administrators responsible for system planning, implementation, administration, automation, performance monitoring and capacity planning of both SQL Server, Oracle, and PostGres systems used by Vertafore to deliver our products and services to the insurance industry in a SaaS environment. This role oversees technical support for production databases to ensure high availability, scalability and performance. Additionally, the Director will work closely with application development teams to design and support databases for both new applications and updates to existing ones, balancing performance requirements with innovation and reliability.

If you love technology and DevOps, leadership, being on the frontline of technical innovation, and are looking for a creative, fun and friendly workplace where you get to develop software that will transform the insurance industry, we would love to get in touch with you.

Core Requirements and Responsibilities:

Essential job functions included but are not limited to the following:

• Define the strategic vision for database engineering, aligning with the company’s objectives to support business growth and innovation.
• Collaborate with executive leadership and other technical teams to ensure the database infrastructure aligns with and support organizational goals.
• Lead the design and architecture of database systems to meet application needs, ensuring optimal performance, reliability, and scalability.
• Oversee the evaluation and implementation of new database technologies and solutions as appropriate for both new and legacy applications.
• Build, lead, and mentor a team of database engineers, database administrators and data modelers\architects fostering a collaborative and innovative work environment.
• Define team objectives, key performance indicators, and performance expectations while providing regular feedback, training and development opportunities.
• Leading technical discussions and managing multiple projects across database disciplines.
• Manage and enhance technical support processes for production databases to ensure high availability, quick response to incidents, and prompt resolution of issues.
• Implement monitoring and performance optimization strategies to maintain health and minimize downtime.
• Oversee database backup, recovery, disaster recovery planning, and high availability solutions.
• Collaborate with security teams to manage access controls and resolve vulnerabilities identified for database environments.
• Work closely with globally disbursed TechOps, DevOps, Enterprise Architecture, and application development teams to support seamless integration and deployment of databases.
• Act as the liaison between engineering and operations teams to address database needs for both new and existing applications.
• Assess the current environment and operational framework, and identify areas of improvement.
• Manage the complete lifecycle for the products and services supplied by the Database Engineering Team.
• Lead initiatives to improve and maintain database standards and best practices, automation, and tools for enhanced efficiency and reduced operational risk.
• Maintain excellence in user experience for internal customers.
• Manage vendors and product/service contracts.
• Participate in incident handling and off-hours/weekend maintenance activities, as necessary

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
• Proven experience (minimum of 12 years) in database engineering, including experience in both production support and database design, and in a managerial role.
• Hands on knowledge of SQL Server and Oracle. PostgreSQL experience is a plus.
• Strong knowledge of database troubleshooting, performance improvement, monitoring, alerting, disaster recovery, high availability solutions, and data security practices.
• Extensive experience managing Database Operational\Engineering teams.
• Knowledge of Database Operational best practices.
• Experience migrating Database environments from “On-prem” to AWS.
• Cloud database automation experience in AWS – Terraform, gitlab.
• Support cloud managed database services such as AWS RDS.
• Experience in data modeling, data pipelines, and data integrations across various environments and technology stacks.
• Cloud automation experience (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud).
• Experience in enterprise DevOps, configuration management, software development, and agile processes.
• Are energetic, effectively managing relationships (up, down, across) and able to roll-up their sleeves to get the job done.
• Have an ability to influence across boundaries and at all levels of the organization.
• Think strategically to help drive features and services for short and long-term growth.
• Can create a fun, fast paced, motivating and rewarding environment for their teams and the organization.
• Demonstrated leadership in attracting, building and retaining highly engaged and capable development teams that can deliver on our technology and business strategies.

Additional Requirements and Details:

• Travel required up to 10% of the time.
• Ability to work remotely with a stable internet connection on an as-needed basis.
• Located and working from an office location (when required)*.
• Occasional lifting and/or moving up to 10 pounds.
• Frequent repetitive hand and arm movements required to operate a computer.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision (working on a computer, etc.).
• Frequent sitting and/or standing.

Salary : $150,000 - $200,000