What are the responsibilities and job description for the Database Administrator position at The Simple Vue?
Location: Remote (Prefer NYC Area).
About The Simple VUE
The Simple VUE (TSV) is an Atlanta-based analytics and software development firm that helps government agencies and forward-thinking commercial organizations turn complex data into actionable insights. We design and build secure, cloud-native solutions—spanning AI/ML, data engineering, full-stack development, and intelligent automation—that drive efficiency, informed decision-making, and measurable impact.
Role Overview
We are seeking a Database Administrator (DBA) to design, implement, and operate the data layer for a secure, large-scale election and voting platform for a major public-sector client.
You will own the reliability, performance, and security of the platform’s databases—ensuring that voter, candidate, and election data is modeled correctly, highly available, auditable, and protected end-to-end on a Microsoft/Azure stack.
Key Responsibilities
- Design and maintain relational database schemas to support the full election lifecycle (candidate registration, voter eligibility, voting, tabulation, reporting).
- Administer and optimize SQL Server / Azure SQL databases, including configuration, performance tuning, indexing, and query optimization.
- Implement and maintain high availability and disaster recovery strategies (e.g., failover groups, backups, restores, DR runbooks).
- Configure and enforce database security: roles/permissions, encryption at rest and in transit, integration with identity providers (e.g., Azure AD), and least-privilege access patterns.
- Support data integrations and ETL workflows with external systems (e.g., identity/eligibility systems, reporting tools) while preserving data quality and referential integrity.
- Set up and maintain monitoring and alerting (e.g., Azure monitoring tools, logs, metrics) to detect performance or reliability issues proactively.
- Collaborate closely with architects, developers, and data engineers on data modeling, stored procedures, views, and migration scripts.
- Participate in release planning and change management to ensure safe, repeatable database changes (including participation in CI/CD pipelines).
- Prepare for and support audits, penetration tests, and security reviews involving the data layer.
Required Qualifications
- Experience:
- 5 years of experience as a Database Administrator supporting production, mission-critical applications.
- Demonstrated experience with large, transactional, web-based systems in regulated or high-stakes environments (e.g., government, finance, healthcare).
- Core Technical Skills:
- Deep hands-on experience with Microsoft SQL Server and Azure SQL Database (or very similar cloud-hosted SQL platforms).
- Strong proficiency in T-SQL (queries, stored procedures, functions, views) and query performance tuning.
- Experience designing normalized relational schemas and implementing indexing strategies for high-volume workloads.
- Practical experience with backup/restore, high availability, disaster recovery, and capacity planning.
- Cloud & Security:
- Experience managing databases in Azure, including Azure SQL configuration, networking, and access control.
- Familiarity with Azure AD–based authentication, role-based access control, and MFA/SSO considerations for database access.
- Working knowledge of encryption (TDE, TLS), key management (e.g., Key Vault), monitoring/logging, and security hardening for databases.
- Collaboration & Delivery:
- Comfortable working alongside developers, data engineers, and DevOps engineers in an Agile/Scrum environment.
- Experience participating in structured change management, code review for database changes, and release processes (e.g., via Azure DevOps, Git, or similar).
Preferred Qualifications
Please let us know if you specifically meet one or more of the following:
- Election / Voting Experience
- Direct experience supporting election systems, online voting platforms, or similar high-integrity transactional systems where data accuracy, auditability, and security are critical.
- Familiarity with data models around voters, ballots, contests, and tabulation/audit logs.
- Advanced Certifications & Azure Depth
- Advanced Microsoft/Azure certifications related to databases or cloud infrastructure (e.g., Azure Database Administrator Associate (DP-300), other Azure or SQL Server certifications).
- Experience with broader Azure data and infrastructure services (e.g., Azure App Services, Functions, Redis Cache, monitoring/alerting tools) and how they interact with the database layer.
- Public-Sector / State & Local Experience
- Experience working with state or local government systems, especially in elections, education, or civic engagement contexts.
- High-Scale, Time-Bound Platforms
- Background supporting systems that must scale reliably for time-bound events (such as voting or registration windows) with strong SLAs, monitoring, and incident response.
Must be Authorized to Work in the US: Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States. Sponsorship is not available for this position.
Submit All Documents To: jobs@thesimplevue.com