Database Reliability Engineer

DATABASE RELIABILITY ENGINEER

SpaceX is looking for a Database Reliability Engineer with strong technical knowledge in Microsoft SQL/ PowerBI technologies as well as excellent interpersonal and communication skills. This employee will be a part of our IT Engineering organization and join a team of database administrators and engineers responsible for all database technologies used throughout SpaceX. The ideal candidate will be flexible, flourish in a fast-paced and challenging environment and have an insatiable desire to learn, solve complex problems and help others. They should be a self-starter, self-motivator, and possess ingenuity to excel at this position.  This individual will need to demonstrate strong knowledge in Windows, server/storage infrastructure, and troubleshooting skills.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Partner with internal customers to understand current challenges, plan/communicate improvements and anticipate future needs.
• Perform root cause analysis of production-related database issues.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to optimize schemas, queries, and database/server configurations.
• Perform data migration / data transformation from OLTP to OLAP systems.
• Develop code to automate routine tasks and provide end user self-service tools by leveraging PowerShell or a similar scripting language.
• Engineer, deploy and maintain all aspects of Microsoft SQL database monitoring.
• Quickly address critical support situations by providing effective solutions to database technical issues.
• Manage PowerBI licensing, utilization, permissions and provide best-practices guidance and query optimization assistance for users.
• Provide comprehensive and fully vetted backup and restore solutions.
• Engineer, implement and routinely test Disaster Recovery (DR) strategies.
• Develop and maintain strong documentation and support runbooks.
• Support and foster the professional growth of other database engineering and administration staff via cross-training, coaching and responsibility sharing.
• Participate in an on-call rotation.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, or engineering discipline and 5+ years of experience in IT; OR 7+ years of professional experience with database reliability or DevOps in lieu of a degree.
• 7+ years experience in monitoring and tuning databases to provide highly available and performant services.
• 5+ years experience in optimizing SQL queries and data replication & transformation.

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Proficient in SQL Server and at least one other database technology (Postgres, MySQL, ClickHouse).
• Proficient in resiliency and high availability methods for SQL Server, such as SQL Server log shipping, availability groups, database mirroring and replication.
• Expertise in scaling large critical databases with high expectations for uptime and performance.
• Ability to work effectively and provide technical leadership in high-stress situations such as production database outages.
• Knowledge of configuration management automation and limiting the amount of manual toil.
• Knowledge of data structure design and modeling.
• Strong understanding of hardware in relation to SQL server; SAN, Virtualization, and basic networking for troubleshooting.
• Good knowledge of development cycle to interface well with developers.
• Working knowledge of adjacent database technologies (Postgres, ClickHouse, MySQL).
• Strong attention to detail, high degree of accuracy, excellent oral and written communication skills, strong interpersonal skills, and the ability to meet deadlines.
• Open to learn new database technologies especially Column-oriented databases.
• Expertise in reporting options (SQL reports, PowerBI, etc.).
• Strong understanding of big data and data warehouse concepts and technologies.