A Great Opportunity for ...
ROLE PURPOSE
The Senior Database Administrator is responsible for ensuring availability, integrity, confidentiality, and performance of banking databases that support core banking, payment systems, channels, risk, AML, and regulatory reporting. The role ensures full compliance with banking regulations, business continuity requirements, and security standards.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Regulatory & Compliance Responsibility (Critical)
Ensure database systems comply with:
- Central Bank / Financial Regulator directives
- ISO 27001 / ISO 22301
- PCI-DSS (for card/payment systems)
- Internal IT & Information Security Policies
Implement and maintain:
- Database audit logging
- User activity monitoring
- Evidence for regulatory and internal audits
Support regulatory examinations and IT audits (CBS, DR, security, access control).
Core Banking & Mission-Critical System Support
Administer databases supporting:
- Core Banking Systems (CBS)
- Payment Switches (RTGS, ACH, SWIFT, ATM, POS)
- Digital Banking (Mobile, Internet Banking)
Ensure 24x7 availability with zero tolerance for data loss.
Participate in major cutovers, EOD/EOM/EY processing, and system rollouts.
High Availability (HA) & Disaster Recovery (DR)
Design, implement, and maintain bank-grade HA/DR architectures:
- Oracle RAC / Data Guard
- PostgreSQL / MySQL Replication
Ensure compliance with approved:
- RTO / RPO
- Active-Active / Active-Passive DR models
Conduct regular DR drills and submit results to BCP/DR committees.
Maintain DR runbooks and evidence for regulators.
Data Security & Access Control
Enforce least-privilege access and segregation of duties:
- DBA vs Application vs Operations
Implement:
- Encryption at rest and in transit
- Secure credential storage
- Database firewall or activity monitoring where required
Review and approval:
- Privileged access requests
- Emergency access (Break-Glass) usage
Ensure timely user access revocation
Backup, Recovery & Data Protection
Define and maintain:
- Backup policies (online, offline, offsite)
- Retention schedules aligned with regulatory requirements
Perform and validate:
- Backup integrity tests
- Point-in-time recovery
Ensure backups are:
- Encrypted
- Immutable (where applicable)
- Support legal, audit, and compliance data retrieval requests.
Performance, Stability & Risk Management
Proactive monitor:
- Transaction latency
- Locking and contention
- Storage and I/O performance
Perform SQL and schema optimization for high-volume banking workloads.
Identify database-related operational risks and implement mitigation plans.
Support major incidents and perform Root Cause Analysis (RCA).
Change & Release Management
Participation in Change Advisory Board (CAB).
Review and approval:
- Database schema changes
- Patches and upgrades
Ensure changes follow:
- Maker-Checker principle
- Rollback and contingency plans
Support UAT, SIT, and Production deployments.
Monitoring, Automation & Reporting
Implement/supporting enterprise monitoring tools:
- OEM / Prometheus / Grafana / Zabbix
Define KPIs:
- Availability
- Performance SLAs
- Backup success rate
Automate routine operations using scripts while ensuring auditability.
Produce regular operational and compliance reports.
Documentation & Audit Readiness
Maintain updated documentation:
- Database architecture diagrams
- SOPs and runbooks
- DR and backup procedures
Ensure documents meet:
- Audit evidence standards
- Regulatory review expectations
Support internal, external, and regulator audits.
Leadership & Governance
- Act as Database Technical Authority.
- Mentor junior DBAs and review their work.
- Participate in IT governance committees (BCP, DR, Security).
- Evaluate new database technologies with risk and compliance lens.