WHAT DOES A DATABASE ENGINEER DO?

Published: October 11, 2024 - The Database Engineer is responsible for designing and developing logical and physical data models to support robust and scalable systems. Focuses on optimizing performance, managing data stores, and automating operations tasks to ensure efficiency and reliability. Works closely with agile teams to implement cutting-edge technologies for enhanced data storage and retrieval, contributing to impactful solutions in the healthcare industry.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Database Engineer

1. Database Engineer Duties

  • Performance Optimization: Maintaining and enhancing the performance of existing database programs.
  • Database Design: Assisting database development teams in designing new database programs that meet the organization's data storage needs.
  • Monitoring: Monitoring databases and related systems to ensure optimized performance.
  • Health Management: Actively manage the health, performance, and support.
  • Performance Assessment: Develop proactive methodology for ongoing assessment of database performance and the identification of problem areas.
  • Issue Identification: Identify flaws or issues in existing databases, set up best practices, and implement improvements.
  • Collaboration: Collaborate with developers, business, and customer stakeholders.
  • Monitoring Tools: Identify and configure monitoring utilities/tools for design reports.
  • Technical Support: Provide support on escalations for technical issues within IT Operations.
  • Customer Support: Offer suggestions for resolution of these issues and support to ensure a better experience for customers.
  • Process Improvement: Review technical processes (e.g., provisioning lead time, effectiveness) within IT Operations and identify opportunities for process improvement, may lead process solutions.
  • Issue Resolution: Identify, manage, resolve, and document issues and provide root cause analysis when necessary (postmortem analysis).
  • Documentation: Write documentation (both technical and non-technical) for work being completed within own teams.

2. Database Engineer Details

  • Infrastructure Implementation: Implement, upgrade, and enhance cost-effective fault-tolerant database infrastructure.
  • Performance Metrics: Establish and uphold performance metrics for the system as a whole and key business applications in particular.
  • Database Tuning: Fine-tune the databases to match application requirements.
  • Vendor Collaboration: Work closely with software vendors to ensure continual support of systems.
  • Project Oversight: Oversee system projects by working with internal business units and consultants.
  • Database Support: Provide database support and maintenance.
  • User Support: Support users' requests in relation to system problems and requests for enhancements.
  • Project Support: Support software projects involving the database infrastructure which this person supports.
  • Data Management: Work with project managers to ensure that data entry, retrieval, change, and delete functions meet business requirements for project completion.
  • SDLC Adherence: Conduct job duties and responsibilities according to the organization’s business systems development methodology and/or its Systems Development Life Cycle.
  • Training & Support: Design and deliver end-user training and training materials, provide technical support.
  • Troubleshooting: Troubleshoot systems, software, and performance tune applications.

3. Database Engineer Responsibilities

  • Database Operations: Own and manage day-to-day database and database server operations within the global data backbone to ensure smooth performance, including the monitoring layer.
  • Data Structure Design: Translate business requirements into data structures and data requirements.
  • Information Flow Management: In charge of the daily flow of information, including the reporting landscape.
  • Incident Analysis: Analyze and eliminate technical incidents via tickets or other methods.
  • SQL Support: Support the SQL infrastructure, providing 1st and 2nd level support, including documentation.
  • Team Collaboration: Enable good working relationships and knowledge exchange with other teams within the renewables business.
  • Technical Expertise: Provide internal customers with expertise for technically complex issues.
  • Monitoring & Maintenance: Ensure adequate monitoring, alerting, backups, and maintenance plans are in place for all databases.
  • Incident Management: Manage and support incident, change, and problem management processes, ensuring timely responses.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Build effective working relationships with infrastructure and application teams to ensure technology and process improvements deliver overall service improvements to end customers.
  • Performance Tuning: Monitor performance and perform maintenance and tuning of the database platform based on recommendations.
  • Communication: Communicate regularly with technical, development, and operational staff to ensure database integrity, capacity, and security.
  • Requirement Gathering: Gather business and technical requirements for new databases.
  • Documentation: Produce documentation for use in configuration and support of managed database systems.

4. Database Engineer Job Summary

  • Database Implementation: Implement highly available database systems with tools such as replication.
  • Data Warehousing: Work with the BI team to design and implement data warehousing systems for business intelligence needs.
  • Database Modeling: Model and document existing and new databases.
  • ETL Processes: Design, implement, and troubleshoot data processes using ETLs.
  • Testing Procedures: Design and maintain testing procedures.
  • Troubleshooting: Troubleshoot database-related system problems, including performance, exceptions, and other business logic failures related to the data structure.
  • Data Integration: Maintain data flow between CRM, ERP, accounting, and BI systems.
  • SQL Development: Write and troubleshoot SQL code and design (stored procedures, views, indexes, etc.).
  • Collaboration: Partner with the development team to review, test, and deploy database modifications.
  • Database Management: Work with system administrators to manage database servers – user and application security levels, disk space, etc.
  • Standards Development: Contribute to establishing database development standards, policies, and procedure documentation.
  • Version Control: Implement and contribute to version control systems and procedures for database objects.
  • Real-Time Reporting: Work with BI team members to deliver real-time reports with quick load speeds.
  • Coaching: Coach team members on proper SQL query setup to ensure quick load speeds.
  • Best Practices: Implement proper database design structure based on best practices and relational concepts.

5. Database Engineer Accountabilities

  • Database Reliability: Work on database reliability and performance aspects.
  • Solution Analysis: Analyze solutions and implement best practices.
  • Observability Practices: Work on and implement best practices in observability (monitoring, tracing, alerting, logging) and incident response.
  • Automation Development: Build out automation to address database problems like failovers, backups, restores, schema changes, and performance tuning that integrate with site reliability capabilities.
  • Automation Leadership: Strive for automation either by coding or by leading and influencing developers to build systems that run automatically in both stage and production environments.
  • On-Call Support: Participate in an on-call rotation to mitigate production issues as they arise.
  • Mentorship: Collaborate effectively and mentor other engineers in the team and in the larger reliability engineering organization.
  • Consultation: Use domain expertise to consult application development teams, providing guidance and database architecture solutions.
  • Documentation: Document every action so learnings turn into repeatable actions and then into automation.
  • Root Cause Analysis: Participate in RCAs and take action items to mitigate issues and come up with a roadmap.
  • Architectural Changes: Propose and drive architectural changes for the services we own to solve scaling and performance problems.
  • Dynamic Environment: Work in a dynamic, fast-paced environment with distributed teams and interdependent services.

6. Database Engineer Functions

  • Data Management: In charge of data management and compliance of the platform to satisfy extensive business requirements for reports, data correction, and continuous improvements.
  • Data Monitoring: Monitoring data interfaces between different systems, third parties, and the data warehouse, aligned to enterprise data architecture.
  • Data Integrity: Maintain data integrity, accuracy, and reliability, providing regular reports about data quality and governance together with business owners.
  • Disaster Recovery: Create and employ disaster recovery solutions and assist with the continuous improvement of data solutions on the cloud.
  • IT Operations Strategy: Define and deliver IT Operations strategy in close alignment with the technology team and various business partners to deliver outstanding client service.
  • Automation: Ensure a high degree of automation in continuous integration and continuous development pipeline.
  • Application Monitoring: Monitor and ensure availability, performance, and security of applications, taking corrective actions to identify and handle incidents and restore target values.
  • Cloud Oversight: Assist in cloud oversight methodology in orchestration with Information Security, Compliance, Legal, and Risk Management to ensure that all cloud-related operational risks are within risk appetite and legal and regulatory constraints, especially fully aligned to the 'Financial Application Specification of Cloud Computing Technology' published by PBC.
  • Engineering Teams: Contribute to highly capable and empowered engineering teams responsible for designing and implementing large-scale distributed infrastructures on cloud computing platforms, focusing on high availability and continuous delivery solutions.
  • Engineering Excellence: Promote engineering excellence across the board, focusing on effective cross-functional collaboration and end-to-end responsibility to ensure security, reliability, automation, and maintainability of the infrastructure.
  • Service Monitoring: Run mission-critical services alongside product engineering teams, promoting comprehensive monitoring of availability, latency, performance, and core business metrics.
  • Incident Resolution: Establish effective incident resolution and incremental adoption of fault-tolerant, self-healing solutions.
  • Process Implementation: Foster the implementation of department-wide processes and best practices to establish a culture of collaboration between engineering teams.
  • Continuous Improvement: Provide constant guidance to set the engineering department on a track of continuous improvement and growth.
  • Technical Communication: Be able to impart technical information in a clear and concise manner.
  • Agile Facilitation: Facilitate Agile and DevOps process improvement, challenging existing practices and driving ideas and solutions that promote better ways of working.

7. Database Engineer Job Description

  • Data Architecture: Define standards and frameworks for data architecture design.
  • Data Modeling: Formulate event modeling, conceptual, logical, and physical data warehouse design, data warehouse optimization and performance, load strategy design, and implementation.
  • Data Profiling: Perform data profiling and analysis to assess data quality patterns, recommend data cleansing rules – conforming to data standard rules and matching algorithms.
  • Database Security: Implement and enforce database security based on best practices, industry regulations, and company policies.
  • SQL Migration: Perform SQL Migrations to new Servers and configure and set up BI tools (SSRS, SSIS, etc.).
  • System Administration: Work with System/Network Administrators to develop and maintain the replication, backup, and restoration of data within the system.
  • Query Development: Develop custom queries and reports for data modeling through various tool sets to aggregate, analyze, and report results.
  • Database Maintenance: Maintain clustered, highly redundant database environments.
  • Database Structure Management: Develop, implement, and maintain MSSQL and MySQL database structures in test, quality assurance, and production environments utilizing current standards, policies, and procedures.
  • Backup and Recovery: Manage backup/recovery for MSSQL and MySQL instances and provide Disaster Recovery (DR) support.
  • Database Security: Implement and enforce database security based on best practices, industry regulations, and company policies.

8. Database Engineer Overview

  • Database Support: Support, monitor, and maintain databases (PostgreSQL on AWS RDS) with TBs of data.
  • Query Troubleshooting: Troubleshoot query performance issues related to applications on large datasets.
  • Data Optimization: Optimize data structure and manage structural changes, and migration processes.
  • Development Support: Lend support to development teams as necessary during design, development, and delivery to ensure solid, scalable, robust solutions.
  • Risk Assessment: Accurately assess the risks associated with each solution design.
  • Team Development: Support the development of team members to use database resources efficiently.
  • User Management: Perform database user management.
  • Automation: Automate user management and password resets for Oracle.
  • Patching Automation: Automate patching using Puppet and other database-related tasks.
  • Performance Tuning: Assist with performance analysis and tuning.
  • Commit Review: Review all database commits to ensure compliance with standard requirements.

9. Database Engineer Tasks

  • DevOps Practices: Utilizing DevOps principles as a foundation to identify, document, and promote best practices and standards.
  • SQL Development: Writing and tuning SQL, including database queries, DDL, and DML.
  • Data Collaboration: Working with the Business Intelligence Team to provide business partners the data they need to make efficient and effective decisions with a focus on increasing self-service capabilities.
  • Environment Management: Supporting and maintaining Dev/Test/Prod environments to meet business delivery specifications and needs.
  • Database Performance: Monitor and maintain maximum performance of databases.
  • Query Optimization: Identify poorly performing queries and work with development teams to tune accordingly.
  • System Monitoring: Monitor database logs for hardware, memory, or disk space/capacity issues and take appropriate action.
  • Performance Tuning: Implement database parameter and configuration changes for optimal performance with the host operating system.
  • License Compliance: Ensure the database environment remains in compliance with vendor license agreements.
  • Automation: Following industry standards to keep daily routines automated, avoiding human error.
  • Testing Practices: Developing testing proven practices including unit, integration, and regression testing with an eye toward automating.

10. Database Engineer Roles

  • Data Modeling: Design and develop logical and physical data models.
  • Data Optimization: Optimize performance and management of data stores and integration.
  • Automation: Perform and automate operations tasks.
  • Data Operationalization: Operationalize data and analytics for various needs.
  • System Resiliency: Manage and enhance resiliency of data systems.
  • Agile Development: Work with agile teams to develop software and processes to iterate improvements.
  • Scalability Management: Maintain fast-growing data to improve service delivery and scalability.
  • Technology Learning: Learn new technologies to optimize data storage and retrieval for voice/speech/audio applications.
  • Team Collaboration: Collaborate with team members to design, develop, and implement software releases.
  • Software Delivery: Deliver quality software and solutions on time.
  • Healthcare Improvement: Improve healthcare for millions.
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