About the position
Senior Database Solutions Specialist
Location: Cape Town Contract Type: 12-Month Fixed Term Work Arrangement: Hybrid - 4 days per week in office Level: Senior
Role Overview
The Senior Database Solutions Specialist is responsible for the design, development, optimisation, and ongoing support of enterprise database environments that underpin business-critical applications and services, including POS applications. This role provides specialist expertise across project delivery and operational stability, translating business and application requirements into secure, scalable, and sustainable database solutions.
The successful candidate will focus on database architecture, solution design, performance tuning, integration, data integrity, automation, resilience, and technical support, ensuring platforms deliver optimal performance and remain reliable, secure, and recoverable. Collaboration with application, infrastructure, development, and business teams is essential to align database environments with organisational requirements, technology strategies, and best-practice standards.
Key Responsibilities
- Define firmwide database strategies, technology roadmaps, and DBaaS patterns across physical and virtualised infrastructure.
- Design, configure, and enhance schemas, tables, views, stored procedures, indexes, and scripts to meet business and POS application requirements.
- Develop and enhance automated builds and ecosystem integration using Unix Shell scripts, Perl, Python, SQL, PL/SQL, and POS applications.
- Conduct workload vs performance analysis, identify bottlenecks, recommend scaling strategies, and implement query rewrites, indexing changes, and optimisation plans.
- Implement database security engineering standards, access controls, vulnerability assessments, and compliance initiatives.
- Develop and implement unified monitoring tools to measure platform health, utilisation, capacity trends, and availability.
- Support integration with applications, reporting platforms, and enterprise systems; collaborate with developers, architects, and infrastructure teams.
- Establish standards, maintain technical documentation, and ensure auditability and knowledge transfer.
- Eliminate inefficient polling patterns, optimise processing architecture, reduce database footprint and growth risk, and drive automation initiatives.
- Mentor developers and analysts, providing expertise in database architecture, SQL optimisation, and best practices.
Qualifications
- Degree/Diploma in Computer Science, Information Systems, IT, Data Engineering, or related field.
- Certifications in SQL, Oracle, Microsoft, AWS, Azure, or similar technologies advantageous.
- Practical experience may substitute formal qualifications.
Experience & Technical Requirements
- 5+ years in database development, administration, engineering, or solutions support.
- Strong hands-on SQL development, performance tuning, query optimisation, indexing, backup/recovery, and troubleshooting.
- Experience with relational databases (SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL).
- Exposure to cloud-based database platforms advantageous.
- Proven support of business-critical systems with high performance, availability, and security requirements.
- Familiarity with source code control, modular programming, and software release management.
- Experience integrating databases with POS applications highly desirable.
Key Competencies
- Advanced SQL, stored procedures, indexing, and performance tuning.
- Strong understanding of database architecture, modelling, and administration principles.
- Solid knowledge of data security, access management, backup/recovery, HA/DR practices.
- Analytical and troubleshooting ability with root cause analysis and sustainable solutions.
- Excellent collaboration and stakeholder management skills.
- Strong written and verbal communication, including reporting to senior management and stakeholders.
- Detail-oriented, structured problem-solver with prioritisation skills.
- Continuous improvement mindset with focus on automation, optimisation, and resilience.
- Ability to perform under pressure while maintaining quality and stability.
Desired Skills:
- Database Management System
- SQL Server Database Administration
- pos
Desired Work Experience:
Desired Qualification Level:
