Lead Database Administrator

Goodman Masson is partnering with a new financial markets infrastructure venture under formation in Oman. Backed by prominent institutional investors, the business is building a greenfield platform from the ground up, and is now hiring at the build stage. This is a rare chance to help stand up critical market infrastructure from a blank sheet and then run what you have built.

The role

As Lead Database Administrator you own the data layer the platform runs on: the databases holding the register of ownership, the transaction history, and the audit trail. The database is the authoritative record of who owns what, so its integrity, availability, and recoverability are the operational core of the business. In the build phase you design and stand up the database estate from a blank sheet.

In the run phase you operate the estate and the team you have designed.

What you will do

• Design the database architecture from first principles: platform selection, schema and storage design, high availability, replication and clustering, backup and point-in-time recovery, and the security model
• Install, configure, and operate enterprise database platforms across the estate, and own build standards, patching, and version currency
• Own high availability and disaster recovery for the authoritative register, and prove failover and restore on a defined cycle
• Own performance monitoring and tuning, SQL optimisation, and capacity planning across the settlement and registry lifecycle
• Own database security in the first line: hardening, encryption, privileged access, and vulnerability management
• Design the run-phase operating model, author the runbooks, and build and lead the database team

What you will bring

• Degree in computer science or a related discipline
• Six to ten years in database administration, with substantial time in large financial institutions such as banks or capital markets
• Strong expertise across enterprise database platforms including Oracle and SQL Server, with PostgreSQL and or MySQLDeep expertise in backup and recovery, high availability, replication, and clustering
• Strong performance tuning and SQL optimisation
• Direct experience of database security, access control, patching, and compliance
• Linux and Windows administration, and scripting with PowerShell, Bash, or Python
• Fluent English, written and spoken
• Also of interest
• Experience administering the data estate of a financial market infrastructure such as a central securities depository, central counterparty, exchange, or settlement system
• Familiarity with the CPMI-IOSCO Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures, particularly the operational risk and resilience principles
• Cloud database exposure across Azure, AWS, or GCPRelevant certifications such as Oracle OCP, Microsoft Azure Database, or PostgreSQLExperience designing recovery time and recovery point objectives for a regulated platform
• Location and terms
• Based in Muscat, Oman.

Permanent for Omani nationals; two-year fixed-term contract for expatriate hires. Omani nationals are strongly encouraged to apply.

If this is your kind of build, please apply now!