Superbalist - Senior Database Administrator-Reliability Engineer

Superbalist.com is a fast-growing online fashion business based in South Africa.  We’re obsessive about our high performance yet collaborative culture and are looking for leaders to join our team. We think big, move fast, take ownership and are used to winning. We’re lucky to be surrounded by colleagues who are experts in their field, working together to create a world class brand.

Our ideal candidates have a passion for technology, they are constantly exploring, learning and improving their skills. They know where to apply what they have learned and they share their knowledge freely. We embrace fit for purpose technology, meaning we have a diverse stack. Just like our culture, we obsess about building systems that are elegant, performant, reliable and scalable. Our teams are autonomous, collaborative units that share a business and engineering vision, but have the freedom to tweak and influence how they go about their mission.

We are looking for a Senior Database Administrator / Reliability Engineer who is a self-starter and is comfortable taking ownership over assigned projects while working collaboratively in a team environment. The Database Reliability Engineer will need to work with colleagues at all levels of the organization. Superbalist.com is a rapidly expanding company and we are interested in candidates who are innovative and driven to make a positive impact to the team.

This position reports to the Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Team Lead.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES / RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Deploy and support multiple MySQL database instances
  • Monitor and manage database capacity
  • Monitor and optimize database performance, including auditing indexes & usage
  • Work with teams to optimise database usage: queries, indexes, and database structures
  • Develop and manage database migrations approval process
  • Develop backup and testable recovery procedures
  • Develop and support database replication
  • Work with teams to improve processes and standards
  • Working with multiple stakeholders, including: Engineering, Data Science, Data Engineering and Business Intelligence units 
  • Support the creation and maintenance of development and test database environments

KEY REQUIREMENTS

  • 5+ years of experience in a similar role
  • B.Sc in Computer Science or Electrical (& Computer) Engineering or related field is advantageous
  • Experience with e-commerce type applications is advantageous
  • Demonstrated experience with relational database design, performance tuning and capacity planning especially on MySQL based environments
  • Solid Linux administration experience
  • Experienced in at least one scripting language (Go/Bash advantageous)
  • Solid experience in Issue Tracking systems (Jira advantageous)
  • Solid experience to Version Control systems (Git advantageous)
  • Experience working in a cloud environment (Kubernetes experience advantageous)

AREAS OF MASTERY

  • In depth experience in MySQL/MariaDB
  • In depth knowledge of normalisation, optimisation and sharding
  • Working with multiple master/replica databases
  • Experience with scrubbing data (PII) & building fixtures for Development

BONUS POINTS

  • Working with Kubernetes (& databases in Kubernetes)
  • Working in microservice / SOA / event based architectures
  • Understanding of Site Reliability Engineering principles and the concept of Database Reliability Engineering
  • Practical experience working with database systems like PostgreSQL, Mongo and Google BigQuery (and knowing when to utilise them)

COMPETENCIES

  • Strong problem solving and analytical skills
  • Strong drive for results
  • Be comfortable working within a team
  • Good communication skills
  • Build and maintain relationships
Superbalist.com is a fast-growing online fashion business based in South Africa. We’re obsessive about our high performance yet collaborative culture and are looking for leaders to join our team. We think big, move fast, take ownership and are used to winning. We’re lucky to be surrounded by colleagues who are experts in their field, working together to create a world class brand. Our ideal candidates have a passion for technology, they are constantly exploring, learning and improving their skills. They know where to apply what they have learned and they share their knowledge freely. We embrace fit for purpose technology, meaning we have a diverse stack. Just like our culture, we obsess about building systems that are elegant, performant, reliable and scalable. Our teams are autonomous, collaborative units that share a business and engineering vision, but have the freedom to tweak and influence how they go about their mission.