Senior Database Administrator

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Why work in Technology at the Met Office

The Met Office is at the forefront of computer science and we're continuously evolving and developing innovative ways to further optimise our leading-edge capabilities and meet the diverse needs of our customers. We have amazing technology and tools at our fingertips and your technical skills will help us grow even smarter, faster and more commercially successful. Working with like-minded technical experts, you'll impact technology projects that will help organisations across the world to operate safely and successfully ' from marine to aviation and public to private sector. And as part of our Technology and Information Services (TIS) team, you'll be building a rewarding, challenging career at every step of the way.

The role

Our Corporate Database team is currently working to build our expertise in more open source and non-relational database technologies such as MongoDB, alongside our well established expertise in Oracle databases. As Senior Database Administator, you'll co-ordinate the build and testing of all these databases from development through to operational acceptance. Providing expert on-going technical support and advice, you'll ensure our databases meet the stated requirements and are fit for purpose. As well as maintaining efficient and reliable databases, you'll investigate and resolve reported problems, maintaining system security in line with best practice.. Collaborating with your immediate team and the wider TIS department, you'll also keep up-to-date with current and emerging database technologies and how they could be used to improve our capabilities.

Because this is a business-critical role, you'll be part of a five week on-call rota as part of which you'll be on call one week in every five to respond to any emergency or support incidents.

The person

An experienced Senior Database Administrator, with a proven track record supporting Oracle and open source databases, you're a good team player with exceptional communication skills. You'll need to have the following essential criteria to be considered for the role:

-Good working knowledge of relational database management systems (RDBMS), SQL and associated programming languages (e.g. PL/SQL, PgSQL, TSQL), combined with a desire to develop into a database administration role and acquire the administration and development skills required.

-Relevant experience of, or a willingness to learn and apply, skills with non-relational database systems (NoSQL) including MongoDB.

-Logical, analytical approach to problem solving, paying attention to detail.

-Good interpersonal, written and oral communication skills with a proven track record of ability to communicate complex technical information in a clear concise manner to non-technical specialists including business colleagues and customers. Strong technical writing skills.

-Proven ability to work well as a member of support and project teams.

-Proven ability to work well under pressure, including in an isolated environment when on call, delivering to service and project targets.

-Be prepared to work on an on-call roster outside normal working hours (approximately one week in five).

If you have the following desirable criteria too, that's even better:

-Experience as a Database Administrator (DBA) including the design, creation, installation, patching, upgrading, security, backup and recovery of databases, maintenance of storage structures and schema objects and monitoring of database health and performance, taking preventive or corrective action as required.

-Experience of working on a range of operating systems such as zLinux, RedHat Linux, and Windows.

-Experience of supporting Oracle and/or Postgres in a web facing environment.

-Experience with database tools such as SQL Navigator, SQL Developer and pgAdmin.

-Experience with database monitoring tools such as Oracle Enterprise Manager and pgAdmin.

Apply

For further information and to apply, please visit our website by clicking the APPLY button.

Closing date: 15th October 2014