Senior Database Administrator at Northwestern Medicine

At Northwestern Medicine, every patient interaction makes a difference in cultivating a positive workplace. This patient-first approach is what sets us apart as a leader in the healthcare industry. As an integral part of our team, you'll have the opportunity to join our quest for better healthcare, no matter where you work within the Northwestern Medicine system. At Northwestern Medicine, we pride ourselves on providing competitive benefits: from tuition reimbursement and loan forgiveness to 401(k) matching and lifecycle benefits, we take care of our employees. Ready to join our quest for better?

The Senior Database Administrator, reflects the mission, vision, and values of NM, adheres to the organization’s Code of Ethics and Corporate Compliance Program, and complies with all relevant policies, procedures, guidelines and all other regulatory and accreditation standards.

The Senior Database Administrator is responsible for keeping the hardware platforms and their associated operating systems and connectivity capabilities fully operational and well-integrated into NM information technology environment. This position works to monitor, analyze and plan upgrades, as necessary, to ensure adequate capacity and availability to meet the user needs.

Responsibilities:

• Technical Skills
  • Provides leadership for implementation of RDBMS architecture for high availability, disaster recovery, and test systems utilizing best practices in the industry.
  • Maintains databases in the following areas: space management and object necessary to ensure optimum database performance and data integrity for systems.
  • Conducts regular database, file structure & security reviews to ensure compliance with policies, procedures, standards and methodologies & to identify areas of improvement.
  • Reports findings & recommendations to Database Manager, Database Team Members as well as leadership.
  • Completes management approved documentation necessary for all planned tests, implementations, upgrades & conversions, including implementation schedules & backout/recovery plans as evidenced by regular management reviews of online & hardcopy documentation.
  • Monitors databases on a regular basis, particularly space utilization, and performs proper & timely database backups/restores, reorganizations, re-indexing and compiles as directed.
  • Monitors and completes regular performance maintenance tasks, data integrity checks, performance tuning & backups/recovery steps as evidenced by successful completion of planned maintenance and minimal unplanned loss of database and system availability/functionality.
• Communication and Collaboration
  • Exhibits strong oral & written communication skills necessary to communicate both technically &non-technically with team members, other IS professional staff, IS management, users & vendors to ensure successful & cooperative completion of tasks.
  • Communicates and follows up in a positive & meaningful manner with customers on (1) the incident ticket management, (2) proper procedures for system evaluations, (3) current task &project priorities that may conflict with their service request and (4) alternatives to requests for services that do not meet standards.
  • All are evidenced by positive oral & written feedback from customers as well as positive service excellence survey results.
  • Communicates, via written and oral media, the status on project implementations & problem resolutions other IS staff, IS management & users as necessary.
  • Communicates problems & resolution statuses to vendors in a timely & professional manner as evidenced by positive and successful client/vendor relationships & results.
  • Documents policies, procedures, standards & methodologies as necessary for the proper maintenance of databases.
• Planning and Strategic Thinking:
  • Exhibits strong task & project management skills required to ensure tasks & projects are completed in a timely manner.
  • Assists Database Manager in developing logical, project plans, including task timeframes and resource estimates.
  • Develops & maintains proficient use of project management software & tools as demonstrated by use in project planning as well as problem resolution, change control & quality control.
  • Understands & adheres to system implementation and system problem resolution priorities set by DBA Team & IS management as evidenced by implementation & problem resolution outcomes.
  • Assists in the identification & evaluation of new application/database products & tools and makesrecommendations for purchase.
  • Participates as an active, contributing member of project teams as evidenced by project minutes,status reports and outcomes.
  • Support Responsibilities: Exhibits ability to resolve problems effectively and efficiently to ensureminimal disruptions and unplanned downtimes of assigned systems and databases.
  • Utilizes database knowledge & experience to effectively and efficiently analyze issues, diagnoseproblems & determine resolutions, working with other DBAs, Infrastructure & Application teams asnecessary.
  • Escalates problems in a timely manner to Team Leader, other IS on-call/management staff &vendors as necessary.
  • Documents all problem-solving measures that then properly allow for team members to resolverecurring problems effectively & efficiently.
  • Provides on-call coverage of database systems 24x7x365 on a rotating basis.
  • Assists in Business/Disaster Recovery planning & preparedness efforts by participating inmeetings and developing plans for responsible application databases.

Required:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience, Relevant IT Certifications
• 7+ years of experience

Preferred:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field
• 5+ years of experience in core discipline in the healthcare industry

Northwestern Medicine is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of age, sex, race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation or any other protected status.