Database Administrator at Appzone Limited

AppZone is a response to the growing need in emerging markets for financial services accessibility to the masses. The company was formed with a genuine belief in Africa’s latent ability to support the home grown production and delivery of world class IT Software for the enhancement of key sectors of the budding economy. AppZone started off primarily as a developer of custom e-Banking and payment software for leading commercial Banks in Nigeria. In less than 3 years, AppZone had accumulated a remarkable asset-base of e-payment software products and intellectual property. In a bid to extend existing payment solutions to smaller scale Financial institutions, AppZone observed the absolute dearth of basic IT infrastructure and commenced a 2 year project to develop a world class yet affordable core Banking platform for Microfinance Banks (MFBs) and other small scale retail financial institutions. The culmination of this project saw AppZone in full ownership of an entire integrated suite of IT infrastructure required for the effective functioning of any modern retail Bank. Today AppZone has consolidated these platforms into a shared and entirely managed Banking and payment automation IT infrastructure under the brand BankOne. AppZone was incorporated in July 2006 as Price and Networks Limited and commenced full operations in June 2008 with a knife edged focus on creating a world class organization and defacto provider of IT software for the financial services industry. The young, dynamic and driven co-founders of AppZone decided to bring together their wealth of technical, administrative and entrepreneurial experience as well as key leadership competences to create a winning team comprising the best in brains and character. The end point being to transform the financial services industry in Africa and emerging markets around the globe thereby creating immense value for the respective economies and facilitating their overall growth and development.

Job Opening ID: 255

Job Description

• Provide sound, professional database advice, administration and proactive maintenance of the company data and database environments.
• Support the process for database architecture, installation, configuration, and management, while ensuring prompt and thorough backup, recovery, replication, and high availability.
• Perform optimization, including the writing of query, indexing, and optimization techniques to ensure efficient data retrieval and manipulation.
• Carry out database design, data modeling, and normalization to ensure scalable and performant database structures.
• Monitor, analyze, and optimize database performance, troubleshoot issues, and resolve problems related to query performance, indexing, and resource utilization.
• Set up procedures to monitor all database environments and ensure a minimum of 99.9% uptime.
• Work with the team to resolve issues and escalate extreme cases to the appropriate OEMs.
• Recommend new database and data architecture which would yield cost saving and enable increased growth of the revenue of the organization.
• Ensure periodic security checks on the database systems to prevent fraud and expose any compromise attempt noticed on the database.
• Ensure and test performance level on the databases and ensure compliance with data protection regulations and industry best practices.
• Plan Business Continuity operations and Disaster Recovery Operations to meet the required RTO and RPO as defined by the organization.
• Manage and maintain databases, ensuring high availability, performance, and security.
• Design and implement backup, recovery, and disaster recovery plans, and optimize server databases for efficiency and scalability.
• Troubleshoot database issues and implement long-term solutions; maintain database documentation, procedures, and governance policies.
• Collaborate with development teams to improve database architecture and optimize queries.
• Monitor disk usage, system performance, and capacity planning; update and maintain repositories with database-related code and scripts.

Requirements

• B.Sc in Computer Science, Information Technology or any related discipline.
• 3+ years’ experience in Database Administration or a related data role, preferably within the financial services, technology or fintech industry.
• Experienced in SSMS, TOAD, Jupyter, Anaconda and other data related tools.
• Microsoft Certified Professional or Oracle Certified Professional (i.e., Any RDBMS certified professional certification).
• Experience in leading a team of database administrators, with problem-solving and analytical skills, with a strong willingness to learn new technologies.
• Passionate about Data and Databases with strong data interpretation skills.
• Structured Query Language skills (SQL), Procedural SQL, TSQL Programming; Python Programming, Excel Skills, and Bash Scripting.
• Familiarity with cloud database technologies (Azure SQL, AWS RDS, or Google Cloud SQL) is a plus.
• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Strong knowledge of Postgres database architecture, installation, configuration, and management, including backup and recovery, replication, and high availability.
• Proficiency in SQL, including query writing, indexing, and optimization techniques to ensure efficient data retrieval and manipulation.
• Knowledge of database design principles, data modeling, and normalization techniques to ensure scalable and performant database structures.
• Ability to monitor, analyze, and optimize database performance, troubleshoot issues, and resolve problems related to query performance, indexing, and resource utilization.
• Knowledge of Postgres security features, including user authentication, authorization, and access control, to ensure data privacy and protection.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, troubleshoot complex data issues, and provide solutions.
• Excellent communication, documentation, and high attention to detail.

Method of Application