Database Platform Expert

• Location: Barcelona

About the Team

We are an innovative global healthcare company with one purpose: to chase the miracles of science to improve people's lives. We're also a company where you can flourish and grow your career, with countless opportunities to explore, make connections with people, and stretch the limits of what you thought was possible.

Our mission is to enable Sanofi's Digital Transformation through becoming an AI-first organization. We are a globally distributed team, comprising skilled architects and database experts located in Europe (France and Germany), India (Hyderabad), and the United States (Boston and New Jersey). Our team manages and oversees more than 10,000 database instances across four major technologies at Sanofi.

About the Job

Role Summary

As a Database Platform Expert, you will be responsible for architecting database solutions across diverse platforms, utilizing a range of technologies — primarily Oracle, PostgreSQL, and Cloud databases. This is an individual contributor role focused on the planning, design, implementation, and management of complex database platforms. You will play a critical role in ensuring the reliability, scalability, and performance of our database infrastructure while staying at the forefront of industry best practices and emerging technologies.

This role is highly visible. You will be a key contributor to how we modernize our platforms and change how we think about the solutions we apply. To be successful, you must have a deep understanding of various database technology capabilities and enterprise data and application patterns and principles. You must be comfortable driving technical ideas and communicating with both technical and non-technical individuals across the organization.

Main Responsibilities

Security and Compliance

• Implement robust security measures and access controls to safeguard sensitive data.
• Ensure compliance with industry standards and regulations.
• Actively participate in security audits and assessments.

Scalability and Availability

• Design and implement strategies for database scalability, replication, and clustering to support growing data volumes and high availability requirements.
• Develop disaster recovery and business continuity plans.

Automation and DevOps

• Collaborate with DevOps teams to automate database provisioning, configuration, and maintenance tasks.
• Promote the adoption of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and containerization technologies for database deployments.

Monitoring and Troubleshooting

• Implement comprehensive monitoring and alerting solutions to proactively identify and address database issues.
• Lead troubleshooting efforts during incidents to minimize downtime and data loss.

Documentation and Knowledge Sharing

• Maintain detailed documentation of database configurations, procedures, and best practices.
• Share knowledge and provide mentorship to junior team members.

Stay Current

• Stay abreast of industry trends, emerging database technologies, and best practices.
• Evaluate and recommend new tools or technologies that can enhance the database platform's capabilities.

About You

Education / Work Experience

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
• Extensive Certification in Oracle is mandatory; certification on other database technologies is preferred (e.g., PostgreSQL and cloud-based databases).
• Certification in DevOps coding: Terraform, Ansible, and experience with GitHub is preferable.
• 7+ years of extensive experience in database administration, with expertise in multiple database technologies (e.g., Oracle, PostgreSQL, and cloud-based databases).
• 2+ years of hands‑on experience with cloud-based database services (e.g., AWS, Azure Oracle/PostgreSQL databases).

Required Skills

• Proficiency in database design, performance tuning, and security.
• Strong scripting and automation coding skills (e.g., SQL, Python, PowerShell).
• Significant experience with DevOps practices and tools (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible).
• Excellent problem‑solving skills and the ability to work well under pressure.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills for collaborating with cross‑functional teams.
• Experience with change control, incident/problem management, CMDB configuration, validation and qualification process (GxP), troubleshooting, and root cause analysis.

Minimum Preferred Skills

• Strong regulatory experience (GxP, Sarbanes‑Oxley, French Data Protection Act (FDPA), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)).
• Ability to work with minimal supervision, engaging peers and other departments to accomplish assigned goals and effectively manage projects in a cross‑functional environment.

Languages

• Fluency in English is mandatory.

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