Senior Principal - Database Administration

For more than 40 years, Accelya has been the industry’s partner for change, simplifying airline financial and commercial processes and empowering the air transport community to take better control of the future. Whether partnering with IATA on industry-wide initiatives or enabling digital transformation to simplify airline processes, Accelya drives the airline industry forward and proudly puts control back in the hands of airlines so they can move further, faster. 

Role purpose

The Senior Principal - Database Administration leads Accelya's Database Administration function, defining technical strategy and building the infrastructure capability that supports our global airline software operations.

As the organization's highest-level hands-on database engineering expert, you will design, implement, secure, and support mission-critical database platforms, independently performing the organization's most complex database and cloud engineering initiatives while partnering with Engineering, Cloud Operations, Security, and Platform teams to ensure highly available, secure, resilient, and performant database services.

This role requires deep expertise in Microsoft SQL Server, AWS cloud technologies, automation, and production operations, combined with the vision to set technical direction, define engineering standards, and provide mentorship across the database engineering organization.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Define and own the technical strategy and long-term roadmap for Accelya's Database Administration function, aligning engineering standards with company objectives.
• Design, implement, administer, and support enterprise Microsoft SQL Server environments across on-premises and AWS cloud platforms.
• Independently plan and execute complex database upgrades, migrations, infrastructure refreshes, disaster recovery exercises, and modernization initiatives.
• Design, implement, and support highly available database architectures utilizing SQL Server Always On Availability Groups, clustering, replication, backup, and recovery technologies.
• Lead the investigation and resolution of complex production database and cloud infrastructure incidents, performing root cause analysis and implementing permanent corrective actions.
• Optimize database performance through query tuning, indexing strategies, execution plan analysis, statistics management, and proactive performance monitoring.
• Design and implement database security best practices, auditing, encryption, and regulatory compliance controls.
• Develop automation to improve operational efficiency using T-SQL, PowerShell, Python, and Infrastructure as Code technologies.
• Support cloud infrastructure hosting database platforms, including Amazon EC2, Amazon RDS, S3, networking, IAM, and related AWS services.
• Support Infrastructure as Code (IaC) initiatives using Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, or similar automation technologies.
• Support enterprise data migration, replication, and integration technologies, including AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) and other ETL platforms.
• Collaborate with Cloud Engineering, Platform Operations, Security, Development, and Architecture teams to design, implement, and support scalable database solutions.
• Provide technical mentorship and guidance to database engineers while leading through hands-on execution and engineering excellence.
• Participate in production support, maintenance activities, disaster recovery testing, and on-call responsibilities for critical business systems.
• Develop and maintain technical documentation, operational procedures, and engineering standards to improve platform reliability and operational maturity.

Required Experience & Skills:

• 15+ years of enterprise database administration experience supporting large-scale, mission-critical production environments.
• Expert-level administration of Microsoft SQL Server (2016-2025), including installation, configuration, patching, upgrades, migrations, performance tuning, security, and troubleshooting.
• Expert knowledge of SQL Server Always On Availability Groups, clustering, replication, backup/recovery, disaster recovery, and high availability architectures.
• Extensive hands-on experience designing, administering, and troubleshooting SQL Server in AWS, including Amazon EC2, Amazon RDS, and S3. Strong understanding of AWS networking, IAM, and cloud infrastructure supporting enterprise database platforms.
• Demonstrated ability to independently plan and execute complex production database upgrades, migrations, infrastructure refreshes, and disaster recovery activities.
• Expert-level experience diagnosing and resolving complex production issues involving SQL Server, Windows Server, AWS infrastructure, networking, storage, blocking, deadlocks, and performance bottlenecks.
• Advanced expertise in query tuning, indexing strategies, execution plan analysis, Query Store, Extended Events, DMVs, and SQL Server internals.
• Strong experience automating database administration using T-SQL, PowerShell, Python, or similar scripting languages.
• Experience supporting Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, or similar automation technologies.
• Working knowledge of PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, and other cloud database technologies.
• Experience supporting data migration, replication, and integration technologies, including AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) and other ETL platforms.
• Working knowledge of cloud-native architectures, containerization, and Kubernetes platforms such as Amazon EKS or Amazon ECS.
• Experience implementing database security best practices, auditing, encryption, and regulatory compliance controls.
• Experience supporting highly available, resilient, and scalable cloud infrastructure in production environments.
• Ability to independently perform and complete complex engineering work with minimal supervision, acting as a strong hands-on individual contributor while also setting technical direction for a small, highly skilled engineering team.
• Experience leading critical production incidents across database and cloud infrastructure, performing root cause analysis, and implementing permanent corrective actions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to effectively communicate with engineers, management, executives, clients, and external stakeholders.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred Experience & Skills:

• AWS certifications such as AWS Solutions Architect Associate/Professional, AWS SysOps Administrator, or AWS Database Specialty.
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate or equivalent Microsoft SQL Server certifications.
• Experience administering enterprise Microsoft SQL Server environments with working knowledge of PostgreSQL.
• Experience supporting enterprise SaaS platforms with stringent availability and performance requirements.
• Familiarity with DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and modern software delivery methodologies.
• Experience working within regulated environments supporting enterprise security and compliance requirements.
• Experience mentoring other Database Administrators and providing technical leadership across cross-functional engineering teams.

What do we offer?

• An open culture with a creative and challenging opportunity to satisfy your intellectual needs
• Flexible working hours
• Smart working: a hybrid remote/office working environment: Location: Miami, FL (Hybrid) or Remote (Any other US State)
• Work-life balance
• An excellent, dynamic and multicultural environment to work in

About Accelya

Accelya is a leading global software provider to the airline industry, powering 200+ airlines with an open, modular software platform that enables innovative airlines to drive growth, delight their customers and take control of their retailing.

Owned by Vista Equity Partners long-term perennial fund and with 2K+ employees based around 10 global offices, Accelya are trusted by industry leaders to deliver now and deliver for the future.

The company's passenger, cargo, and industry platforms support airline retailing from offer to settlement, both above and below the wing. Accelya are proud to deliver leading-edge technologies to our customers including through our partnership with AWS and through the pioneering NDC expertise of our Global Product teams.

We are proud to enable innovation-led growth for the airline industry and put control back in the hands of airlines.

For more information, please visit www.accelya.com

What does the future of the air transport industry look like to you? Whether you’re an industry veteran or someone with experience from other industries, we want to make your ambitions a reality!