Lead Database Engineer
Who We Are
Our client is a global quantitative hedge fund operating across major liquid asset classes. The firm is highly systematic and technology‑driven, with databases forming a critical backbone for research, trading, and operational systems. Reliability, performance, and security of on‑prem infrastructure are core to the business.
We Are Seeking: Lead Database Engineer
This is a hands‑on lead role within the global database team, combining deep technical ownership with light people leadership (approximately 20-30%). You will remain directly involved in day‑to‑day database engineering while providing guidance, review, and direction to other engineers.
The role is suited for a true database engineer - not a data engineer - with strong experience running production databases in on‑prem Linux environments.
We welcome applicants from across the globe. Relocation support will be provided for suitable candidates.
Key Responsibilities
- Support, administer, and secure production databases across the firm
- Design and operate high‑availability, resilient database systems
- Work closely with business users and engineers to translate requirements into database solutions
- Lead and contribute to database projects including upgrades, performance tuning, and capacity planning
- Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and review for a small database engineering team
- Own database reliability across production, UAT, and development environments
- Maintain strong standards around monitoring, backup, recovery, and security
Requirements
- Hands‑on lead‑level experience as a Database Engineer (still writing SQL, tuning, troubleshooting)
- Strong experience with SQL Server and/or PostgreSQL
(experience in both preferred, but at least one is required) - On‑prem database experience on Linux is mandatory
- Solid background in database administration, performance tuning, HA/DR, and security
- Experience supporting analytical and platform databases such as ClickHouse and Snowflake is highly relevant
- Experience with Oracle is acceptable, but candidates must be open to working primarily with non‑Oracle databases
- Comfortable taking on 20-30% people leadership alongside technical delivery
- Experience in production environments with high reliability and uptime expectations
- Familiarity with scripting (Shell, PowerShell, Python, Ansible) is a plus
- Exposure to cloud database administration is beneficial but not essential
Why Join Us
- Lead a critical database function in a global hedge fund environment
- Stay hands‑on while stepping into a technical leadership role
- Work on complex, high‑performance database systems
- Strong engineering culture with high standards and real ownership
Selby Jennings is a Trading Style of Phaidon International (License Number 16S8194)
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