Senior Database Architect

<p class="MsoNormal"><b><u>POSITION OVERVIEW:</u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal">Cloud Kinetics is looking for a Senior Database Architect to join our Proserv PoD (Practice on Demand) team. In this role, you will be deployed on AWS Professional Services engagements in India, working hands-on to design, architect, and deliver database solutions for enterprise customers on AWS. You will serve as the leading database expert, translating complex data requirements into scalable, secure, and high-performance cloud-native database architectures that align with AWS best practices and customer success criteria. As a Senior Database Architect within Cloud Kinetics’ Proserv PoD, you will be embedded in AWS ProServ engagements, leading database strategy and design, executing database migration and modernization workstreams, and implementing database automation frameworks. You will work closely with Solutions Architects, Data Engineers, Migration Leads, and customer database teams to drive database transformation outcomes that meet AWS Well-Architected.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><u>KEY RESPONSIBILITIES</u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><u>Database Architecture & Design</u></b></p><ul style="margin-top:0cm;" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal">Design and architect enterprise-scale AWS database solutions spanning relational, NoSQL, in-memory, graph, and time-series database engines to meet diverse workload requirements.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Develop comprehensive database architecture blueprints, data models, capacity plans, and migration strategies aligned with customer business objectives and AWS Well-Architected Framework principles.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Evaluate and recommend the right AWS database service for each workload — Amazon RDS, Aurora (MySQL/PostgreSQL), DynamoDB, ElastiCache (Redis/Memcached), Redshift, Document DB, Keyspaces, Timestream, QLDB, and Amazon Neptune.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Design for high availability, multi-AZ/multi-region failover, disaster recovery, and business continuity across all database tiers using AWS-native replication and backup capabilities.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Collaborate with Solutions Architects to integrate database designs into broader cloud architecture blueprints, ensuring end-to-end alignment with security, compliance, and cost optimization requirements.</li> </ul><p class="MsoNormal"><b><u>Database Migration & Modernization</u></b></p><ul style="margin-top:0cm;" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal">Lead end-to-end database migration engagements, including assessment, schema conversion, data migration, validation, and cutover activities using AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) and AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT).</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Execute heterogeneous database migrations including Oracle to Amazon Aurora/RDS PostgreSQL, SQL Server to RDS/Aurora, MySQL to Aurora, and commercial database to open-source/cloud-native migrations.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Deliver Oracle to Aurora migration projects, including schema conversion, stored procedure refactoring, PL/SQL to PL/pgSQL translation, and application compatibility validation.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Perform pre-migration assessments, database health checks, schema complexity analysis, and migration wave planning to minimize risk and customer downtime during migration windows.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Conduct post-migration validation including data integrity checks, performance benchmarking, application compatibility testing, and production readiness assessments.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Document migration runbooks, cutover plans, rollback procedures, and post-migration configuration records for handover to customer database operations teams.</li> </ul><p class="MsoNormal"><b><u>Database Performance & Optimisation</u></b></p><ul style="margin-top:0cm;" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal"> Perform database performance tuning, query optimization, indexing strategy design, and</li> <li class="MsoNormal">execution plan analysis across relational and NoSQL database engines on AWS.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Design and implement NoSQL data models for DynamoDB, DocumentDB, and Cassandra-</li> <li class="MsoNormal">compatible workloads, applying access pattern analysis, partition key design, and single-table design principles.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Implement caching strategies using Amazon ElastiCache (Redis/Memcached) to reduce database load, improve application response times, and enhance overall system throughput.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Analyse and resolve database bottlenecks, locking contention, connection pooling issues, and storage I/O performance constraints in production AWS environments.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Conduct AWS Well-Architected Framework reviews focused on the Database and Performance Efficiency pillars, providing actionable remediation roadmaps for customer database environments.</li> </ul><p class="MsoNormal"><b><u>Database Security, Compliance & Automation</u></b></p><ul style="margin-top:0cm;" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal">Implement AWS database security best practices including encryption at rest (KMS), encryption in transit (TLS), IAM database authentication, VPC network isolation, and AWS Secrets Manager for credential management.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Design and implement Database DevOps (DB DevOps) pipelines using CI/CD tooling to automate schema migrations, database deployments, configuration management, and drift detection.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Develop database automation scripts and infrastructure-as-code (IaC) templates using Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, and/or AWS CDK to provision and manage database infrastructure in a repeatable, version-controlled manner.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Configure database monitoring and observability solutions using Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon RDS Performance Insights, AWS CloudTrail, and third-party monitoring tools to ensure proactive issue detection and resolution.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Support compliance and governance requirements including data residency, audit logging, GDPR, PCI-DSS, and HIPAA controls within AWS database environments.</li> </ul><p class="MsoNormal"><b><u>Delivery Collaboration & Thought Leadership</u></b></p><ul style="margin-top:0cm;" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal">Work within Agile/Scrum delivery frameworks, participating in sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives as part of AWS ProServ engagement teams.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Collaborate closely with Solutions Architects, Data Engineers, Project Managers, and customer database teams to ensure database delivery aligns with project timelines and engagement milestones.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Produce technical documentation including database architecture diagrams, data flow diagrams, design decision records, runbooks, and operational handover documents to support customer knowledge transfer.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Contribute to the development of reusable database accelerators, migration playbooks, IaC modules, and delivery templates that improve efficiency across Cloud Kinetics ProServ engagements.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Mentor junior database engineers and team members, sharing database expertise, best practices, and AWS database service knowledge across the ProServ PoD team.</li> </ul><p class="MsoNormal"><b><u>Required Qualifications : Education & Experience </u></b></p><ul style="margin-top:0cm;" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal">Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or a related</li> <li class="MsoNormal">technical field, or equivalent practical experience.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">10–14 years of overall experience in database architecture, database engineering, or data</li> <li class="MsoNormal">platform roles.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">5–7 years minimum of hands-on experience designing and implementing database solutions on AWS in production environments.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Proven experience leading database migration engagements, including heterogeneous migrations (Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL) to AWS-managed database services.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Demonstrated expertise in both relational and NoSQL database design, data modelling, and query optimisation across multiple database engines.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Experience working in professional services, consulting, or managed services delivery environments preferred.</li> </ul><p class="MsoNormal"><b><u>Technical Skill:</u></b></p><ul style="margin-top:0cm;" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal">Deep hands-on expertise with AWS relational database services: Amazon RDS (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server), Amazon Aurora (MySQL-compatible and PostgreSQL-compatible editions).</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Strong proficiency with AWS NoSQL and specialty database services: Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon DocumentDB, Amazon ElastiCache (Redis/Memcached), Amazon Keyspaces, Amazon Timestream, and Amazon QLDB.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Hands-on experience with Amazon Neptune for graph database workloads, including graph data modelling (property graph and RDF), Gremlin and SPARQL query languages, and Neptune use cases (knowledge graphs, fraud detection, recommendation engines).</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Proficiency with AWS database migration tooling: AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) and AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) for heterogeneous and homogeneous migrations.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Strong SQL skills including advanced query writing, stored procedure development, indexing strategy, execution plan analysis, and query tuning across multiple relational database engines.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Experience with database infrastructure-as-code tools: Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, and/or AWS CDK for database provisioning and lifecycle management.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Solid understanding of database security principles: encryption at rest/in transit, IAM database authentication, VPC network isolation, Secrets Manager, and compliance controls.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Familiarity with Database DevOps (DB DevOps) practices including CI/CD pipelines for schema migrations, automated testing, and database deployment automation using tools such as Flyway, Liquibase, or AWS CodePipeline.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Experience with Amazon Redshift for data warehousing workloads including cluster design, distribution/sort key strategy, Redshift Spectrum, and RA3 node architecture.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Scripting and automation skills in Python, Bash, and/or SQL for operational workflows, data migration scripts, and database automation tasks.</li> </ul><p class="MsoNormal"><b><u>Certifications:</u></b></p><ul style="margin-top:0cm;" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal">AWS Certified Database – Specialty (required).</li> <li class="MsoNormal">AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate or Professional (required or in progress).</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Additional AWS Specialty certifications (Data Analytics, Security, or Machine Learning) preferred.</li> </ul><p class="MsoNormal"><b><u>Preferred Qualifications: Advanced Database Modernization</u></b></p><ul style="margin-top:0cm;" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal">Hands-on experience leading Oracle to Amazon Aurora (PostgreSQL-compatible) migration projects, including PL/SQL refactoring, Oracle-specific feature mitigation, and application layer compatibility validation.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Experience with commercial database license elimination strategies (Oracle/SQL Server to open-source) as part of cost optimization and cloud modernization programmed.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Familiarity with Aurora Serverless v2, RDS Proxy, and Aurora Global Database for advanced high-availability and scalability architectures.</li> </ul><p class="MsoNormal"><b><u>NoSQL & Graph Data Modelling</u></b></p><ul style="margin-top:0cm;" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal">Advanced NoSQL data modelling expertise including DynamoDB single-table design patterns, access pattern-driven schema design, global secondary index (GSI) strategies, and DynamoDB Streams for event-driven architectures.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Experience with Amazon Neptune for graph workloads, including knowledge graph construction, fraud detection graphs, and social network recommendation use cases.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Familiarity with Apache Cassandra workloads and Amazon Key spaces migration patterns for wide-column NoSQL use cases.</li> </ul><p class="MsoNormal"><b><u>DB DevOps & Delivery Tooling</u></b></p><ul style="margin-top:0cm;" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal">Hands-on experience implementing Database DevOps pipelines using CI/CD tools (AWS CodePipeline, GitLab CI, Jenkins) with schema migration frameworks (Flyway, Liquibase) and automated database testing practices.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Experience with AWS ProServ delivery methodology, engagement tooling, and artefact standards.</li> <li class="MsoNormal">Familiarity with ITSM frameworks (ITIL) and change management processes relevant to enterprise database migration and modernization projects.</li> </ul><p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>