#NC26DAT191568 - CSU Brussels (SB)_MySQL/PostgreSQL DBA
Deadline: September 3, 2026
Requester: NATO
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Job type: Contractor
Start date: October, 2026
Security clearance: NATO SECRET
SCOPE OF WORK / DUTIES / ROLES
Operational DBA Duties:
- Install, configure, maintain and upgrade standalone and/or clustered instances:
- PostgreSQL 12+;
- MySQL 8.0+.
- Perform routine maintenance (schema housekeeping, index maintenance, statistics updates, data retention support);
- Manage users, roles, privileges, and authentication methods according to least-privilege principles;
- Manage storage growth and capacity forecasting (disk usage, table growth trends, partitioning/archiving recommendations);
- Troubleshoot complex production issues including data corruption, replication failures and performance degradation;
- Maintain environment consistency across DEV/UAT/PROD where applicable;
- Perform Root Cause Analysis (RCA) for critical incidents;
- Coordinate with application and infrastructure teams.
Advanced monitoring and performance tuning:
- Monitor and analyse database health and performance metrics:
- Lock contention, deadlocks, wait events;
- Replication lag;
- Resource utilization (CPU, memory, I/O).
- Query performance analysis and optimization:
- PostgreSQL: EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS);
- MySQL: Query optimization, execution plans, InnoDB tuning.
- Index strategy design and maintenance;
- Identification and remediation of locking, contention, and deadlocks;
- Capacity planning and workload growth forecasting.
Implementation and management of backup and recovery strategies:
- PostgreSQL:
- Physical backups (pg_basebackup);
- Logical backups (pg_dump, pg_dumpall);
- WAL archiving and Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR);
- MySQL;
- Logical and physical backups (mysqldump, MySQL shell, Percona, XtraBackup);
- Point-in-Time Recovery (binlog-based).
- Both Platforms:
- Backup strategy implementation and validation;
- Periodic backup and recovery testing.
Design and operate High Availability & Disaster Recovery solutions:
- PostgreSQL:
- Streaming replication (physical and logical);
- Synchronous and asynchronous replication.
- MySQL:
- Asynchronous and semi-synchronous replication;
- High availability architectures (InnoDB Cluster, Group Replication).
- Both Platforms:
- Automated failover and switchover support;
- Disaster recovery documentation and runbooks.
Enforce database security best practices:
- Role-based access control and privilege management;
- Authentication and password policy enforcement;
- TLS/SSL encryption;
- Audit logging and compliance support;
- Security hardening and vulnerability remediation.
Maintenance & Lifecycle Management:
- Patch management and minor version upgrades;
- Major version upgrade planning and execution;
- Schema change review and deployment support;
- End-of-life planning and platform recommendations.
REQUIRED SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE
- 5+ years hands-on experience in at least one of the above database technologies (MySQL or PostgreSQL) and 2+ years of experience in the second database technology (MySQL or PostgreSQL);
- MySQL:
- Strong knowledge of MySQL architecture, storage engines (InnoDB);
- Hands-on experience with backup tools like mysqldump, MySQL shell, Percona, XtraBackup.
- PostgreSQL:
- Deep understanding of PostgreSQL internals;
- Experience managing large datasets, storage growth, autovacuum and index maintenance;
- Experience with WAL and archiving;
- Experience managing PostgreSQL extensions.
- Experience with SQL optimization, indexing, and query execution plans;
- Strong Linux administration skills (system resources, I/O, file systems, network basics) relevant to database performance;
- Knowledge of security best practices (TLS, privilege management, audit/logging, secure configuration);
- Automation mindset: experienced with scripting (Bash/Python/Perl).
Desirable:
- MySQL:
- Experience with cloud-managed MySQL platforms (AWS RDS/Aurora, GCP Cloud SQL, Azure Database for MySQL);
- Familiarity with MySQL Shell, Orachestrator, ProxySQL or HAProxy.
- PostgreSQL:
- Practical experience with pgvector;
- Knowledge of HNSW and IVFFlat indexes and their tuning parameters;
- Experience with containerized or Kubernetes-based database deployments;
- Understanding of pgvector upgrades and compatibility with PostgreSQL versions.
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