Job Description:

Role Title: Senior Database Administrator (Terraform & DevOps Focus)

Duration: contract to run until 31/08/2026

Location: Manchester, Hybrid 1 day per month. The client may ask to visit Coventry's office at Birmingham in future for only 1 day per month depending on the business needs

Rate: up to £441.60 p/d Umbrella inside IR35

Role purpose / summary

We are seeking a hands-on Senior Database Administrator with immediate production experience in PostgreSQL (Essential), MySQL, and MongoDB, alongside strong Terraform and DevOps practices. This is a delivery-critical role-ideal for a candidate who thrives in fast-paced environments and can own database infrastructure end-to-end, from provisioning to CI/CD integration.

This role is not suitable for upskilling or learning; we require proven expertise in cloud-based database administration, automation, and infrastructure-as-code.

Key Responsibilities

Database Administration:

• Own installation, upgrades, performance tuning, troubleshooting, and disaster recovery for PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MongoDB.
• Design and execute database maintenance plans and housekeeping to ensure optimal performance and reliability.
• Implement backup, recovery, security, and access control strategies.
• Demonstrate mid to expert-level knowledge of both RDBMS and NoSQL systems.

Cloud & Infrastructure:

• Deliver production-grade database solutions in cloud based environments.
• Automate database provisioning, scaling, and management using Terraform (non-negotiable).
• Collaborate with DevOps teams to integrate database operations into CI/CD pipelines.

DevOps & Automation:

• Compose Terraform configurations from infrastructure to Git pipelines.
• Work within CI/CD pipelines (GitLab or GitHub) to deploy and manage database changes.
• Ensure Git best practices for version control, collaboration, and pipeline setup.

Required Skills & Experience

• Proven production DBA experience in cloud-based environments.
• Hands-on expertise in PostgreSQL (Essential), MySQL, and MongoDB.
• Strong performance tuning and troubleshooting skills.
• Terraform proficiency is mandatory; ability to design, deploy, and manage database infrastructure using Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC).
• Experience working within CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.
• Familiarity with GitLab or GitHub and pipeline setup.

Nice to Have

• Experience with JSON/XML data formats.
• Exposure and some experience to Oracle databases.
• Familiarity with Kafka or event-driven architectures.
• Experience in Agile/DevOps-driven environments.

All profiles will be reviewed against the required skills and experience. Due to the high number of applications we will only be able to respond to successful applicants in the first instance. We thank you for your interest and the time taken to apply!