Lead Database Engineer

Job description

At Rite-Hite, your work makes an impact. As the global leader in loading dock and door equipment, we design and deliver solutions that keep our customers safe, secure, and productive. Here, you’ll find innovation, stability, and the chance to grow your career as part of a team that’s always looking ahead. Data Store Strategy, Architecture, and Standards Define and maintain the strategy, standards, and operating model for relational + non-relational data stores supporting Rite-Hite ONE. Establish practical standards for data modeling, schema design, migrations, indexing, query patterns, retention, backup, recovery, and lifecycle management. Guide architecture decisions and service-to-data-store integration patterns to improve scalability, consistency, and maintainability. Recommend platform choices and evolution paths for operational databases and analytics workloads (e.g., BigQuery or equivalent), balancing usability, performance, and cost. Reliability and Operations Define standards for HA, backup/restore, disaster recovery, failover, and business continuity for production systems. Establish monitoring/alerting, health checks, operational dashboards, and incident response practices for data stores. Lead troubleshooting of complex performance, stability, capacity, and recoverability issues and drive corrective actions. Partner with DevOps/platform teams to automate provisioning, migrations, maintenance, and release workflows. Security, Data Protection, and Trust Define and enforce secure practices for access control, encryption, secrets handling, logging, and administrative operations. Establish controls for protecting sensitive and business-critical data across environments (least privilege, segregation of duties, backup protection). Partner with security/compliance stakeholders to support audit readiness (SOC 2 / ISO 27001), including evidence collection for access, change management, logging, backups, and recovery. Performance and AI-Enabled Automation Establish performance management practices: query optimization, indexing strategy, workload review, configuration tuning, and capacity planning. Apply AI-assisted tools to improve troubleshooting, analysis, documentation, and operational efficiency—ensuring outputs are reviewed, validated, and secure. Drive improvements that reduce manual effort, increase consistency, and strengthen production readiness across database-backed services. Collaboration, Enablement, and Documentation Collaborate with engineering, product, architecture, DevOps, IT, and security teams to align data-store decisions with platform needs. Document standards, architecture decisions, runbooks, recovery expectations, and operational guidance. Mentor engineers on data modeling, query efficiency, migrations, and secure data handling. SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES No direct reports initially. Provides technical leadership and serves as the primary authority for data-store strategy, standards, and operational practices across Rite-Hite ONE. QUALIFICATIONS Education & Experience Bachelor’s degree in a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience). 7+ years in database engineering/DBA/data platform roles supporting production systems. Strong foundations in data modeling, SQL, performance tuning, reliability, backup/restore, and disaster recovery. Experience establishing standards and operating practices in a growing product/platform environment. Strong collaboration and communication skills. Preferred Qualifications Experience with GCP managed data services and analytics warehouses (e.g., BigQuery). Experience with non-relational data stores (document, key-value, time-series, etc.). Experience integrating data-store changes into CI/CD and audited environments (SOC 2 / ISO 27001). Experience using AI-assisted engineering tools responsibly in production environments. What We Offer At Rite-Hite, we take care of our people – because when you’re supported, you can do your best work. Our benefits are designed to support your health, your future and your life outside of work: Health & Well-being: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, plus life and disability insurance. A robust well-being program with an opportunity to receive an extra day off and more. Financial Security: A strong retirement savings program with 401(k), company match, and profit sharing. Time for You: Paid holidays, vacation time, and personal/sick days each year. Join us and build a career where you’re supported – at work and beyond. Rite-Hite is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under federal, state, or local law. In accordance with VEVRAA, we are committed to providing equal employment opportunities for protected veterans. We are also committed to maintaining a drug-free workplace for the safety of our employees and customers.