Database Engineer

Database Engineer (Hybrid)

*No Visa Sponsorship is available for this position.

About the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a globally recognized leader in technology, data management, and large-scale citizen science supporting birds and biodiversity conservation. We curate more than a petabyte of digital assets, one billion bird sightings, and leverage innovative big data analysis tools and machine learning to produce web applications and services to empower a global community of bird and nature enthusiasts, researchers, conservationists, and educators. We rely on a team of high-performance engineers to help navigate intriguing technical challenges to provide data-driven services, learning platforms, and science communications supporting biodiversity and conservation communities in all corners of the globe. This role will develop technical infrastructure and services that support numerous user-facing applications, including eBird, Merlin, Macaulay Library, Birds of the World, and BirdCast.

The Opportunity

While position responsibilities vary, every member of our community is expected to foster a culture of belonging and a psychologically healthy work environment by communicating across differences; being cooperative, collaborative, open, and welcoming; showing respect, compassion, and empathy; engaging and supporting others regardless of background or perspective; speaking up when others are being excluded or treated inappropriately; and supporting work/life integration of oneself and others.

The Database Engineer is expected to:

Design, develop, and maintain complex database schemas, stored procedures, SQL queries and related database services for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (CLO). Participate actively in the design and evolution of CLO database infrastructure, including rearchitecting the data warehouse providing aggregated data for application and end-user needs. Work closely with application developers and other technical staff to design, test, and troubleshoot database structures and queries. Design, develop, and maintain scheduled jobs for data processing, monitoring, and alerting. Carry out and assist others with data migration, transformation, import, and export, including designing and implementing solutions to meet data reporting needs. Stay current on relevant database best practices and technologies.

What We Need

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field. or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Three (3) plus years relevant experience or equivalent combination working with large relational databases in a 24x7 production environment and collaborating with a team of engineers.
• Exceptional SQL development and query performance tuning skills.
• Experience with relational database table design.
• Experience writing database functions in a procedural language such as PL/pgSQL.
• Experience with ETL architecture and implementation.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure services from major vendors (e.g., AWS, Azure).
• Experience with container orchestration systems(e.g., Kubernetes, Docker).
• Experience with continuous integration, deployment, and automation technology such as Jenkins.
• Experience using collaborative source code versioning with Git.
• Proven experience documenting and testing code.
• Ability to troubleshoot and solve database performance and functionality issues in a production environment.
• Ability to work weekends or evenings when participating in the 24x7 on call duty rotation.
• Strong problem-solving and critical thinking skills, and excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively, and to build working relationships to solve problems and achieve common goals in a multidisciplinary environment.
• Ability to establish realistic goals and deliver work on schedule, handle multiple concurrent tasks and priorities, and adapt to changing priorities, situations and demands.
• Must be able to use sound judgment in decision making and in accomplishing tasks that are urgent or of a sensitive or confidential nature.

If you have all those things, great! We have a few more things that we would prefer you to have, but it's ok if you don't.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in computer science or related field.
• Experience writing complex SQL and procedures for PostgreSQL databases and PostGIS.
• Experience with NoSQL databases.
• Familiarity with the Linux command-line and experience with shell scripting.
• Experience managing large volumes of data for replication, warehousing, and archival storage.
• Experience with highly available, high volume transactional web applications.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code and with Terraform or similar IaC tooling.
• Experience with scheduling and automation tools such as Rundeck.
• Experience or familiarity with database migrations using tools like Flyway or Liquibase.
• Experience using project management tools such as Jira.
• Prior use and understanding of eBird, Merlin, BirdCast or other Cornell Lab tools and resources.
• Understanding of and interest in conservation, birds, bird populations, bird-monitoring protocols, and related vocabulary.

Application Information:

• A Cover Letter and Resume are required for further consideration for this position. When applying through our system, please remember to attach your application materials (Cover Letter and Resume) in PDF format.
• Visa Sponsorship of any kind is not available for this position.

What We Offer

Rewards and Benefits

• This position is eligible for a hybrid work arrangement. Employees typically perform this role remotely two (2) days per week and on-campus three (3) days per week. The university reserves the right to modify, suspend, revoke or terminate the hybrid work arrangement at any time.
• Cornell receives national recognition as an award-winning workplace for our health, wellbeing, sustainability, and diversity initiatives.
• Our benefits programs include comprehensive health care options, generous retirement contributions, access to wellness programs, and employee discounts with local and national retail brands. We invite you to follow this link to get more information about our benefits: https://hr.cornell.edu/benefits-pay.
• Follow this link to learn more about the Total Rewards of Working at Cornell: https://hr.cornell.edu/jobs/your-total-rewards.
• Our leave provisions include health and personal leave, three weeks of vacation and 13 holidays: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, and an end of the year winter break from December 25-January 1.
• Cornell's impressive educational benefits include tuition-free Extramural Study and Employee Degree Program, tuition aid for external education, and Cornell Children's Tuition Assistance Program.

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