Principal Database Engineer Jobs
Principal Database Engineer jobs are open across fintech, healthtech, enterprise software, and cloud infrastructure, from senior individual contributor to staff and principal levels, with specializations in distributed systems, performance tuning, and data architecture. Scan the live roles below and apply to whichever ones fit.
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About NCR VOYIX
NCR Voyix Corporation (NYSE: VYX) is a global platform-powered leader in unified commerce for shopping and dining. Combining a flexible, intelligent platform with end-to-end payments capabilities and services developed through its deep industry experience, NCR Voyix empowers retailers and restaurants to accelerate new possibilities for their operations, experiences and business outcomes. NCR Voyix is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and serves customers in more than 35 countries worldwide.
TITLE: Principal Database Engineer
LOCATION: Atlanta, GA or Dallas, TX
Principal Database Administrator (SQL Server & PostgreSQL)
Senior technical leader responsible for end‑to‑end architecture, operations, security, and modernization of enterprise database platforms, ensuring high availability, performance, and compliance.
Role Summary
The Principal DBA will provide technical leadership and strategic stewardship of the organization's database platforms, including Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL environments, across on-prem, cloud (GCP, Azure), and hybrid deployments. This role blends deep hands‑on expertise with strategic leadership, setting standards, designing resilient architectures, leading migrations, and driving automation to improve operational efficiency and business value
Key Responsibilities:
Architecture & Strategy: Design and implement scalable, high‑availability database architectures for SQL Server and PostgreSQL; define reference models and governance standards- Operations: Ensure 24×7 availability, monitor performance, troubleshoot issues, and execute disaster recovery plans
- Observability & Reliability: Define database SLOs/SLAs, implement monitoring and telemetry standards, establish proactive alerting, capacity planning, and reliability practices.
- Performance Tuning: Optimize workloads, tune queries, and improve system throughput; analyze bottlenecks and implement solutions
- Security & Compliance: Implement and enforce security policies, data protection measures, and audit controls; ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
- Data Protection and Cyber Recovery: Implement database security controls including encryption, privileged access management, vulnerability remediation, cyber recovery planning, auditing, and regulatory compliance.
- Backup & Recovery: Oversee backup strategies, recovery testing, and business continuity planning
- Migration & Modernization: Lead complex migrations, schema evolutions, and cloud adoption initiatives
- Capacity & Cost Management: Forecast growth, optimize infrastructure utilization, and drive database cost-efficiency initiatives across on-premises and cloud platforms.
- Collaboration: Work with application teams, data engineers, SRE, security, and business stakeholders to align database solutions with business goals
- Technical Leadership: Mentor DBAs, engineers, and developers; provide architectural guidance; lead incident reviews; and drive adoption of database best practices.
Required Skills & Qualifications:
15+ years of progressive database administration, architecture, and engineering experience, including leadership of large-scale enterprise initiatives.- Expertise in Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL (Expertise with SQL Server Always on Availability Groups, Failover Cluster Instances, replication technologies, PostgreSQL streaming/logical replication, partitioning, backup/recovery, disaster recovery, and performance optimization)
- Cloud platforms: Experience designing and supporting managed database platforms including Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure SQL Database, Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL, and hybrid architectures.
- Establish database standards, lifecycle management processes, naming conventions, operational runbooks, and governance frameworks across the enterprise.
- Scripting & automation: Proficiency in T‑SQL, PL/pgSQL, PowerShell
- Soft skills: Strong communication, problem‑solving, and cross‑functional leadership abilities
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in computer science, IT, or related field.
Success Metrics (KPIs):
- Database uptime and availability targets met.
- Reduction in incident resolution time.
- Successful migrations and performance improvements.
- Compliance and security audit pass rates.
- Automation coverage and efficiency gains
Offers of employment are conditional upon passage of screening criteria applicable to the job
EEO Statement
Integrated into our shared values is NCR Voyix’s commitment to equal employment opportunity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, age, race, color, creed, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, military service, genetic information, or any other characteristic or conduct protected by law. NCR Voyix is committed to being a globally inclusive company where all people are treated fairly, recognized for their individuality, promoted based on performance and encouraged to strive to reach their full potential. We believe in understanding and respecting differences among all people. Every individual at NCR Voyix has an ongoing responsibility to respect and support a globally diverse environment.
Statement to Third Party Agencies
To ALL recruitment agencies: NCR Voyix only accepts resumes from agencies on the preferred supplier list. Please do not forward resumes to our applicant tracking system, NCR Voyix employees, or any NCR Voyix facility. NCR Voyix is not responsible for any fees or charges associated with unsolicited resumes
“When applying for a job, please make sure to only open emails that you will receive during your application process that come from a @ncrvoyix.com email domain.”
About NCR VOYIX
NCR Voyix Corporation (NYSE: VYX) is a global platform-powered leader in unified commerce for shopping and dining. Combining a flexible, intelligent platform with end-to-end payments capabilities and services developed through its deep industry experience, NCR Voyix empowers retailers and restaurants to accelerate new possibilities for their operations, experiences and business outcomes. NCR Voyix is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and serves customers in more than 35 countries worldwide.
TITLE: Principal Database Engineer
LOCATION: Atlanta, GA or Dallas, TX
Principal Database Administrator (SQL Server & PostgreSQL)
Senior technical leader responsible for end‑to‑end architecture, operations, security, and modernization of enterprise database platforms, ensuring high availability, performance, and compliance.
Role Summary
The Principal DBA will provide technical leadership and strategic stewardship of the organization's database platforms, including Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL environments, across on-prem, cloud (GCP, Azure), and hybrid deployments. This role blends deep hands‑on expertise with strategic leadership, setting standards, designing resilient architectures, leading migrations, and driving automation to improve operational efficiency and business value
Key Responsibilities:
Architecture & Strategy: Design and implement scalable, high‑availability database architectures for SQL Server and PostgreSQL; define reference models and governance standards- Operations: Ensure 24×7 availability, monitor performance, troubleshoot issues, and execute disaster recovery plans
- Observability & Reliability: Define database SLOs/SLAs, implement monitoring and telemetry standards, establish proactive alerting, capacity planning, and reliability practices.
- Performance Tuning: Optimize workloads, tune queries, and improve system throughput; analyze bottlenecks and implement solutions
- Security & Compliance: Implement and enforce security policies, data protection measures, and audit controls; ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
- Data Protection and Cyber Recovery: Implement database security controls including encryption, privileged access management, vulnerability remediation, cyber recovery planning, auditing, and regulatory compliance.
- Backup & Recovery: Oversee backup strategies, recovery testing, and business continuity planning
- Migration & Modernization: Lead complex migrations, schema evolutions, and cloud adoption initiatives
- Capacity & Cost Management: Forecast growth, optimize infrastructure utilization, and drive database cost-efficiency initiatives across on-premises and cloud platforms.
- Collaboration: Work with application teams, data engineers, SRE, security, and business stakeholders to align database solutions with business goals
- Technical Leadership: Mentor DBAs, engineers, and developers; provide architectural guidance; lead incident reviews; and drive adoption of database best practices.
Required Skills & Qualifications:
15+ years of progressive database administration, architecture, and engineering experience, including leadership of large-scale enterprise initiatives.- Expertise in Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL (Expertise with SQL Server Always on Availability Groups, Failover Cluster Instances, replication technologies, PostgreSQL streaming/logical replication, partitioning, backup/recovery, disaster recovery, and performance optimization)
- Cloud platforms: Experience designing and supporting managed database platforms including Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure SQL Database, Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL, and hybrid architectures.
- Establish database standards, lifecycle management processes, naming conventions, operational runbooks, and governance frameworks across the enterprise.
- Scripting & automation: Proficiency in T‑SQL, PL/pgSQL, PowerShell
- Soft skills: Strong communication, problem‑solving, and cross‑functional leadership abilities
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in computer science, IT, or related field.
Success Metrics (KPIs):
- Database uptime and availability targets met.
- Reduction in incident resolution time.
- Successful migrations and performance improvements.
- Compliance and security audit pass rates.
- Automation coverage and efficiency gains
Offers of employment are conditional upon passage of screening criteria applicable to the job
EEO Statement
Integrated into our shared values is NCR Voyix’s commitment to equal employment opportunity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, age, race, color, creed, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, military service, genetic information, or any other characteristic or conduct protected by law. NCR Voyix is committed to being a globally inclusive company where all people are treated fairly, recognized for their individuality, promoted based on performance and encouraged to strive to reach their full potential. We believe in understanding and respecting differences among all people. Every individual at NCR Voyix has an ongoing responsibility to respect and support a globally diverse environment.
Statement to Third Party Agencies
To ALL recruitment agencies: NCR Voyix only accepts resumes from agencies on the preferred supplier list. Please do not forward resumes to our applicant tracking system, NCR Voyix employees, or any NCR Voyix facility. NCR Voyix is not responsible for any fees or charges associated with unsolicited resumes
“When applying for a job, please make sure to only open emails that you will receive during your application process that come from a @ncrvoyix.com email domain.”
See All 31 Principal Database Engineer Jobs
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Find JobsPrincipal Database Engineer Job Market
Who's Hiring
Top Industries Hiring
- Retail
- Technology & Software
- Banking & Financial Services
- E-Commerce & Online Marketplaces
What Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in principal database engineer jobs.
- 8 or more years of experience designing and managing large-scale relational or distributed databases
- Deep expertise in at least one major database engine such as PostgreSQL, Oracle, MySQL, or Cassandra
- Proven experience with database performance tuning, query optimization, and indexing strategies
- Experience architecting highly available, fault-tolerant database systems in cloud environments such as AWS, Azure, or GCP
- Bachelor's degree or higher in computer science, information systems, or a closely related field
- Familiarity with database security practices, backup and recovery procedures, and compliance requirements
Tips for Your Principal Database Engineer Job Search
Tailor your resume to database scale
Hiring managers at the principal level want to see the size and complexity you have owned. Quantify the databases you have managed by row count, throughput, or uptime SLA rather than listing tools generically. Generic resumes get filtered out before a human reads them.
Highlight cross-functional architectural influence
Principal roles expect you to drive decisions beyond your own team. Describe specific instances where you set standards, reviewed designs, or unblocked engineering org-wide bottlenecks. That scope of influence is what separates a senior engineer from a principal on paper.
Apply early to roles that fit
Migrate Mate lists principal database engineer openings from across the United States in one place, so you can find roles that match and apply directly to each listing. Applying early keeps you ahead of the surge that hits most postings after the first week.
Filter openings by your database engine depth
Principal postings are rarely engine-agnostic. Search for roles calling out your deepest expertise, whether that is PostgreSQL internals, Cassandra tuning, or Spanner query optimization. Applying to roles where your engine matches the stack dramatically improves your callback rate.
Prepare a system design narrative for interviews
Principal database engineer interviews almost always include an open-ended design exercise. Practice walking through trade-off decisions out loud: replication strategy, consistency model, indexing approach, and failure recovery. Interviewers are evaluating your reasoning process, not just your final answer.
Negotiate total compensation, not just base pay
At the principal level, equity, refresher schedules, and signing bonuses vary widely between employers. Understand the full offer structure before accepting or countering. Getting written confirmation of vesting cliffs and acceleration clauses protects you if circumstances change after you join.
Principal Database Engineer Jobs: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies are hiring the most principal database engineers?
The companies hiring the most principal database engineers right now include Oracle, GitHub, and Roblox, with the largest share of openings in California, Virginia, and Maryland, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Financial services, healthcare technology, and cloud infrastructure firms tend to post the highest volume of principal-level database roles consistently.
How many principal database engineer jobs are remote?
About 79% of principal database engineer openings are fully remote or hybrid as of November 2026, reflecting the seniority and trust that comes with the role. Sub-areas such as cloud database architecture and distributed systems consulting tend to have the highest concentration of fully remote positions compared to on-premises or data center focused roles.
How do you become a principal database engineer?
You typically move into a principal database engineer role by progressing through senior database engineer positions, taking ownership of large-scale architecture decisions, and demonstrating cross-team technical leadership. Building depth in one or more database engines, contributing to design reviews beyond your immediate team, and earning recognition for solving organization-wide reliability or performance problems are the clearest paths forward.
Can you get hired as a principal database engineer with little experience?
Direct entry into a principal database engineer role with little experience is uncommon because employers expect demonstrated ownership of complex, high-stakes systems. The most realistic path is contributing to open-source database projects, earning advanced certifications in cloud database platforms, and taking on architectural responsibilities within a senior role to build a credible portfolio before applying at the principal level.
What does the principal database engineer interview process look like?
The process typically starts with a recruiter screen, followed by a technical phone interview focused on database fundamentals and past system design decisions. Later rounds usually include a deep-dive system design session, a coding or scripting exercise involving database interaction, and a panel interview with senior engineers and cross-functional stakeholders who assess your architectural judgment and communication of technical trade-offs.
Where can I find and apply to principal database engineer jobs?
You can find and apply to principal database engineer jobs on Migrate Mate, which lists current openings from across the United States. Search for roles that match your database engine expertise and experience level, then apply directly to each listing that fits your background and career goals.
See All 31 Principal Database Engineer Jobs
Find roles that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
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