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Director - Database Engineering (108356)
Electronic Arts
Austin, TX, United States
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We are EA
And we make games – how cool is that? In fact, we entertain millions of people across the globe 24/7 with the most amazing and immersive interactive software in the industry. But making games and delivering a flawless player experience is hard work. That’s why we employ the most creative, resourceful and passionate people in the industry.
The Challenge Ahead:
The world of database architecture and engineering is changing at a rapid pace and EA is moving to meet and leverage these new changes to our full advantage. EA's environment is highly distributed and dynamic. It services millions of players every day, worldwide.
The Director of Database Engineering drives the development and successful execution of strategy and objectives for EA’s global database architecture and engineering services that support our critical games and gaming services. As a leader in the EA Technical Operations (EA TechOps) group, this position is responsible for managing and improving the global database engineering products and services that support and enable EA's Digital Platform and online gaming environments. This position will aggressively drive the definition and execution of database strategies that provide EA with secure, highly available, scalable database solutions/services that improve overall resiliency, functionality, and enable operational management optimization. This position will work closely with internal sponsors, external service providers and our game franchises to ensure that database services and technologies are aligned with business objectives including EA’s Digital Platform and online game services. The position requires the ability to balance multiple stakeholder needs while maintaining an enterprise-wide view.
The Director of Database Engineering will require an in-depth understanding of database engineering solutions and best practices across multiple platforms and technologies, e.g. bare metal, hybrid cloud, cloud provider solutions, relational database and non-relation database technologies, 24/7 database operations and support, and possess a solid understanding of high transaction infrastructure / application services. The role is a part of a high performing team in a fast-paced organization, requiring customer and business focus and demonstrated skills tied to leadership, people, communication, analytics and adaptability.
What a Director – Database Engineering does for at EA:
• Manage a global team of engineers (employees and contractors) who provide Tier 2 and 3 database support, database engineering and database architecture services in a 24x7x365 multi-tenant online environment. Provide technical leadership and vision, mentoring, coaching, career development and feedback for performance management. Promote staff development, recruiting and retention.
• Develop and execute on a strategic database architecture and technology plan that serves as a multi-year roadmap for database architecture and investment decisions and integrates with the overall EA TechOps strategic plan.
• Continuously evaluate emerging database technologies and create the implementation strategies for inclusion in TechOps portfolio of database products and services.
• Drive operational transformation, automation and continuous improvements.
• Deploy, integrate and leverage monitoring tools/processes to proactively monitor and alert on database performance, conduct capacity and trending analysis and identify/resolve issues before they become service impacting events.
• Collaborate and provide guidance to various technical delivery teams within EA and work with global Tech Ops service line leads for Servers, Virtualization, Network, Storage, and Security, as well as our external customers, to ensure they are kept current on database technology developments, trends, best practices and new initiatives.
• Develop and manage strong partnership with Service Operations and other delivery teams to insure the successful execution of standard delivery, incident and change management processes.
• Conduct operational reviews and ensure support concerns are addressed and database optimization opportunities are leveraged in an effort to improve the “players first” experience.
• Develop and manage a yearly budget including Operating and Capital Budget considerations. Review monthly expenses against budget and account for variances on a monthly basis. Identify business investments or saving opportunities that will improve service and reduce overall year to year budget expenditures.
• Develop and manage strategic partner/supplier relationships to ensure maximum leverage for EA, includes technical solutions, negotiations and contracts. Work with vendors to implement product feature improvements for reliability, availability, and serviceability.
• Manage ownership of the database license procurement and tracking process.
• Develop leadership and technical skills within the organization and via partnerships (outsourcing/offshoring).
The next great EA Director – Database Engineering also needs:
• 10 to 15 years of technical management experience in a complex, globally distributed, high transaction (ecommerce, gaming, SaaS) digital infrastructure environment with proven responsibility for similar job functions.
• A minimum of five (5) years of database architecture design and management experience.
• A minimum of five (5) years of database engineering experience with Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, MongoDB, Cassandra or similar technologies.
• A minimum of five (5) years project management experience.
• A minimum of five (5) years of Senior Manager level experience.
• Proven ability to develop architecture and provide design oversight that incorporates high availability, automation, operations supportability and scalability to a high volume, rapidly growing world class digital business.
• Experience in managing global services and organizations. Track record of meeting published uptime and service level objectives.
Skills:
• Ability to work comfortably in varying levels of abstraction across business strategy, product strategy, high level technical design, detailed technical design and implementation.
• Ability to function effectively under pressure in environments of rapid change and conflicting demands and crisis management.
• Demonstrated continuous improvement, quality methodology and project/operations delivery skills.
• Strong leadership skills and demonstrated creative problem solving skills.
• Demonstrated strong quantitative, analytical and conceptual thinking skills.
• Ability to depict the technical information conceptually, logically and physically.
• Excellent communication skills across all levels; ability to communicate complex, technical concepts to executive staff, business sponsors and technical resources in clear concise language that is the parlance of each group.
• Strong customer management and negotiation skills and the ability to mediate opposing viewpoints and articulate the advantages of a technology solution.
• Ability to manage a budget effectively and have solid contract management skills.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally.
• Ability to work flexible hours and be accessible 24/7/365.
…and, in general, the potential to sweep us off our feet!
Education:
• BS or BA degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or other business/analysis-oriented degree; Masters preferred.
• ITIL Certification or an understanding of the principles of service support as defined in the ITIL framework.
What’s in it for you?
Glad you asked!
We love to brag about our great perks like comprehensive health and benefit packages, tuition reimbursement, 401k with company match and, of course, free video games. And since we realize it takes world-class people to make world-class games, we offer competitive compensation packages and a culture that thrives off of creativity and individuality. At EA, we live the “work hard/play hard” credo every day.
EA – Heroes Wanted
EA is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, pregnancy, age, sexual orientation, marital status, protected veteran status, medical condition or disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.