Manager - Database Governance & Administration

Recruitment for the role of Manager- Database Governance & Administration About GeM

Government eMarketplace (GeM) is a unified digital platform that facilitates end-to-end procurement of goods and services

by various government departments, organizations, and public sector undertakings (PSUs). Our Honourable Prime Ministers concerted efforts to harness the power of digital platforms to achieve Minimum Government, Maximum Governance led to the genesis of GeM in 2016.

GeM provides a paperless, cashless and contactless ecosystem for government buyers to directly purchase products and services from pan-India sellers and service providers through an online platform. GeM covers the entire gamut of procurement process, right from vendor registration and item selection by buyers to receipt of goods and facilitation of timely payments. GeM has envisioned to utilise the agility and speed that come along with a digital platform created with a strategic intent to reinvigorate public procurement systems and bring about a lasting change for the underserved as well as the nation.

Built on the pillars of Efficiency, Transparency and Inclusivity, GeM has emergedas a digital tool in nations interest, aimed at catalyzing excellence in public procurement. To know more about us, please visit- https://gem.gov.in/

You may also follow us on social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Koo App, YouTube, Facebook

GeM invites applications from eligible candidates for recruitment to the following position(s) on Contractual Basis:

This is a contractual engagement under the Project Management Unit (PMU) for an initial period of 5 years, extendable based on performance and organizational requirements.

Eligible applicants can apply by 17-Feb-26.

GeM selection committee reserves the right to relax or extend the eligibility criteria and educational qualifications. The crucial date for determining eligibility will be the last date of receipt of applications. No applications shall be entertained under any circumstances after the stipulated date. Incomplete applications without application form shall not be considered. GeM reserves the right to shortlist candidates for interview. Applicants should note that mere fulfilment of minimum eligibility criteria may not ensure consideration for short listing for interview. GeM will not entertain any correspondence on this subject and decisions of GeM will be final in all matters.

JOB SUMMARY

We are looking for an experienced Database Governance & Administration (DBA) with strong expertise in MySQL & PostgreSQL on AWS infrastructure. The candidate will be responsible for database reliability, performance, security, backup, and high availability in a cloud-first environment for Database Platforms Operation.

• The DBA will ensure that our Managed Service Provider (MSP) delivers database services aligned with organizational standards, audit requirements, and performance benchmarks. The role is responsible for reviewing and managing database governance, operational assurance, and risk management for GeMs mission-critical platforms.
• Acts as a key operational SPOC for database availability, integrity, security, and compliance across all GeM environments.
• Provides day-to-day governance and oversight of Database Managed Service Providers (MSP), ensuring alignment with GeMs operational, security, and audit standards.
• Contributes to database strategy and governance in an AWS multi-AZ, multi- environment, and DR-enabled architecture supporting national-scale procurement workloads.

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY

DB operations &maintenance

• Support production, staging, and development databases in AWS environments including readiness for peak business events.
• Monitor database health, optimize performance, and troubleshoot issues across environments.
• Review planning and monitor implementation of database installations, upgrades, patches, and version rollouts with minimal downtime.
• Manage high availability solutions, replication, and failover mechanisms.
• Implement backup, restore, and disaster recovery strategies aligned with RPO/RTO goals.
• Manage and enforce standard operating procedures (SOPs) for DB operations, incident handling, and escalation.
• Ensure controlled and auditable access to production databases, including MSP access.
• Coordinate operational readiness for financial year-end, large bid events, and traffic spikes.

High Availability, DR & Resilience

• Review and manage RTO/RPO definitions for critical databases in alignment with business priorities.
• Manage and monitor Multi-AZ and DR-region database setups on AWS.
• Plan, coordinate, and review periodic DR drills, failover testing, and restoration exercises.
• Manage operational response during DB failover events and highlight split-brain risks

where applicable.

• Ensure DR environments are maintained in a production-capable state.

Performance & Optimization

• Tune SQL queries, indexes, schemas, and configurations to enhance database throughput and latency.
• Define performance baselines and proactively address bottlenecks.
• Use monitoring tools (CloudWatch, MySQL Enterprise Monitor (MEM),custom dashboards, etc.) to track key health metrics.
• Capacity planning and database growth management
• Review and manage database performance during high-concurrency and high-volume events.
• Define and track performance benchmarks, capacity thresholds, and early-warning indicators.
• Review scaling approaches including read replicas, partitioning, and sharding, and calling out design risks and ensuring preemptive action.
• Coordinate proactive remediation of performance risks identified via monitoring tools (CloudWatch, MySQL Enterprise Monitor (MEM), custom dashaboards) to track key health metrics

Cloud & Automation

• Automate database provisioning, monitoring, backups, and repetitive tasks using scripts or IaC tools (Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible).
• Implement security best practices from DB perspective including IAM roles, encryption at rest/in transit
• Review and manage database operations on AWS services including RDS, EC2, EBS,S3, and CloudWatch.

Security, Compliance & Governance

• Implement database security controls, access management, and auditing (e.g. role-based access control (RBAC), encryption, auditing, and database hardening)
• Ensure privileged database access is controlled, logged, and periodically reviewed.
• Support deployment and operational effectiveness of Database Activity Monitoring (DAM).
• Ensure compliance with organizational security, audit, and data protection standards (e.g., internal policies / industry standards)
• Review MSP deliverables (backups, patching, upgrades, monitoring reports) for compliance with SLAs and audit requirements.
• Ensure audit and compliance reporting related to database operations.

DB strategy, Collaboration & Support

• Contribute to database architecture decisions, capacity planning, and roadmap discussions.
• Define and enforce database governance policies, standards, and best practices
• Partner with infrastructure, DevOps, and application teams for deployments, incident resolution, and capacity planning.
• Document SOPs, runbooks, configurations, and best practices.
• Support internal/external audits with evidence and governance reports.

Any other responsibility as may be assigned from time to time.

JOB QUALIFICATION & REQUIREMENTS

EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS

• 6+ years of hands-on DBA experience, especially with MySQL &PostgreSQL in production environments.
• Strong command of SQL, query optimization, indexing, performance tuning
• Solid knowledge of backup/restore, replication, HA, and DR techniques including practical experience supporting RTO/RPO objectives
• Experience managing databases on cloud infrastructure including exposure to RDS, Multi- AZ deployments, read replicas, and DR-region setups.
• Experience with database monitoring and troubleshooting
• Experience supporting incident management and operational troubleshooting in large- scale systems or high-traffic environments
• Experience with PostgreSQL / MySQL replication, partitioning and tuning
• Experience using monitoring and alerting tools to track database health, performance, and capacity trends.

EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelors or Masters degree in Engineering/ Technology/Computer Science/Information Technology/any related field from a reputed university.

GOOD TO HAVE SKILLS

• Familiarity with ITIL processes and vendor SLA management.
• AWS certifications or professional DBA certifications.
• Skilled in Linux/Unix/Windows environments and shell scripting (Bash, Python preferred)
• Exposure to CI/CD pipelines for database deployments.
• Experience implementing and managing database access controls, including role-based access, privileged access management, and audit logging.
• Understanding of database security best practices including encryption at rest and in transit, secure credential handling, and database hardening.
• Prior experience in database modernization or cloud migration projects
• Experience in large-scale or high-traffic environments.
• Experience with monitoring tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, MEM, or similar.