Principal Oracle Database Administrator

About the Job

Principal Oracle Database Administrator

IT Pro 4-Database Admin (9791DB)

Compensation : $150,000-$160,000 (depending on experience)

Please note, this position is not eligible for H-1B or Green Card sponsorship. This position does not offer a STEM OPT training program.

The University of Minnesota is committed to fostering local talent through employment opportunities. While this position utilizes a hybrid work modality, prospective applicants must be located either in the state of Minnesota or near the Wisconsin border OR otherwise open to relocation.

Position Summary :

The University of Minnesota is seeking a Principal Oracle Database Administrator to serve as the highest technical authority for its enterprise database environment. In this decisive leadership role, you will define the strategic architectural vision for the institution, crafting the roadmap to transition legacy infrastructure to a modern hybrid cloud environment while managing key vendor relationships to align with university goals.

As a technical leader, you will act as a primary mentor to the Oracle Database Services team and student employees, fostering a culture of professional growth. Also, this role will provide leadership in stakeholder representation and drive business value by managing the team backlog—balancing urgent feature requests with essential maintenance.

Underpinning these strategic and leadership responsibilities is your ownership of operational resilience. You will ensure business continuity for critical data like the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) data, Enterprise Reporting, Identity Management, and Department level data by designing robust disaster recovery plans, ensuring security compliance, and serving as the final escalation point for complex incidents.

Key Responsibilities :

• Strategy, Architecture & Vendor Management (35%) Define and execute the long-term technical strategy for database services, designing the

architectural roadmap for the migration of workloads to Oracle Cloud services and

Azure. Engage with other engineering teams comprising full stack solutions to deliver

balanced solutionsManage strategic vendor relationships by negotiating technical specifications for

licensing, support contracts, and hardware acquisitions to ensure alignment with

institutional goals.Recommend capital and process improvements to the unit based on an understanding

of best practices and industry standards.Evaluate and authorize proposed architectural changes from vendors or internal

development teams to ensure alignment with institutional standards.

innovation and continuous improvement.Supervise, mentor, and direct the work of student employees, providing technical

guidance and professional development opportunities to the next generation of IT

professionals.Serve as the final point of escalation for complex database incidents, leading the

resolution of critical outages affecting enterprise systems.Lead working groups, committees, and collaborative efforts to implement major

infrastructure upgrades and migrations.

plans; oversee regular simulations and restoration tests to ensure the University can

sustain critical operations during catastrophic events.Perform administration and maintenance of databases.Execute complex installations, upgrades, patching, backup and recovery, and

performance tuning for high-availability environments.Plan, coordinate, and implement security measures to ensure data integrity and

compliance with FERPA and other regulatory standards.Participate in an on-call rotation to provide 24 / 7 incident support.

backlog and prioritizing work based on business value and risk mitigation.Plan and prioritize work to meet commitments aligned with organizational goals,

balancing business feature requests with critical technical maintenance.Represent the database team during planning sessions, negotiating dependencies with

cross-functional teams and communicating technical risks to non-technical stakeholders.Define acceptance criteria for technical tasks and validate that completed work meets

established standards for documentation, automation, and testing.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications :

or a master's degree plus at least four years of relevant experience.

a complex enterprise environment, including deep technical proficiency with Oracle RAC,

Data Guard, and RMAN on Linux operating systems.

responsibility for backup / recovery strategy and critical incident resolution

Preferred Qualifications :

leading hybrid cloud migrations (OCI, Azure, or AWS) and managing enterprise vendor

relationships (licensing and contracts).

student employees, with a focus on fostering automation and professional development.

ERP systems (e.g., PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, Ellucian Banner).

similar certification preferred), with a proven ability to manage technical backlogs and

negotiate priorities with business stakeholders.

Pay and Benefits

Pay Range : $150,000 - $160,000; depending on education / qualifications / experience

Time Appointment : 100%Appointment

Position Type :   P&A Staff