Cloud Database Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Job Summary:
Acra Lending is a company that specializes in alternative income loan products. They are seeking an experienced Database Engineer to design, implement, and manage enterprise database platforms, focusing on Microsoft SQL Server in both on-premises and cloud environments.
Responsibilities:
• Own the design, implementation, and lifecycle management of Microsoft SQL Server platforms (on-prem and cloud-hosted), including standards, reference architectures, and technical roadmaps aligned to business needs
• Engineer and operate high availability and disaster recovery solutions (e.g., Always On Availability Groups, failover clustering, log shipping, replication), including backup and restore strategy, RPO/RTO definition, and routine disaster recovery testing
• Perform core database administration functions, including regular backups, restores, recovery validation, integrity checks, patching, and ongoing maintenance to ensure system reliability and data protection
• Lead database performance engineering efforts, including SQL query tuning, execution plan analysis, indexing strategy, and statistics maintenance; establish performance baselines, capacity planning, and service level objectives.
• Implement and enforce database security controls, including least-privilege access, auditing, encryption, and secure configuration standards; partner with Infrastructure and Security teams on vulnerability remediation and compliance requirements
• Design, build, and maintain data integration pipelines and reporting workflows (e.g., SSIS, SQL Agent jobs, stored procedures, ETL/ELT frameworks); manage scheduling, error handling, data lineage, and operational support for data refresh processes.
• Develop and support data exchange mechanisms between systems, including APIs, file-based integrations, and cross-platform data movement across operational databases and data warehouse/lake environments
• Build automation to improve reliability and reduce operational overhead (patching, maintenance jobs, provisioning, deployments), leveraging scripting and repeatable processes; maintain runbooks and operational documentation
• Oversee and coordinate third-party database administration vendors and managed service providers, including defining scope, reviewing deliverables, managing SLAs, enforcing change control, and ensuring secure and compliant access.
• Establish observability for database and pipeline health (monitoring, alerting, dashboards); participate in incident response/on-call, perform root-cause analysis, and drive corrective and preventive actions
• Partner with application engineering, BI/reporting, and operational teams to review database designs, optimize data access patterns, support releases, and resolve production issues
• Provide technical leadership through code reviews and database design reviews; mentor team members and promote best practices across schema design, data modeling, and database change management
Qualifications:
Required:
• 5–10 years of experience as a Database Engineer
• Experience with Microsoft SQL Server across both on-premises and cloud environments
• Experience with AWS RDS architecture, migrations, optimization, monitoring, and operational management
• Strong hands-on experience building and maintaining ETL/ELT pipelines
• Experience designing and executing cloud database migration strategies, particularly migrating on-prem SQL Server environments to AWS RDS
• Ability to own the design, implementation, and lifecycle management of Microsoft SQL Server platforms
• Experience engineering and operating high availability and disaster recovery solutions
• Core database administration functions including regular backups, restores, recovery validation, integrity checks, patching, and ongoing maintenance
• Experience leading database performance engineering efforts including SQL query tuning, execution plan analysis, indexing strategy, and statistics maintenance
• Ability to implement and enforce database security controls
• Experience designing, building, and maintaining data integration pipelines and reporting workflows
• Ability to develop and support data exchange mechanisms between systems
• Experience building automation to improve reliability and reduce operational overhead
• Ability to oversee and coordinate third-party database administration vendors and managed service providers
• Experience establishing observability for database and pipeline health
• Ability to partner with application engineering, BI/reporting, and operational teams
• Experience providing technical leadership through code reviews and database design reviews
• Advanced expertise in Microsoft SQL Server, including T-SQL development and performance tuning
• Strong experience with database administration tasks
• Strong experience writing and optimizing complex SQL queries
• Hands-on experience with ETL/ELT development
• Proficiency in scripting for automation
• Experience working with modern data platforms such as Snowflake or other data warehouse/data lake technologies
• Deep understanding of high availability and disaster recovery solutions
• Strong knowledge of database design, normalization, indexing, and data modeling principles
• Experience with database monitoring, troubleshooting, and performance optimization
• Experience supporting data integration and data exchange across multiple systems
• Self-starter with ability to balance multiple projects with aggressive deadlines and strong attention to detail
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, or related field preferred
• Ability to read and comprehend simple instructions, short correspondence, and memos
• Ability to write simple correspondence
• Ability to effectively present information in one-on-one and small group situations
• Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure
• Ability to compute rate, ratio, and percent and to draw and interpret bar graphs
• Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out detailed instructions
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office applications
Preferred:
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, or related field preferred; equivalent experience considered
Company:
Acra Lending specializes in lending services and adjustable-rate mortgages as well as alternative income products. Founded in 2003, the company is headquartered in Lake Forest, USA, with a team of 201-500 employees. The company is currently Growth Stage.