Database Services Manager
The mission of the South Carolina Department of Education is to serve students, support teachers, empower parents, and engage the community so that every student graduates prepared to reach their full potential.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Ready to lead? The South Carolina Department of Education is looking for a Database Services Manager to take the helm of our enterprise database platform. This is a real leadership seat: you will build and mentor a high-performing team of database professionals, own two hundred plus (200+) SQL Server instances powering K-12 education across the state, and drive the modernization roadmap that carries us from on-premises to cloud-native.
You will keep our current SQL Server environment running strong while leading the migration to Azure. Both matter. Legacy stability funds the modernization; the modernization is where the roadmap is heading. Cloud adoption, modern data architectures, high-availability design, and platform modernization are all on the table. Your work will directly impact educators, students, and families in every district in South Carolina.
PURPOSE OF POSITION
The Database Services Manager leads the Database Engineering team within the Office of Information Technology, responsible for enterprise database operations, platform modernization, high-availability architecture, and data security across the agency's mission-critical systems. This position manages a team of database professionals and owns the strategic direction for two hundred plus (200+) SQL Server instances supporting K-12 education applications statewide. The role combines hands-on technical leadership with people management, driving both day-to-day operational excellence and the multi-year modernization journey to cloud-native database platforms.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
Enterprise Database Operations & Team Leadership (40%)
- Build and mentor a team of database professionals. Set strategic direction, develop talent, and create an environment where the team takes ownership of mission-critical systems and loves solving hard problems.
- Own two hundred plus (200+) production SQL Server instances across development, UAT, staging, and production environments serving mission-critical K-12 applications.
- Deliver ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent (99.99%) uptime for systems serving thousands of educators and millions of student records through proactive monitoring, capacity planning, and rigorous change management.
- Design and maintain high-availability architectures (Always On Availability Groups, Failover Cluster Instances) that eliminate unplanned downtime and enable rapid disaster recovery.
- Document and test recovery procedures against defined RTO/RPO targets, so the agency can weather any disruption without losing data.
Performance Tuning & Platform Optimization (25%)
- Reduce query execution time by thirty percent plus (30%+) and improve system responsiveness through advanced tuning: execution plan analysis, index optimization, partitioning strategies, and query rewrites across multi-terabyte databases.
- Perform capacity planning, growth forecasting, and workload analysis to keep pace with expanding data volumes and user demand.
- Lead performance troubleshooting for complex production issues (blocking, deadlocks, contention, latency); use SQL Profiler, DMVs, and enterprise monitoring tools to identify root causes and implement permanent fixes.
- Automate maintenance schedules, health checks, and alerting so the team catches degradation before users ever notice.
Cloud Modernization & Strategic Projects (20%)
- Lead database migration and modernization initiatives from on-premises SQL Server to Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance. This is where the roadmap is heading.
- De-risk major platform upgrades and version migrations through structured planning, phased execution, and rigorous post-migration validation.
- Coordinate with application teams, infrastructure engineering, and business partners on sequencing, cutover planning, and dependency management.
- Evaluate emerging database technologies and architectures. Make the case for strategic investments that fit the agency's technology roadmap.
Security, Compliance & Data Governance (15%)
- Enforce FERPA compliance controls and federal security standards. Own database security posture end-to-end.
- Manage role-based access control for fifteen hundred plus (1,500+) database accounts, including privileged access reviews, access certifications, and least-privilege enforcement.
- Implement encryption at rest and in transit, audit logging, and other technical safeguards for regulated datasets.
- Author security policies, procedures, and data governance standards; produce audit-ready documentation for state and federal reviews.
WHO YOU ARE
You are a senior enterprise Database Administrator (DBA) ready for your first (or next) leadership seat. You have optimized complex systems and you know how to bring teams along. You care about documentation and knowledge-sharing, and you see mentoring juniors as part of the job, not a distraction from it. You communicate clearly with stakeholders who do not speak SQL. You thrive in a fast-paced environment, you are comfortable with ambiguity, energized by modernization challenges, and you take real pride in what you and your team ship. You know how to celebrate a win.
Minimum and Additional Requirements
A bachelor's degree in communications, business administration, information technology, mathematics, statistics, management information science or a related field and experience in telecommunications, data processing and/or information technology.
Preferred Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Seven (7) years of progressive database administration experience, including at least three (3) years in a supervisory or team lead capacity managing DBA staff or contractor resources.
- Expert-level experience administering Microsoft SQL Server environments including installation, configuration, performance tuning, high availability (Always On AG, FCI), and major version upgrade planning.
- Demonstrated experience leading database migration or modernization projects, including planning, execution, and post-migration validation.
- Hands-on experience with Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, or comparable cloud database platforms.
- Prior experience in state government, K-12 education, or a similarly regulated data environment with Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) or comparable student/citizen data privacy obligations.
- Experience with K-12 education data systems, student information systems (PowerSchool, Infinite Campus, etc.), or education data standards (Ed-Fi, CEDS).
- Experience managing DBA teams in enterprise IT environments.
- Microsoft SQL Server or Azure Database Administrator certifications (Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate, or equivalent).
- Prior experience in state government or public sector IT operations.
- Hands-on experience with infrastructure-as-code, DevOps practices, and automated database deployment pipelines (Azure DevOps, Terraform, Bicep).
- Experience with Oracle database administration or other enterprise database platforms.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and executive leadership.
Additional Comments
WHY SCDE?
We move fast, we have fun, and we celebrate what we build. Our IT organization is in the middle of a real digital transformation: cloud adoption, modern data architectures, AI-enabled workflows, and a serious modernization agenda. Leadership is invested, the roadmap is real, and the work you do here will outlast any single project.
You will work in a mission-driven environment where your work directly supports K-12 education across the state. You will get competitive state compensation and benefits, meaningful autonomy, and a team of engineers, architects, and analysts who care about doing great work and enjoying the wins along the way. If you want to build something that matters, and have a good time doing it, this is a great place to be.
WORKING CONDITIONS
- This is an onsite position. Primary work location is Columbia, SC.
- On-call availability required for mission-critical system incidents and emergency response.
- Background check required.
Additional Comments:
As a part of a generous compensation package, we offer comprehensive benefits that include generous paid time off, preeminent health care benefits, professional development opportunities, pension, a 401(k), and a hybrid work schedule with opportunity for remote work.
The South Carolina Department of Education offers an exceptional benefits package that includes:
- Health, Dental, Vision, Long Term Disability, and Life Insurance for Employee, Spouse, and Children.
- 15 days annual (vacation) leave per year.
- 15 days sick leave per year.
- 13 paid holidays.