Example Job Description
Database Administrator
A database administrator who advances secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity.
Interview Planning Resource
Possible Interview Q&A: Database Administrator
How to use this resource: Select questions that measure competencies established through the district’s current job analysis. Ask candidates the same predetermined questions under comparable conditions and evaluate responses against the same job-related criteria.
The indicators below describe evidence a strong response may contain; they are not required scripts or the only acceptable answers.
- In the Database Administrator role, how would you plan a database change that affects multiple applications?
Strong response indicators: Defines the purpose, scope, governing requirement, timeline, responsible owners, dependencies, controls, communication, contingencies, and evidence of completion. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity.
- In the Database Administrator role, describe how you would diagnose a slow or failing production query.
Strong response indicators: Verifies authoritative information, protects the affected person and data, follows approved procedures, involves responsible owners, documents facts, and confirms resolution. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity.
- In the Database Administrator role, what controls should govern privileged database access?
Strong response indicators: Uses systematic diagnosis, representative evidence, root-cause analysis, controlled correction, reconciliation, documentation, and monitoring for recurrence. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity.
- In the Database Administrator role, how would you validate a data migration or bulk correction?
Strong response indicators: Applies least privilege, minimum necessary access, secure channels, appropriate approval, auditability, retention, and prompt escalation of uncertainty or risk. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity.
- In the Database Administrator role, how would you design and test backup and recovery procedures?
Strong response indicators: Communicates the evidence, affected population, operational consequence, uncertainty, available choices, recommended action, accountable owners, and follow-up without unnecessary jargon. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity.
- In the Database Administrator role, a downstream report changes unexpectedly after deployment. What would you do?
Strong response indicators: Builds sustainable ownership through clear definitions, role-specific training, useful quality reports, feedback loops, documentation, support, and verification that improvement persists. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity.
- In the Database Administrator role, how do you balance normalization, reporting performance, and maintainability?
Strong response indicators: Defines the purpose, scope, governing requirement, timeline, responsible owners, dependencies, controls, communication, contingencies, and evidence of completion. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity.
- In the Database Administrator role, what documentation should accompany a production database object?
Strong response indicators: Verifies authoritative information, protects the affected person and data, follows approved procedures, involves responsible owners, documents facts, and confirms resolution. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity.
- In the Database Administrator role, how would you protect student data in nonproduction environments?
Strong response indicators: Uses systematic diagnosis, representative evidence, root-cause analysis, controlled correction, reconciliation, documentation, and monitoring for recurrence. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity.
- In the Database Administrator role, what database work would you automate, and what human controls would remain?
Strong response indicators: Applies least privilege, minimum necessary access, secure channels, appropriate approval, auditability, retention, and prompt escalation of uncertainty or risk. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity.
- In the Database Administrator role, how would you prioritize availability, performance, security, and project requests?
Strong response indicators: Communicates the evidence, affected population, operational consequence, uncertainty, available choices, recommended action, accountable owners, and follow-up without unnecessary jargon. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity.
- In the Database Administrator role, what would you prioritize during your first 90 days?
Strong response indicators: Builds sustainable ownership through clear definitions, role-specific training, useful quality reports, feedback loops, documentation, support, and verification that improvement persists. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity.
Position Description
Under the direction of the appropriate district administrator, the Database Administrator administer and lead work supporting secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity.
The position applies database administration, data architecture, query development, performance, security, recovery, and governed data services across relational databases, data warehouses, reporting stores, ETL/ELT tools, backup and recovery platforms, monitoring, source control, and connected applications. It establishes or follows clear ownership, validation, security, documentation, review, and escalation practices appropriate to the role’s assigned authority.
The Database Administrator collaborates with application owners, data engineers, analysts, system administrators, security personnel, program data stewards, vendors, and technology leadership. The role is accountable for platform administration, privileged access, architecture, change control, service continuity, and vendor coordination while protecting confidential information and keeping local decisions traceable.
Reports To
Insert your school district’s specific reporting relationship here.
Required Education and Credentials
Required
- Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in education, information systems, data management, public administration, business administration, statistics, computer science, or a closely related field. Additional qualifying experience may be substituted where permitted by district policy.
- Successful completion of all district-required employment clearances.
- Completion of role-required privacy, information-security, records, system, and program training within established timelines.
Preferred
- Graduate degree or advanced coursework in a field related to the position.
- Current professional learning or certification related to database administration, data architecture, query development, performance, security, recovery, and governed data services.
- Relevant training in project management, data governance, privacy, accessibility, database, analytics, or information security.
Required / Desired Experience
Required Experience
- Four or more years of progressively responsible experience in K-12 education, student information, data, technology, compliance, research, records, or a closely related function.
- Experience with secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity.
- Experience interpreting requirements, procedures, definitions, reports, system information, or technical documentation relevant to assigned work.
- Experience coordinating or completing deadline-driven work with careful documentation and quality control.
- Experience handling confidential information and communicating with users or stakeholders.
Desired Experience
- Experience with relational databases, data warehouses, reporting stores, ETL/ELT tools, backup and recovery platforms, monitoring, source control, and connected applications.
- Experience partnering with application owners, data engineers, analysts, system administrators, security personnel, program data stewards, vendors, and technology leadership.
- Experience in platform administration, privileged access, architecture, change control, service continuity, and vendor coordination.
- Experience using SQL, advanced spreadsheets, scripting, workflow tools, APIs, secure file transfer, or visualization tools when relevant to assigned duties.
- Experience developing accessible training, technical documentation, process maps, data dictionaries, or continuity materials.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Planning, Operations, and Service Delivery
- Administer or support database environments, schemas, objects, permissions, jobs, monitoring, backups, recovery, refreshes, and lifecycle processes within assigned authority.
- Design and maintain tables, views, stored procedures, queries, indexes, transformations, and data services consistent with approved standards.
- Plan and test releases, migrations, patches, schema changes, data corrections, rollback, recovery, and continuity procedures.
- Monitor availability, capacity, performance, blocking, failures, job status, data freshness, and service-level conditions and coordinate resolution.
- Support authorized reporting and applications with documented, stable, performant, and appropriately governed data structures.
Data Quality, Controls, and Documentation
- Apply least privilege, separation of duties, privileged-access review, encryption, secrets management, logging, auditing, secure transfer, and environment separation.
- Validate referential integrity, constraints, data types, mappings, effective dates, transformations, counts, duplicates, missingness, and reconciliation totals.
- Use version control, code review, testing, deployment records, change approval, monitoring, and post-release validation.
- Maintain data models, dictionaries, lineage, dependency maps, interface specifications, runbooks, recovery objectives, issue histories, and decision logs.
- Use de-identified or synthetic data outside production whenever feasible and protect student information in backups, extracts, logs, and support cases.
Database Administrator-Specific Leadership and Support
- Own or support the assigned portfolio for secure, available, performant database platforms, privileged access, backup, recovery, monitoring, change, and continuity, with responsibilities clearly matched to the position’s authority and classification.
- Develop role-specific calendars, service expectations, status reporting, support channels, and escalation paths.
- Coordinate decisions with responsible data owners, program leaders, technical custodians, reviewers, and approving officials.
- Provide accessible training, guidance, communications, and technical assistance tailored to user responsibilities.
- Analyze recurring errors, incidents, requests, and process delays and recommend sustainable improvements.
Security, Improvement, and Continuity
- Protect personally identifiable and confidential information in systems, files, reports, email, tickets, meetings, training, and support activity.
- Test consequential changes using representative cases, documented expectations, peer or owner review, and post-change validation.
- Use automation only with appropriate access, versioning, logging, exception handling, review, and recovery procedures.
- Maintain current standard operating procedures, cross-training, critical contacts, dependencies, backup coverage, and recovery steps.
- Perform other related duties consistent with the position’s purpose and classification.
Required Skills and Abilities
Knowledge of
- Database administration, data architecture, query development, performance, security, recovery, and governed data services.
- Relational databases, data warehouses, reporting stores, etl/elt tools, backup and recovery platforms, monitoring, source control, and connected applications.
- Data governance, source ownership, data quality, internal controls, change management, documentation, and continuous improvement.
- Student privacy, confidentiality, role-based access, secure transmission, records management, incident escalation, and responsible use.
- Project coordination, customer service, adult learning, accessible communication, and support practices appropriate to assigned work.
Ability to
- Interpret detailed requirements and translate them into accurate procedures, system actions, reports, guidance, or decisions.
- Trace discrepancies through source records, processes, configurations, mappings, transformations, and outputs.
- Manage competing priorities and fixed deadlines with transparent status, documentation, review, and escalation.
- Communicate clearly with technical, program, school, leadership, family, vendor, or agency audiences as appropriate.
- Exercise discretion, preserve confidentiality, recognize limits of authority, and escalate material risk promptly.
- Learn evolving requirements and technologies and improve processes without weakening controls or continuity.
Work Environment
- Work is performed primarily in district offices, schools, service locations, meetings, training environments, and other computer-based professional settings.
- The position requires sustained computer use and detailed review of records, systems, files, reports, requests, and technical or procedural documentation.
- Work involves frequent interaction with application owners, data engineers, analysts, system administrators, security personnel, program data stewards, vendors, and technology leadership.
- Workload may increase substantially during annual cycles, reporting windows, implementations, releases, audits, incidents, school transitions, or other critical deadlines.
- The employee may encounter frequent interruptions, confidential matters, ambiguous records, failed processes, competing priorities, and urgent requests.
- The position requires secure handling of personally identifiable student, family, or staff information.
Other Requirements
- Successfully complete required criminal-record, fingerprint, and employment clearances.
- Complete a tuberculosis risk assessment and any examination required by applicable law or district policy.
- Complete annual mandated-reporter training and fulfill all legally applicable reporting responsibilities.
- Complete district-required cybersecurity, student-privacy, safety, nondiscrimination, records, and workplace training.
- Maintain professional confidentiality and comply with district policies governing records, information security, acceptable technology use, and data access.
- Travel between district offices, schools, service locations, meetings, and professional-development activities as assigned.
- Possess a valid California driver’s license and maintain insurability when driving is an essential function of the position.
- Occasionally work early-morning, evening, weekend, or extended hours during critical operational, reporting, testing, implementation, or incident periods.
- Regularly sit, stand, walk, speak, hear, read, and operate computers and standard office equipment.
- Use hands and fingers for keyboarding and handling documents; maintain visual attention while reviewing detailed records and computer displays.
- Occasionally lift, carry, or move records, devices, equipment, or supplies weighing up to 25 pounds.
- Perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.