Senior Database Specialist

About the role

Abbott's Business Services (BSS) unit is hiring a Senior Database Specialist in Bogotá, Colombia, to design, optimize and secure enterprise database platforms. The role leads complex database engineering initiatives, sets technical standards, drives automation and modernization, and works with business and technology stakeholders. The work model is hybrid (4 days onsite, 1 day remote).

Key responsibilities

• Design and implement scalable, resilient and highly available database architectures.
• Lead High Availability and Disaster Recovery initiatives, including Always On, clustering and replication.
• Define and enforce database governance standards, best practices and operational procedures.
• Drive modernization, including cloud migrations and platform upgrades.
• Lead performance strategies: query tuning, workload optimization and indexing, and resolve performance issues proactively.
• Develop automation with PowerShell and T-SQL, enable CI/CD integration and support DevOps practices.
• Reduce operational effort through automation, self-service and process improvements.
• Support integrations with analytics, reporting and AI/ML platforms, and lead incident resolution with root cause analysis.
• Implement monitoring, alerting and reliability strategies, and ensure compliance with security and data governance requirements.
• Mentor team members and contribute to technical leadership and roadmap planning.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Information Technology, Information Systems, Software Engineering or a related field.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in SQL Server database engineering and administration.
• Proven experience supporting enterprise database platforms and complex production environments.
• Demonstrated experience leading migrations, HA/DR implementations and performance optimization programs.
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional global teams and stakeholders.
• Advanced English (written and verbal).

Required skills

• Deep expertise in Microsoft SQL Server architecture, administration and internals.
• High availability and disaster recovery technologies (Always On, clustering, replication).
• Database performance tuning, query optimization and indexing.
• Backup, recovery and data protection strategies.
• PowerShell and T-SQL automation.

Preferred: Azure database administrator, solutions architect, DevOps engineer and data engineer certifications; Azure SQL, AWS RDS or other cloud databases; regulated environments such as healthcare or GxP; data governance (ALCOA+); DevOps, CI/CD and IaC; ITIL, CISSP or TOGAF.