Database Platforms Specialist

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Company Details
Industry: Banking
Description: Absa Bank Limited (Absa) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Barclays Africa Group Limited. Absa offers personal and business banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking, wealth and investment management as well as bancassurance. Barclays Africa Group Limited is 62.3% owned by Barclays Bank PLC and is listed on the JSE Limited. The Group is one of Africa’s major financial services providers offering personal and business banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking, wealth and investment management as well as bancassurance. The Group was formed through combining Absa Group Limited and Barclays’ African operations on 31 July 2013. Reflecting the enlarged group’s pan-African focus, the Group's name changed from Absa Group Limited, to Barclays Africa Group Limited on 2 August 2013. Registered head offices are in South Africa and the Group has majority stakes in banks in Botswana, Ghana,Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania (Barclays Bank Tanzania and National Bank of Commerce), Uganda and Zambia. The Group has representative offices in Namibia and Nigeria, as well as bancassurance operations in Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia. Barclays Bank Kenya and Barclays Bank Botswana continue to be listed on their respective stock exchanges.Barclays Bank PLC has operations in Egypt and Zimbabwe, which are part of the African business and continue to be run by Barclays Africa Group’s management
Job Description

Key accountabilities

 

The prime responsibility is for maintaining the availability and reliability Database platforms platforms that support business critical financial services for the Bank and ensure that IT can effectively meet service targets in accordance with planned business objectives.

 

Conceptually design a fit-for-purpose database and refine the logical design so that it can be translated into a specific data model, and the physical design to meet system storage requirements

 

Develop, manage and test back-up and recovery plans

 

Ensure that storage and archiving procedures are functioning correctly

 

Carry out capacity planning to meet future storage requirements

 

Establish the needs of users and monitor user access and security

 

Monitor performance and manage parameters in order to provide fast responses to front-end users

 

Key Activities

 

Responsible for ensuring 99.99% uptime of Database platforms.

 

Accountable for installing, configuring, maintaining, and supporting high-performance, fault-tolerant, scalable Database platforms

 

Manage changes impacting the team, effectively minimizing risk and exposure.

 

Maintain regular contact with stakeholders during incident and problem resolution

 

Responsible for interfacing with application development teams to ensure applications fit within the Oracle database systems with scalability, reliability and security designed and implemented from the onset.

 

Perform database performance analysis, tuning, capacity planning, system sizing and ongoing maintenance to ensure maximum performance.

 

Implement database backup and recovery strategies that meet ABSA recovery and availability requirements.

 

Setup and document database related processes and procedures   for Business Continuity.

 

Recommend best practices and ensure they are implemented and incorporated into DBA procedures.

 

Diagnose and solve complex problems including non-functional problems such as performance issues with Database Engineered Systems by identifying workarounds and driving resolution.

 

Provide technical guidance for design, development, integration and testing of production databases systems.

 

Responsible for ensuring conformance to security standards for all databases.

 

Design BCP and HA solutions for database systems in order to achieve required uptime SLA for mission critical applications.

 

Accountability:  Business Liaison

 

Single point of contact for one or more business units to represent IT services.

 

Key Activities

 

Identify service needs for the Business Units represented to IT

 

Escalate Business unit service issues to the Service Manager

 

Communicate service status on service issues to the Business Unit

 

Assist in SLA negotiation efforts with Business Unit(s)

 

Report on quality of services rendered to Business Unit(s)

 

Accountability: Risk Management

 

Ensure that all Database platforms are fully cyber compliant.

 

Build relationship with country Technology Risk and Compliance team and provide support wherever required.

 

Ensure that processes and controls are executed in daily work and understand the reasons for the controls and the consequences for failing to adhere to prescribed processes.

 

Test a sample of activities on a weekly, monthly basis by reviewing documentation and checking work completed by team members to see if control requirements are being adhered to.

 

 Coach the team members on areas for improvement and highlight major failures to the manager of the area

 

Provide evidence/supporting documents to auditors or management assurance consultants during formal reviews

 

Make team members aware of all changes to policies, processes and procedures that are being planned for the area and ensure that they are able to incorporate the changes on the effective date.

 

Contribute and deliver to the improvement of the risk profile by delivering improved governance, risk management, controls and compliance requirements.

 

Devise and implement an effective plan to deliver a satisfactory risk and audit profile for Operations & IT and achieve audit and assurance targets.

 

Accountability: People Management

 

Team leader for the Incountry Database Platform team.

 

Work closely with IT colleagues (service desk, other third line teams, and project managers) and a variety of stakeholders to ensure required outcomes are achieved.

 

Positively impact a high performing continuous improvement culture.

 

Encourage frequent knowledge sharing between team members.

 

 

 

Education: Degree, Diploma
Employment Type: Full Time

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