Takealot.com, South Africa's leading online retailer, is looking for a highly talented Senior Database Administrator (DBA) to join the Engineering & Product team based in Cape Town, South Africa.
We are a young, dynamic, hyper-growth company looking for smart, creative, hard-working people with integrity to join us!
Think you've been challenged before? Think again!
- Scale: 4 million happy shoppers shop online on takealot.com. Show them what you can do.
- Learn: We work with the best of the best, and then some. Code alongside industry leaders and upskill in record time.
- Grow: Expand your career in the fast-growing Takealot Group: takealot.com, Mr D, and TFS. We like to promote from within: Here's your chance.
Purpose of Role
You will leverage your knowledge of operating systems, networking, and databases to deploy, operate, support, and manage databases that support the applications delivering Takealot features. You will contribute to resolving operational issues, query improvements, and administrative tasks to provide a stable platform resilient to failures. You will also contribute to the Database team roadmap, investigating potential new technologies and designing process improvements. You demonstrate a keen interest in the latest technologies and follow database releases and security reports. You will work in a fast-paced agile environment and collaborate across both technical and non-technical teams.
This position reports to the DBA and DataOps Engineering Manager.
Key Responsibilities
- Troubleshoot slow queries and assist developers with creating optimisable SQL queries
- Assist developers with schema design, schema changes, and administrative tasks
- Design and execute operational excellence through metrics, monitoring, and documentation
- Design and execute operational standards such as backups, replication, security, and disaster recovery
- Oversee the performance, integrity, and security of corporate databases
- Provide ongoing maintenance and review of existing database systems to ensure optimum operation
- Ensure backups and disaster recovery systems are functional and regularly tested
- Design and implement database optimisations to improve performance
- Manage database architecture changes and ensure compliance with corporate standards
- Assist with the design and administration of database cloud infrastructure as IaC
- Participate in functional and technical specification reviews
- Contribute technical solutions to business problems, considering business and/or product requirements and constraints
- Collaborate with development, network, and system teams to ensure database requirements are met
- Identify and resolve database-related issues promptly
- Report on database health, performance metrics, and system improvements to stakeholders
- Provide technical guidance to internal teams (mentoring) and external teams (collaboration)
- Mentor junior DBAs and engage in knowledge-sharing initiatives
- Think outside the box and explore new and/or alternative approaches to find the best solution
Minimum Required Qualification and Experience
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field of study, or 5–7 years of related experience
- Proven extensive knowledge and experience with relational databases such as MySQL or PostgreSQL, including successful deployment, management, and operations
- Proven expertise with other database systems such as key-value stores, document stores, columnar databases, etc.
- Proven experience with one or more non-RDBMS systems such as MongoDB, Redis, Kafka, Elasticsearch, or Solr
- Proven expertise in auxiliary systems such as networking, operating systems, and security
- Experience delivering projects independently and/or contributing to open-source projects
- Experience collaborating on projects as part of a team
- Deep knowledge of database internals, backups, replication, metrics and monitoring, disaster recovery, security, database architecture, database configuration, query design, analysis, and optimisation
- Proven knowledge and experience in auxiliary systems that support databases, including development and/or scripting, configuration management, networking, operating systems, data structures, cloud computing, and operations
- Technical Skills: Proficient in database technologies (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle). Strong understanding of database performance tuning, query optimisation, and systems architecture
Attributes
- Problem-Solving: Effective troubleshooting and analytical skills for complex database issues
- Communication: Strong oral and written communication skills for conveying technical content to both technical and non-technical audiences
- Prioritisation: Ability to manage multiple database projects efficiently and meet tight deadlines
- Collaboration: Effective team player who can work with various teams (e.g., developers, administrators, and managers) across the organisation
- Attention to Detail: High accuracy and attention when performing backups, security configurations, and system monitoring
- Adaptability: Embraces new technologies in the dynamic database management landscape
- Leadership: Ability to mentor junior team members and foster a learning environment within the team
Let's talk about life @ Takealot Group
- Mentorship programme: We aren't kidding when we say the people with the best people win. Now's your chance to be one of the best by learning from the best.
- Naspers Tech Community & Online Learning: Share ideas and grow with global industry leaders who are all just a Slack message away. Love to learn? Upskill with free access to courses on MyAcademy, Udacity, Coursera, and more.
- Good times: Get to know the other extraordinary minds at takealot.com during regular social events and out-of-office activities (think hikes, think mini golf, think good times)
- Staff discount: Millions of products across 28 departments. What more could you ask for?
- Birthday leave: Cake Day all the way. Enjoy your day off you deserve it.
- Right tools, right job: Mac or Linux, two monitors or one. Whatever your preference, you'll work on the latest tech, of the latest tech.
- Help when you need it most: Confidential counselling, legal support, and financial guidance, for free, anytime, anywhere.
- Exposure to the latest technologies: ReactJS, Python, Scala, Kotlin, Swift, Google Cloud, Kafka, Redis, Kubernetes, and all things machine learning. If you build it, they will come.
- Free parking: No more 5km fun runs to your desk (unless you want to).
Like what you see? If you meet the above, you are an Extraordinary Mind. Apply today!!
Takealot is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants from previously disadvantaged groups and people with disabilities will be given preference.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or 5–7 years of related experience
- Extensive experience deploying, managing, and operating relational databases such as MySQL or PostgreSQL
- Expertise with non-relational database systems, including key-value, document, or columnar databases
- Experience with one or more of MongoDB, Redis, Kafka, Elasticsearch, or Solr
- Expertise in networking, operating systems, and security systems supporting databases
- Experience independently delivering projects or contributing to open-source projects
- Experience collaborating on projects as part of a team
- Deep knowledge of database internals, backups, replication, monitoring, disaster recovery, security, architecture, configuration, query design, analysis, and optimization
- Experience with scripting, configuration management, networking, operating systems, data structures, cloud computing, and operations
- Proficiency with database technologies such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, or Oracle
- Strong understanding of database performance tuning, query optimization, and systems architecture
takealot.com Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about takealot.com and has not been reviewed or approved by takealot.com.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is considered aligned with qualifications in select office and tech functions. This indicates pockets where compensation matches role expectations despite broader variability.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Employee discounts and company-supported learning opportunities are available to some permanent staff. These perks add non-cash value that can help offset leaner core benefits in certain teams.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid sick leave, holidays, and flexible scheduling appear in some roles. Such time-off and flexibility elements contribute positively where offered.
takealot.com Insights
What We Do
Takealot.com is the leading eCommerce retailer in South Africa and one of the largest, most innovative eCommerce retailers on the African continent. Our mission is to be the most customer-centric online shopping destination in Africa, built around the simple concept that our customer comes first. Need help or have a question? Reach out to us via our Help Center for assistance https://www.takealot.com/help-centre Our focus is dedicated to improving the customer experience, from the moment they arrive on our website to the moment they receive their order. By aligning ourselves to this philosophy, we believe Takealot will be the #1 shopping destination across Africa.
