Principal Database Architect

About Us

At 118 118 Money, we are dedicated to helping Britain achieve financial fitness. In 2023, we proudly relaunched the iconic 118 118 twins, reaffirming our commitment to improving the financial health of individuals across the nation. Our loans and credit cards are designed specifically for those often overlooked by mainstream lenders, empowering over 800,000 customers on their journey to better financial well-being.

Our vision is to champion financial fitness throughout Britain by offering accessible products, valuable resources, and unwavering support. We are on a mission to provide fair and transparent credit solutions that promote financial well-being for all.

With an impressive 4.8 Trustpilot rating, we take pride in being an approachable lender, ready to provide clear financial support. If you’re inspired by what you’ve read and want to make a real difference in people's lives, keep reading—your next opportunity to contribute to our mission could be just a few clicks away!

What you’ll be doing

We are seeking an experienced Principal Database Architect to lead the design, implementation, and optimisation of our database solutions. As a senior member of the database team, you will play a key role in driving the strategy, architecture, and operation of our database systems with a focus on Microsoft SQL Server RDS on AWS. This role is ideal for a highly skilled database architect who has hands-on experience with cloud database environments and is passionate about leveraging technology to drive business success.

Key responsibilities

Design and Architecture

• Lead the design and architecture of scalable, reliable, and high-performance database solutions, initially focusing on Microsoft SQL Server RDS in AWS.
• Create database models, schema designs, and performance tuning strategies to support both OLTP and OLAP workloads.
• Design and implement database backup and recovery processes, ensuring data integrity and security in cloud environments.

Implementation and Setup

• Oversee the deployment and configuration of AWS RDS, DynamoDB and other database technologies, ensuring that all databases are optimised for performance, availability, and scalability.
• Implement database monitoring, logging, and alerting to maintain database health and meet SLAs.
• Lead migrations of MS SQL Server on EC2 databases to AWS RDS, including planning, data transfer, and validation.

Optimisation and Performance Tuning

• Analyse database performance and implement tuning strategies to ensure optimal response times and resource utilisation.
• Work closely with application developers to optimize SQL queries, indexing, and database structure.

Leadership and Collaboration

• Provide technical leadership to database administrators and engineers, ensuring best practices are followed in all database operations.
• Collaborate with cloud engineers, application developers, and IT teams to integrate database systems into broader technology solutions.
• Develop and maintain database design standards, security protocols, and operational procedures.

Security and Compliance

• Ensure database systems comply with industry regulations and security standards (e.g., PCI-DSS, GDPR).
• Implement encryption, access controls, and auditing for sensitive data stored in the cloud.

What you'll need

Education

Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field.

Experience

• 5+ years of experience in database design, implementation and support of Microsoft SQL Server.
• 2+ years of experience designing, implementing, and managing RDS for SQL Server in AWS environments.
• Extensive experience with TSQL, including the ability to analyse and debug complex functions and stored procedures.
• Proven track record in leading database migrations to cloud platforms (AWS preferred).

Technical Skills

• Deep understanding of database design fundamentals and real-world experience with the specification, design, implementation and support of multiple database technologies, including the pros and cons of each.
• Deep knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server technologies, including high availability (HA), disaster recovery (DR), replication, clustering and read replicas.
• A high degree of proficiency in configuring and managing RDS for SQL Server.
• A solid understanding of core AWS data offerings, particularly: RDS for MS SQL, RDS for Oracle, Aurora, DynamoDB, Elasticache, S3, OpenSearch and Athena.
• Expertise in SQL query optimization, indexing strategies, and performance tuning.
• Demonstrable skills in database security best practices.
• Familiarity with DevOps practices (CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code) is a plus.

Soft Skills

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work with cross-functional teams.
• Proven ability to lead and mentor database teams.

What's in it for you?

• A competitive salary
• Flexible, hybrid working opportunities
• Company bonus scheme - if the business does well, you should get rewarded for your hard work
• 25 days' annual leave, (plus bank holidays) increasing to 27 after two years service and 30 after five
• Company pension scheme – we provide an enhanced pension scheme with generous employer contributions to set you up for the future which includes life cover of 4x your base salary
• Eye test – you can claim a freebie each year, or if your needs change
• Employee Assistance Programme - we offer membership to a recognised scheme to support you and your wellbeing
• A strong ethos of equality, diversity, and inclusion
• Wide business exposure, in terms of business disciplines, projects and stakeholders
• Direct contribution to business transformation and growth
• Huge learning and career progression opportunities
• Being valued as an individual from our team
• Full training, support and mentoring to develop a successful career in financial services

Like what you’ve heard? Great - apply now!

As a candidate, we know the interview process can be daunting and it’s important that you have a great experience with us. We will do all we can to make sure you are fully informed and excited by our story so we get to see the best from you. If you need any adjustments made to help you with the interview process, just let us know and we’ll do our best to accommodate them.

Following your application, we will want to learn more about you, your motivations, experiences, and values. In turn, you get to learn about our business, our culture, the role and what we can offer you.

If you think you’d be great for the role, but don’t necessarily tick all the boxes, we’d still love to hear from you, so apply today and take the first step towards an exciting future!

Equal Opportunity Employer

At 118 118 Money we are passionate about equality, diversity, and inclusion. We are committed to being representative of different cultures, background, lifestyles, and groups, where everyone has an equal chance to succeed. It is our policy to treat everyone fairly and to ensure no one is disadvantaged or receives less favourable treatment. We recognise that everyone has different needs and while we can’t accommodate every flexible working request we are more than happy to have a conversation about it.

How we handle your data

118 118 Money requires your personal data to process your application for a position within our Company. If your application is successful through to telephone screening/interview, and you are not selected for a role, we may store your personal data for 12 months to enable our HR team to contact you should future roles be advertised.

Where you apply, but are not selected for telephone screening/interview, we will delete your personal data once the position is filled.

118 118 Money does not use automated decisioning or profiling when selecting candidates. For your rights under GDPR please see our Privacy policy.

Please be aware that should we pursue your application, all our Financial Services employees will be expected to complete background checks to assess suitability for employment, these include; a criminal record, identity, sanctions, adverse finance, fraud prevention and reference checks to comply with our regulatory requirements.