Are you a skilled Database Engineer looking for an opportunity to make an impact? Join our team as a Database Engineer II and take on the challenge of designing, optimizing, and maintaining cutting-edge data systems! Reporting to the Director of Data Services, you'll lead the charge in optimizing ETL/ELT pipelines, ensuring data integrity, and mentoring junior engineers. Collaborating across teams, you'll work with cloud technologies like AWS, Snowflake, and Azure SQL, while automating deployments and supporting high-availability solutions. This is your chance to drive innovation, optimize performance, and shape the future of data systems at scale. Ready to lead the way?

Here's some of what you will be doing:

• Responsible for designing, optimizing, and maintaining data pipelines to support efficient data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL/ELT) processes. Ensure data integrity, quality, and reliability through validation techniques and best practices.
• Collaborate with software engineers and data teams to enhance data models and streamline data flow between applications.
• Refine existing data pipelines by improving query efficiency, indexing strategies, and automating repetitive tasks to reduce processing times and optimize resource utilization.
• Follow established standards for data flow, storage, and integration under close supervision, including best practices for using programming languages like Python and R in data engineering workflows. Actively seek mentorship and training to strengthen foundational data engineering skills.
• Proactively monitors database and data pipeline performance, identifying and addressing inefficiencies, query bottlenecks, and latency issues. Use advanced diagnostic tools to analyze execution plans, optimize SQL queries, and ensure high database availability.
• Troubleshoot complex connectivity, replication, and system performance issues, working closely with infrastructure and DevOps teams to maintain database health and stability.
• Enforce database security best practices by managing user roles, permissions, and encryption protocols to protect sensitive data.
• Plays a key role in ensuring compliance with security policies, audits, and regulatory requirements. Maintain and improve backup and disaster recovery strategies, regularly testing recovery procedures to minimize downtime and data loss in the event of system failures. Includes supporting high-availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) solutions across on-premises and cloud environments.
• Extract and analyze data to support business intelligence, generating reports that provide meaningful insights into system performance, data quality, and trends.
• Work with stakeholders to develop efficient reporting solutions that align with business needs, ensuring accuracy and clarity. Using SQL and scripting languages, automate reporting processes and build scalable data visualization tools that improve accessibility and decision-making across teams.
• Maintain comprehensive documentation for database configurations, optimization strategies, and troubleshooting procedures. They ensure that data pipelines, security protocols, and system performance tuning efforts are well-documented for both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Additionally, they contribute to team discussions, project meetings, and cross-functional collaborations by clearly articulating database-related issues and recommendations.
• Automate database maintenance, monitoring, and administrative tasks to improve efficiency and reduce manual workload. They develop and refine scripts using SQL, Python, PowerShell, or similar technologies to streamline database operations.
• Evaluate emerging database technologies and automation tools, recommending and implementing improvements to enhance system scalability and performance.
• Stay current with industry trends, best practices, and new technologies in database engineering, cloud computing, and data security. Apply this knowledge to optimize database structures, ETL processes, and security measures. Participate in knowledge-sharing sessions, mentoring junior team members, and refining internal procedures to align with industry standards.
• Ensure alignment with project objectives by delivering high-quality database solutions that meet performance, security, and business requirements. Proactively track their progress on assigned tasks, meet deadlines, and collaborate effectively with other teams. Additionally, seek professional development opportunities, including certifications, technical training, and mentorship, to expand their expertise in database engineering and architecture.

Here's some experience we are seeking: 

• Bachelor’s Degree, or higher education in the field or related area; or combination of education/training with relevant experience.
• Minimum 2-4 years’ general database engineer experience.
• Possess a solid foundation in data engineering principles and demonstrates a deep understanding of data modeling, data transformation, and database optimization. Apply best practices to ensure data integrity, scalability, and performance in both transactional and analytical environments.
• Experience in data governance, validation techniques, and advanced data quality monitoring, required.
• Possess hands-on experience with relational database management systems (RDBMS) such as SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or MySQL, as well as exposure to NoSQL databases like MongoDB or DynamoDB.
• Proficient in writing and optimizing SQL queries, stored procedures, and indexing strategies to improve efficiency.
• Ability to provide operational support for database administration, including backup management, role-based security enforcement, and query tuning for large-scale workloads.
• Direct experience with cloud-based database environments such as AWS RDS, Azure SQL, or Snowflake. Understand cloud-native database services, storage solutions, and cost optimization strategies.
• Ability to participate in cloud migration projects, managing cloud-based performance tuning, and implementing best practices for cloud security and compliance.
• Developed strong problem-solving skills and actively works to diagnose and resolve complex database performance and system issues. Possess ability to use query execution plans, performance monitoring tools, and log analysis to identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks. Troubleshooting expertise extends to investigating data inconsistencies, connectivity failures, and security vulnerabilities, ensuring long-term system stability.
• A collaborative and flexible style, with a strong service mentality. Need to be seen as a team player. Comfortable working works closely with cross-functional teams, including software developers, DevOps engineers, and business analysts, to ensure seamless database and data pipeline integrations. Participate in technical discussions, contribute to architectural decisions, and provide mentorship to junior team members, reviewing their work and offering constructive feedback to improve team efficiency.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to develop sincere business/ministry relationships.
•  

What can we offer you?

• Industry leading Medical, Dental & Vision coverage
• Short/long term disability and life insurance
• Robust 401K with company match
• Parental leave with Baby Bonding pay
• Generous PTO, holiday and sick pay
• Unique company culture that includes exclusive access to concerts, movie premieres, media industry events, and more
• Leadership and Career Development Programs including free access to LinkedIn Learning platform

Why work for Educational Media Foundation, K-LOVE/Air1?

Educational Media Foundation (EMF) is a nonprofit, multi-platform media company on a mission to draw people closer to Christ. Founded in 1982 in Santa Rosa, CA, with a single radio station, EMF today owns and operates the nation's two largest Christian music radio networks (K-LOVE and Air1) with over 1,000 broadcast signals across all 50 states and beyond, streaming audio reaching around the world, and a growing family of media ministries including podcasts, books, films, concerts, and events. EMF employs nearly 500 team members between its offices in Nashville, TN, Rocklin, CA, and field locations around the country. You can view our mission and values here Mission, Beliefs & Values. 

“As an Equal Opportunity Employer, EMF makes employment decisions based on merit and other legitimate reasons. The Company is committed to a diverse and inclusive work environment and the promotion of equal employment opportunities regardless of protected class, characteristic or status.  However, EMF is also a religious non-profit organization where all team members contribute to the Company’s mission of encouraging our audiences “to have a meaningful relationship with Christ.” Therefore, pursuant to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 702 (42 U.S.C. 2000e I(a)), EMF has the right to hire only candidates who agree with the Company’s Statement of Faith.  Also, as a religious non-profit organization, the Company is not governed by the CA Fair Employment and Housing Act.”