Database EngineerArchitect

Most companies treat their database as plumbing invisible until it bursts. We treat ours as the single source of truth that hundreds of fleets rely on to keep their vehicles and their people safe and moving.

Do you think in schemas and see the elegant data model hiding inside a messy one Do you get a little thrill from turning a query that took 40 seconds into one that takes 40 milliseconds And have you already made AI a real part of how you work not a buzzword on your resume but a tool you reach for daily to design faster debug smarter and ship better If so read on

Im the Manager of Infrastructure Cloud Operations and SRE at RTA and Im looking for a Database Engineer/Architect to own the design performance and reliability of the data layer that powers our platform. We run a fleet of SQL Server databases across our customer base increasingly on AWS and the data they hold is the heartbeat of the product. But were also growing and we know that the data infrastructure we need tomorrow may look very different from what we have today.

This is a high-ownership high-impact role: you wont just tune indexes and respond to tickets youll help us understand what we need before weve figured it out ourselves set the data architecture standard drive migrations and modernization and bring a modern AI-augmented way of working to the whole team. If this sounds like you you could be the peanut butter to our jelly. Read on and apply.

This role is not for everyone. If you prefer clearly scoped tasks minimal ambiguity and steady incremental work wed still love to have you just not in this seat. This role is for engineers who see an undefined data problem and feel a pull toward it not away from it.

What Were Looking For

• In general someone who:
• Is a force multiplier. When you touch the data layer the whole product gets faster safer and easier to build on. You raise the bar just by being in the room.
• Is passionate about serving others.
• Takes pride in their craft finding fulfillment in data systems that are clean fast and trustworthy and in never being the reason something broke.
• Has genuinely adopted AI into how they work. You use AI tools as part of your daily practice and have a real point of view on where they help where they dont and how to use them responsibly.
• Has strong opinions loosely held. Youll push back when a design is wrong but you update your views when shown better information. Youre not the smartest person in the room you just want to find the right answer.
• Is comfortable being part of a team that thrives on healthy conflict. People with thin skin need not apply. No seriously.
• Passionately cares about our clients who are fleet managers parts clerks and automotive technicians maintaining everything from squad cars to school buses so everyone comes home safely at the end of the day.
• Thinks of themselves less while not thinking less of themselves. Youre other-centric compassionate and self-assured.
• Takes ownership and initiative spotting the slow query the missing backup or the schema thats about to become a problem and fixing it without waiting for a ticket.
• Loves to read learn grow and stretch themselves. Bonus points for each book theyve read by Patrick Lencioni!

Specifically for This Job Someone Who:

• Has 57 years working hands-on with relational databases in production with real depth in Microsoft SQL Server (T-SQL query plans indexing partitioning). Experience with PostgreSQL is a strong plus.
• Knows relational and non-relational databases not just as concepts but as tools and has the judgment to know which belongs where. You can articulate why a relational model (SQL Server PostgreSQL Aurora) is the right choice for transactional integrity-driven workloads and equally why a document store (MongoDB DynamoDB) a wide-column store (Cassandra DynamoDB) a graph database (Neptune) or a key-value cache (Redis ElastiCache) is the better fit for a different class of problem. Youve made those calls in real systems not just in theory and youve lived with the consequences of getting it right and wrong.
• Has meaningful hands-on experience with AWS database and data platform services including but not limited to:
• Relational: Amazon RDS (SQL Server PostgreSQL MySQL) Amazon Aurora
• Non-relational / NoSQL: Amazon DynamoDB Cassandra Amazon ElastiCache (Redis/Memcached) Amazon Neptune
• Data warehousing: Amazon Redshift and familiarity with alternatives like Snowflake or Databricks
• Data lake technologies: Amazon S3 as a data lake foundation AWS Glue (ETL and data catalog) Amazon Athena (serverless query) AWS Lake Formation
• Data pipelines: AWS Glue Amazon Kinesis (streaming) AWS Data Pipeline and/or third-party tooling such as dbt Apache Airflow or Fivetran
• Data quality: Experience implementing and enforcing data quality frameworks validation lineage anomaly detection and governance tooling such as AWS Glue Data Quality Great Expectations or similar
• Uses AI in their daily work and isnt shy about it. Youre fluent with modern AI tooling coding assistants LLM-based query and schema helpers agentic workflows and you actively apply them to design optimization documentation and troubleshooting. You can also reason about the data layer behind AI features: vector storage retrieval/RAG and how operational data feeds analytics and ML.
• Designs data models not just tables. Youre fluent in normalization and when to denormalize and you can defend those tradeoffs under pressure. Comfort with data modeling tools (ERwin dbdiagram Lucidchart or similar) is expected.
• Lives and breathes performance tuning execution plans indexing strategy query optimization statistics locking/blocking and establishing performance baselines before theres a fire.
• Owns high availability and disaster recovery backup/restore strategy replication Always On availability groups failover RPO/RTO targets and the discipline to actually test recovery.
• Treats data security as non-negotiable authentication authorization least privilege encryption at rest and in transit and an awareness of compliance obligations.
• Automates the boring stuff maintenance monitoring and routine operations using scripting (T-SQL PowerShell Python or Bash) and infrastructure-as-code where it fits.
• Treats observability as a first-class concern using tools like New Relic Datadog or native AWS monitoring to catch degradation before clients feel it.
• Communicates with precision. You can walk a senior engineer through a thorny migration plan and explain to a product manager why a schema change matters without losing either of them.
• Has led before bonus not required. Time as a team lead tech lead or people manager is a real plus; wed love someone ready to mentor and set standards whether or not they want the management title back.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect & Own the Data Layer: Design scalable secure well-documented database schemas and data architecture that the rest of engineering builds on with confidence. You set the direction not just implement it and you help us see around corners we havent looked around yet.
• Guide Technology Selection: When a problem walks through the door you know whether it needs a relational database a document store a graph a cache a warehouse or a lake and you can make that case clearly to engineers and non-engineers alike.
• Work AI-First: Bring AI into the teams daily workflow using it to accelerate schema design query optimization documentation and troubleshooting and help establish what responsible effective AI-assisted database work looks like at RTA.
• Build and Evolve Our Data Platform: Lead the design and implementation of data pipelines data quality frameworks and data lake or warehouse capabilities on AWS as our analytics and reporting needs grow.
• Performance & Scalability: Proactively find and fix bottlenecks at the query index schema and configuration level so our systems stay fast as we grow.
• High Availability & Recovery: Design and maintain backup replication and disaster-recovery strategies and prove they work through regular testing.
• Migrations & Modernization: Plan and execute database upgrades consolidations and cloud migrations with minimal disruption to clients.
• Security & Compliance: Partner with Security to enforce secure configurations access controls and encryption across every database.
• Standards & Mentorship: Set the data standards for the org review schema and query changes and level up engineers on writing data access that scales.
• Observability: Build the monitoring alerting and baselining that let us catch problems before clients do.
• Continuous Improvement: Dont maintain the status quo find the inefficiencies propose the fix and drive it through to done.
• Collaboration: Work closely with engineering product SRE and support to plan releases define environment needs and resolve data issues quickly.

Key Results Areas (aka the Job Outcomes)

• Reliable Recoverable Data: Databases stay available under load backups are verified and recovery objectives are met not just documented.
• Fast by Design: Queries and schemas perform well at scale with regressions caught early through baselines and monitoring.
• Right Tool Right Job: When we face a new data challenge operational analytical or somewhere in between we have someone who already knows the answer and can build toward it before it becomes a problem.
• AI-Accelerated Team: The team works measurably faster and smarter because you brought modern AI practices to how we design document and troubleshoot our data systems.
• Technical Bar Raised: Our data architecture tooling and the teams data fluency are meaningfully better because you were here.
• Smooth Migrations: Upgrades and cloud moves land on time with minimal client impact and no nasty surprises.
• Secure & Compliant: Client data is protected by sound access controls and encryption with no avoidable exposure.
• Data Platform Ready: When the business is ready to do more with its data analytics reporting ML AI the foundational infrastructure is already in place because you laid the groundwork.

Qualifications

OK the boring HR part thats necessary:

• 57 years of hands-on database engineering/administration experience with demonstrated depth not just tenure.
• Strong proficiency with Microsoft SQL Server and T-SQL; familiarity with MongoDB and/or other non-relational systems is a plus.
• Working knowledge of non-relational database paradigms document key-value wide-column graph and a track record of knowing which fits which problem. Hands-on experience with one or more of DynamoDB MongoDB Redis Cassandra or Neptune is a plus.
• Familiarity with AWS data platform services across relational (RDS Aurora) non-relational (DynamoDB ElastiCache Neptune) warehousing (Redshift) data lake (S3 Glue Athena Lake Formation) and pipeline tooling (Kinesis Glue ETL or equivalent).
• Experience with data quality practices and tooling validation lineage governance and anomaly detection.
• Demonstrated hands-on use of AI tools in day-to-day technical work and ideally an understanding of the data infrastructure behind AI features (vector databases RAG embeddings).
• Experience with data modeling query optimization indexing/partitioning high availability and backup/disaster recovery.
• Familiarity with scripting (PowerShell Python or Bash) and monitoring/observability tooling.
• Prior lead or management experience is a meaningful bonus.
• Bachelors Degree not required but preferred especially in computer science or a related field. Relevant certifications (e.g. Microsoft SQL Server AWS Database Specialty AWS Data Analytics Specialty) are a plus.

The Bottom Line

Youve made it this far congratulations! Were looking for a rare combination: the technical depth to design serious data systems across relational non-relational and cloud-native platforms a modern AI-augmented way of working and the humility to serve others well. We dont fully know where our data future is heading and thats exactly why we need someone who does. If youre the kind of engineer who leaves every schema query and data platform measurably better than you found it and whos already figured out how to make AI a daily multiplier this is your seat.

Total compensation for the role is between $155k - $165k a year. This is a full-time hybrid role (in office M/W/F) in Glendale AZ working side by side with the executive engineering and product teams. If all of this is checking off the items on your list wed love to hear from you!

Why Top Talent Chooses RTA

We invest in our people period.

• 401(k) with 6% Safe Harbor match (100% vested day one)
• Flexible PTO model built on trust and manager-approved time off
• Cigna PPO and HSA medical plan options with company contributions ($780$1950 annually)
• Garner Health HRA program: up to $1000 individual / $2000 family reimbursement opportunity
• Wellness rewards up to $350 annually
• Virtual care and mental health support resources
• Company-sponsored benefits including dental vision EAP life STD LTD legal plan and identity theft protection options
• Additional employee perks wellness initiatives and discount programs

The Part Were Most Proud Of

• 99% of employees say RTA is a Great Place to Work (Certified 3 years running)
• 30% ARR growth two years straight
• We are an AI-forward company building for the future
• Big growth. Real benefits. Strong culture. A team that delivers.

About Us

RTA has been established since 1979 and has the reputation of providing the best customer service in the market. Our purpose is to help fleets succeed. We pride ourselves on creating a caring family-oriented atmosphere for both staff and clients and love that our work makes a positive impact on all the lives we touch.

Our clients carry kids in school buses first responders in emergency vehicles patients in ambulances food and medical supplies in trucks and people just taking the bus or train to work. We do meaningful work and we want our clients to have the best tools available to them.

Our office spaces are open spacious and colorful with an abundance of natural light. We come together often as a company to enjoy freshly baked desserts or awesome lunches and genuinely enjoy each others company. We offer some pretty unique perks and benefits as well as all the standard ones. Were happy to talk through all the options.

Physical & Travel Requirements

This role has the following physical and travel requirements:

• Ability to sit or stand for extended periods
• Ability to work at a computer for prolonged periods
• Ability to travel up to 60% based on business needs
• Ability to transport training materials and equipment as needed

Heading to RTA HQ

Coming from the east side Youll enjoy waving at the traffic going the other way while never having to stare at the blinding sun. It only takes about 25 minutes to get here from downtown Scottsdale in the mornings. We are located close to Arrowhead Mall with quick access to the 101 from multiple directions.

If all of this sounds like you and your type of company then click apply. Seriously weve asked you four times now and you are still reading. Bonus points for being thorough.

Reasonable Accommodation

RTA is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation to complete the application process or perform the essential functions of this role please notify us at

Employment Notices

Employment with RTA is at-will. This means either the employee or the company may terminate the employment relationship at any time with or without cause or notice subject to applicable law.

Employment with RTA may be contingent upon successful completion of a background check and other pre-employment screenings consistent with applicable law.

We cannot accept student visas or provide sponsorship at this time.

Equal Employment Opportunity

RTA is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race color religion sex sexual orientation gender identity national origin age disability veteran status or any other protected status under applicable law.