Senior Level 1 Application Support / DBA Engineer

SUMMARY:
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POSITION INFO:

PBT Group is seeking a Senior Level 1 Application Support / DBA Engineer to support a highly available enterprise application environment operating across multiple data centres.

The successful candidate will play a critical role in application support, database administration support, monitoring, troubleshooting, and operational stability across a complex distributed architecture. This role requires strong exposure to Linux-based environments, PostgreSQL, monitoring and observability tooling, enterprise application support, and infrastructure troubleshooting.

The environment includes high-availability application platforms, database replication, load balancing, event streaming technologies, and modern monitoring stacks. The ideal candidate will have a strong operational mindset, excellent troubleshooting capability, and the ability to work effectively across infrastructure, database, and application support functions.

This is an urgent senior support opportunity suited to candidates who thrive in fast-paced, highly technical production environments.

Key Responsibilities

Application & Production Support

• Provide Level 1 and Level 2 application support across enterprise platforms and services.
• Monitor application health, system availability, database performance, and infrastructure stability.
• Investigate, troubleshoot, and resolve production incidents within agreed SLAs.
• Analyse logs, identify root causes, and escalate complex technical issues where required.
• Support Java-based enterprise applications in production environments.
• Assist with application deployments, environment validations, and operational readiness activities.
• Participate in support rotations and operational standby processes where required.

Database & Infrastructure Support

• Support PostgreSQL database environments, including replication monitoring and connectivity troubleshooting.
• Assist with database performance monitoring and operational maintenance activities.
• Work with high-availability environments including active/passive failover configurations.
• Support infrastructure services including load balancers, reverse proxies, and monitoring platforms.
• Monitor replication and failover environments using tools such as Repmgr and Keepalived.

Monitoring & Observability

• Monitor enterprise systems using Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, and associated exporters.
• Investigate alerts and performance issues across infrastructure, applications, and databases.
• Create and maintain operational dashboards and alerting visibility.
• Work with Alertmanager and Jira-integrated alerting processes.

Automation & Operational Improvement

• Develop and maintain operational scripts using Bash and Python.
• Support CI/CD and operational automation initiatives.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of monitoring, alerting, and operational support processes.
• Maintain technical support documentation and operational procedures.

Collaboration & Support Operations

• Collaborate with development, infrastructure, DBA, and DevOps teams.
• Provide clear communication and updates to stakeholders during incidents and investigations.
• Maintain operational standards, governance processes, and support documentation.
• Support production stability and platform resilience initiatives.

Technical Environment

Infrastructure & Platform Technologies

• HAProxy
• Keepalived
• NGINX
• Linux & Windows environments
• SSH tunneling

Databases

• PostgreSQL
• Repmgr
• Database replication & failover concepts

Application Technologies

• Java / OpenJDK
• Kafka
• ZooKeeper
• JasperReports
• Keycloak

Monitoring & Observability Stack

• Prometheus
• Grafana
• Alertmanager
• Loki / Promtail
• Node_exporter
• Blackbox_exporter
• Postgres_exporter
• NGINX_exporter
• JMX Exporter
• Services_exporter
• KMinion

Scripting & Automation

• Bash scripting
• Python scripting
• YAML configuration

DevOps & Tooling

• Git
• GitLab CI / GitHub Actions exposure advantageous
• Jira

Required Skills & Experience

Essential Experience

• 5+ years’ experience in application support, production support, or infrastructure support environments.
• Strong Linux administration and troubleshooting capability.
• Experience supporting enterprise applications in production environments.
• Exposure to PostgreSQL or similar relational database technologies.
• Experience with monitoring and observability platforms.
• Strong troubleshooting and root cause analysis capability.
• Experience working in high-availability and mission-critical environments.

Technical Requirements

• Linux & Windows operating systems
• Bash and/or Python scripting
• PostgreSQL querying and monitoring
• Networking fundamentals (DNS, TCP/IP, HTTP, SSL/TLS)
• Grafana & Prometheus monitoring
• Log analysis and troubleshooting
• YAML configuration exposure
• Jira ticketing and operational workflows

Advantageous Experience

• Kafka and distributed systems exposure
• Keycloak administration/support exposure
• CI/CD pipeline exposure
• Docker and container exposure
• Kubernetes/OpenShift exposure
• Java application support
• Financial services or insurance industry experience

Qualifications

• Relevant Degree, Diploma, or Certification in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• PostgreSQL, Linux, or cloud certifications advantageous.

Key Competencies

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement ability
• Ability to work under pressure in production support environments
• Strong operational ownership mindset
• Attention to detail and process orientation
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively
• Strong troubleshooting and incident management capability
• Adaptability and willingness to learn new technologies

Contract Information

• Employment Type: Permanent
• Location: Cape Town / Hybrid
• Seniority Level: Senior
• Urgency: High Priority Hire

* In order to comply with the POPI Act, for future career opportunities, we require your permission to maintain your personal details on our database. By completing and returning this form you give PBT your consent

* If you have not received any feedback after 2 weeks, please consider you application as unsuccessful.