Database Assistant

Spektrum supports apex purchasers (NATO, UN, EU, and National Government and Defence) and their Tier 1 supplier ecosystem with a wide range of specialist services. We provide our clients with professional services, specialised aerospace and defence sales, delivery, and operational subject matter expertise. We are looking for personnel to join our team and support key client projects.

Who we are supporting 

The NATO Communication and Information Agency (NCIA) is responsible for providing secure and effective communications and information technology (IT) services to NATO's member countries and its partners. The agency was established in 2012 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

The NCIA provides a wide range of services, including:

• Cyber Security: The NCIA provides advanced cybersecurity solutions to protect NATO's communication networks and information systems against cyber threats.
• Command and Control Systems: The NCIA develops and maintains the systems used by NATO's military commanders to plan and execute operations.
• Satellite Communications: The NCIA provides satellite communications services to enable secure and reliable communications between NATO forces.
• Electronic Warfare: The NCIA provides electronic warfare services to support NATO's mission to detect, deny, and defeat threats to its communication networks.
• Information Management: The NCIA manages NATO's information technology infrastructure, including its databases, applications, and servers.

Overall, the NCIA plays a critical role in ensuring the security and effectiveness of NATO's communication and information technology capabilities.

The program

Assistance and Advisory Service (AAS)

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) is NATO’s principal C3 capability deliverer and CIS service provider. It provides, maintains and defends the NATO enterprise-wide information technology infrastructure to enable Allies to consult together under Article IV, and, when required, stand together in the face of attack under Article V.

To provide these critical services, in the modern evolving dynamic environment the NCI Agency needs to build and maintain high performance-engaged workforce. The NCI Agency workforce strategically consists of three major categorise's: NATO International Civilians (NIC)'s, Military (Mil), and Interim Workforce Consultants (IWC)'s. The IWCs are a critical part of the overall NCI Agency workforce and make up approximately 15 percent of the total workforce.

Role ID – C004622

Role Duties and Responsibilities

• Install, configure, maintain, and upgrade MySQL instances (standalone and/or clustered).
• Perform routine maintenance (schema housekeeping, index maintenance, statistics updates, data retention support).
• Manage users, roles, privileges, and authentication methods according to least-privilege principles.
• Manage storage growth and capacity forecasting (disk usage, table growth trends, partitioning/archiving recommendations).
• Maintain environment consistency across DEV/UAT/PROD where applicable.
• Analyze and optimize performance using tools and logs (slow query log, performance_schema, EXPLAIN/EXPLAIN ANALYZE).
• Provide indexing strategy and implement approved indexes/changes.
• Tune MySQL/InnoDB parameters (buffer pool, redo logs, flush behaviour, connection/thread settings, temp tables, etc.).
• Identify and remediate lock contention, deadlocks, replication delays, and inefficient access patterns.
• Design and operate backup strategies (logical/physical backups, binlog retention, encryption where required).
• Execute and document restore tests on a defined cadence to validate RPO/RTO objectives.
• Apply MySQL hardening standards (secure configs, TLS in transit, encryption at rest if supported, restricted remote access).
• Manage patching and upgrades including risk/impact assessment and change planning.
• Support audit/compliance requirements (access reviews, evidence gathering, logging and retention).
• Implement/maintain monitoring and alerting (e.g., PMM, Prometheus/Grafana, cloud-native monitoring).
• Define alert thresholds and reduce noise (actionable alerts, escalation paths).
• Provide incident triage and resolution within agreed service hours and severity targets.
• Conduct root cause analysis for major incidents and deliver corrective/preventive actions.
• Maintain operational documentation (backup/restore, failover, replication fixes, common performance issues).

 Essential Skills, Experience and Certifications

• Strong administration of MySQL (preferably 8.0+).
• Knowledge of SQL optimization, indexing, and query execution plans.
• Expert knowledge on backup/restore (e.g., mysqldump, mysqlpump, Percona XtraBackup or equivalent) and point-in-time recovery.
• Linux fundamentals (system resources, I/O, file systems, network basics) relevant to database performance.
• Security best practices (TLS, privilege management, audit/logging, secure configuration).
• Knowledge on a second database technology like PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server
• Automation/SRE mindset: scripting (Bash/Python/Perl).
• 5+ years hands-on MySQL DBA experience in production environments.
• Demonstrated experience supporting business-critical systems with defined SLAs.
• Proven track record in performance troubleshooting and incident handling.

 Working Location

• Brussels, Belgium

Working Policy

• On-site

Travel

• Some travel to other NATO sites may be required

Security Clearance

• Valid National or NATO Secret personal security clearance