Senior DB Admin / Data Scientist

About Sirma

Established in 1992, Sirma is one of the leading IT companies in Bulgaria. Since 2015, the company has been listed on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.

Sirma specializes in software development across multiple industries, including finance, insurance, healthcare, transportation, logistics, hospitality, retail, and e-government. With a team of 800+ professionals, the company delivers cutting-edge software solutions tailored to address the specific business needs and challenges of our clients. Our projects range from short engagements to multi-year collaborations on turnkey products.

As we believe that our employees are our greatest asset, we provide them with a collaborative environment and full support for their career and personal growth.

About the role

The Senior DB Admin / Data Scientist owns the health and evolution of the PostgreSQL databases behind a multi-tenant healthcare platform used by patients, healthcare providers, laboratories and partners. The database is the most critical part of the platform and the main factor in how far and how fast it can scale. We are looking for someone who looks ahead: spots the next bottleneck while it is still a trend on a graph, brings new approaches and ideas, and drives them into production together with the engineering team. The platform handles sensitive health data under HIPAA, GDPR and SOC 2 requirements, so it has to stay secure, auditable and available at all times. The role sits in the engineering team, works closely with backend (Java/Spring), DevOps and product, and also turns platform data into insight for data-driven decisions.

Your responsibilities 

• Own database performance and scalability end to end: follow the trends, anticipate where growth will cause problems and deal with them before users notice
• Build and drive a database roadmap: capacity planning, data growth forecasts, partitioning and archiving, and separating reporting workloads from production traffic
• Get involved early in feature design: review data models, query patterns and migrations before they are built and released, including locking/downtime risk and a rollback patх
• Propose and prototype new approaches, tools and PostgreSQL/AWS capabilities, and back every recommendation with measurements
• Own backups, point-in-time recovery and disaster recovery, and prove them with regular restore tests
• Own database security and compliance (HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2): least-privilege access to PII/PHI, encryption, audit logging, data retention and audit evidence
• Define the monitoring and alerting the team needs to see database problems coming
• Lead database incident response, keep runbooks up to date, and follow each incident through to a lasting root-cause fix
• Raise the database skills of the backend team through guidance, reviews and knowledge-sharing sessions
• Keep data quality high: detect inconsistent or orphaned records and fix the cause upstream
• Produce reports and analyses for the business; explore usage and clinical/lab data and prototype statistical or ML models where they add value

Role’s requirements 

• 5+ years of experience in Data modelling for multi-tenant systems, including flexible schemas (JSONB, metadata-driven entity/attribute models) and dynamically generated queries
• Expert-level PostgreSQL: internals, query planning, concurrency and maintenance at scale
• Production database administration: high availability, replication, backup and recovery, security
• Proactive ownership: notices problems early, raises them unprompted and follows through to a solution
• Forms an independent view and challenges existing designs with well-argued alternatives
• Careful handling of personal and health data (PII/PHI), including anonymisation for analytics
• Python for data analysis
• Clear communication with developers and non-technical stakeholders alike
• Fluent spoken and written English
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related degree

Advantages

• Has scaled PostgreSQL in production through significant data and traffic growth (large tables, high write volume)
• AWS (Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, RDS), Docker
• Flyway or another database migration tool, and zero-downtime schema changes
• Connection pooling and caching (PgBouncer, HikariCP, Redis)
• Understands how ORMs and query builders (Hibernate, jOOQ) generate SQL, and can trace a query back to the Java/Spring code
• Reporting and analytics architectures: read replicas, data warehouses or streaming pipelines, and reporting tools (Metabase, Power BI or similar)
• Statistics and basic machine learning
• Experience in healthcare or another regulated domain (HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2), including taking part in audits; exposure to HL7/FHIR is a bonus
• AWS or PostgreSQL certification

Why Join Sirma? 

• Learn from the Best
  Work alongside some of the brightest minds in the industry, collaborate with international experts, and be part of a culture where knowledge sharing is part of everyday life.
• Build What Matters
  Take on challenging projects, solve real business problems, and work with cutting-edge technologies that drive innovation across industries.
• Flexibility That Works for You
  Start your day between 8:00 and 10:00, depending on your team’s schedule. We trust people to organize their time in a way that works for them and their team.
• Internal Training Academy
  Through Sirma Academy, we offer practical, hands-on training programs focused on real-world software engineering skills, modern technologies, and best practices.
• One Company, Multiple Locations
  Whether you prefer a change of scenery or need flexibility, you can work from any Sirma office and stay connected with colleagues across the Group.
• We Care About Your Wellbeing
  Additional health and dental insurance, a Multisport card, and dedicated relaxation spaces help you stay healthy, active, and energized.
• Supporting Students’ Success
  Balancing education and work isn’t always easy. That’s why we provide additional paid vacation days for students.
• Work Hard. Celebrate Together
  From team buildings and company parties to sports events and social initiatives, we create opportunities to connect, have fun, and make lasting memories.
• Make an Impact Beyond Work
  Join charity campaigns and community initiatives that allow us to grow not only as professionals but also as responsible global citizens.
• The Little Things Matter
  Fresh fruit in the office, gaming and relaxation areas, a generous referral bonus program, and comfortable office spaces designed for both focus and connection help make every day at Sirma even better.

Life at Sirma 

At Sirma, you’ll find more than a job. You’ll join a community of innovators, problem-solvers, and technology enthusiasts who are passionate about learning, sharing knowledge, and building the future together. If you’re looking for a place where your ideas matter and your growth is a priority, Sirma is the place for you.

Apply now!
We are waiting for your CV!
There’s a lot going on at Sirma!
We’re looking forward to meeting our next colleague. 🙂

We will contact only the candidates selected for further consideration. Confidentiality is guaranteed. We thank all candidates for applying.