This role serves as the Gap-side service owner for database platforms operated by our managed services partner, ensuring that database services consistently meet business, availability, performance, recoverability and security expectations. While day-to-day execution and runbook operations are delivered by the managed services partner, this role owns outcomes, standards, prioritization and escalation across the database portfolio.
The successful candidate will bring strong technical depth, operational rigor and leadership through influence to stabilize, modernize and scale database services that support commerce, supply chain, stores and enterprise analytics.What You'll Do
Service Ownership and Accountability
Own end-to-end service health, availability, performance and recoverability outcomes for enterprise database platforms across on-premises and cloud environments.
Act as the primary Gap escalation point and decision authority for database services delivered by the managed services partner.
Ensure database platforms meet defined SLAs, SLOs, RTO/RPO targets and peak-readiness requirements, including seasonal and business-critical events.
Ensure database services reliably support revenue-generating, supply chain, store and reporting workloads with minimal business disruption.
Platform Scope and Enablement
Provide service ownership across a diverse portfolio of database technologies, including:
Relational platforms (e.g., Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, DB2)
Non-relational and in-memory platforms (e.g., MongoDB, Redis)
Cloud-native and managed database services
Ensure consistent standards for configuration, availability, backup, recovery, patching and lifecycle management across platforms.
Enable secure, scalable and performant data persistence across hybrid-cloud architectures.
Vendor and Delivery Oversight
Govern managed services delivery by:
Setting database service standards and operational expectations
Reviewing service performance, incidents, trends and capacity posture
Driving accountability for remediation, root cause elimination and technical debt reduction
Partner with managed services leadership to balance demand, capacity, risk and cost while protecting Gap’s business priorities.
Operational Excellence and Resilience
Drive improvements in database observability, monitoring, alerting and automation to reduce incidents and mean time to recovery.
Ensure database platforms are designed and operated with high availability, disaster recovery and data protection as first-order concerns.
Participate in incident, problem and post-incident reviews for database-related events, ensuring clear ownership and corrective actions.
Modernization and Strategy
Lead database platform modernization efforts, including:
Cloud adoption and migration strategies
Automation and Infrastructure-as-Code enablement
Platform standardization and rationalization
Contribute to multi-year database and foundational technology roadmaps aligned to business, product and architecture strategy.
Collaboration and Governance
Partner closely with application engineering, data engineering, SRE, infrastructure, security and architecture teams to enable reliable and scalable data platforms.
Ensure compliance with internal and external standards (e.g., PCI, SOX, data protection and privacy requirements).
Contribute to governance forums, capacity planning, resilience planning and strategic initiatives related to database services.
Role Scope and Operating Model
This role operates within a managed services model, where day-to-day database operations and Level 1 - Level 3 support are delivered by a strategic service partner.
The Sr. Manager provides service ownership, governance, prioritization and escalation leadership, rather than performing hands-on database administration.
Accountability is focused on service health, availability, recoverability and outcomes, with execution carried out through established operational runbooks and delivery teams
Required
Proven experience owning or leading enterprise-scale database platforms in hybrid-cloud environments.
Strong knowledge of relational and non-relational database technologies and architectures.
Demonstrated success operating in a managed services or vendor-led delivery model, with clear ownership of outcomes.
Ability to lead through influence in a highly matrixed, global organization.
Experience partnering with third-party service providers and holding them accountable to defined service expectations.
Strong operational mindset with experience in availability, disaster recovery, incident management and continuous improvement.
Excellent communication, collaboration and problem-solving skills.
Preferred
Experience with Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis or equivalent enterprise platforms.
Exposure to cloud-native database services and migration programs.
Familiarity with automation, Infrastructure as Code, observability and SRE-aligned practices.
Cloud or database platform certifications (Azure, OCI, GCP, Oracle, etc.).
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