Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Accomplishments
Certification
Timeline
Generic

Derick Sama

Raleigh,NC

Summary

Results-oriented Senior DBA with over 10 years of IT experience managing Relational databases (Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQL Server) for enterprise environments. Specialized in performance tuning, disaster recovery, and high availability solutions, delivering scalable database systems that support business-critical applications. Proven ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure data integrity and system reliability in a high-transaction environment. Eager to apply my expertise to drive operational excellence in a data-driven organization.

Overview

11
11
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification

Work History

Senior Database Administrator

Prometheus Group
08.2024 - Current
  • Database Strategy & Leadership: Lead DBA operations across 1,000+ Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQL Server instances spanning on-prem, AWS RDS, Azure SQL, and OCI. Defined database standards, performance baselines, and automation frameworks to improve reliability and scalability.
  • Enterprise Modernization Projects: Directed 100+ database migrations using AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT), AWS DMS, Datapump, Oracle GoldenGate, and Azure DMS, achieving zero data loss and 30% cost savings.
  • Performance Governance: Oversaw cross-platform optimization using AWR/ASH, pg_stat_statements, MySQL EXPLAIN ANALYZE, and SQL Profiler, improving critical application throughput by up to 70%.
  • High Availability & DR Architecture: Designed Data Guard, PostgreSQL Streaming Replication, and MySQL Group Replication topologies, maintaining 99.99% uptime and RTO under 10 seconds.
  • CI/CD & DevOps Integration: Collaborated with DevOps and engineering teams to integrate Git-based schema versioning, Ansible automation, and rollback workflows, reducing release time by 60%.
  • Automation & IaC: Standardized database provisioning and configuration with Terraform and Ansible, reducing manual setup by 70% and ensuring consistent configuration across platforms.
  • Monitoring & Incident Leadership: Unified monitoring across Dynatrace, CloudWatch, OCI Monitoring, and Azure Monitor, improving visibility and reducing MTTR by 50% through proactive alerting and anomaly detection.
  • Team Leadership & Mentorship: Provided guidance and training to DBAs and developers, authored SOPs, and built operational runbooks for faster response and consistency.
  • Security & Compliance: Enforced IAM least-privilege, TDE/SSL encryption, and auditing controls, ensuring SOC 2, HIPAA, and FedRAMP compliance.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Served as the primary liaison between SRE, DevOps, and product teams to align database architecture with business and application scaling.
  • Promoted from DBA

Database Administrator

Prometheus Group
02.2022 - 08.2024
  • Migrated and modernized Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and MySQL workloads from on-prem to cloud with zero downtime using Transportable Tablespaces, Data Pump, pg_dump/pg_restore, MySQL Dump, and AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) — improving scalability and reducing infrastructure costs by 30%.
  • Automated schema refreshes, RDS snapshot restores, maintenance tasks, parameter group updates, and health checks through Ansible, Bash, and PowerShell, cutting repetitive manual effort by 70% and reducing environment provisioning time from 3 hours to 30 minutes.
  • Conducted advanced SQL performance tuning across multi-platform databases using AWR/ASH, pg_stat views, pg_stat_statements, Indexing, Query Rewrite,SQL Profiler, and execution plan analysis, enhancing query efficiency and reducing CPU utilization by up to 40%.
  • Created and optimized RDS custom parameter groups and instance configurations to fine-tune resource utilization, achieving measurable improvements in throughput, memory stability, and I/O performance across production workloads.
  • Designed and implemented backup and recovery strategies using RMAN, SQL Server Native Backup, pg_dump/restore, and Percona XtraBackup, meeting RTO/RPO compliance requirements.
  • Configured PostgreSQL Streaming Replication, SQL Server AlwaysOn, and MySQL semi-synchronous replication, achieving 99.99% uptime and ensuring high availability during maintenance and version upgrades.
  • Integrated Dynatrace, CloudWatch, and pgBadger for proactive monitoring, automated alerting, and anomaly detection — reducing mean time to resolution (MTTR) for database incidents by over 50%.
  • Enforced robust security measures including TDE, SSL encryption, Auditing and RBAC policies, safeguarding sensitive data and ensuring full compliance with corporate and industry security standards.
  • Collaborated with developers to optimize SQL, PL/SQL, T-SQL and PL/pgSQL code, reducing transaction response times by 35% and increasing overall application reliability.
  • Provided 24×7 on-call support for critical Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and MySQL systems, ensuring near-zero unplanned downtime and maintaining 99.9% service availability.
  • Cloud Migration | Performance Tuning

Database Administrator

SECU
05.2019 - 01.2022
  • Administered and optimized Oracle RAC environments supporting high-volume financial systems and mission-critical workloads, with additional exposure to PostgreSQL replication.
  • Built and monitored Oracle Data Guard physical standby databases in Maximum Protection and Maximum Performance modes for disaster recovery and high availability.
  • Installed and supported 4-node Oracle RAC environments on Linux with ASM, load balancing, and Data Guard across Oracle 11g, 12c, and 19c.
  • Led Oracle Grid Infrastructure and database upgrades from 11g to 19c, including quarterly patching with zero downtime.
  • Improved query performance by 50% through index tuning, partitioning, execution plan analysis, and SQL optimization.
  • Performed RMAN PITR, TSPITR, and cross-region restore validation to ensure disaster recovery readiness.
  • Hardened database security with TDE, SSL, and auditing controls to support compliance requirements.
  • Collaborated with reporting teams to optimize SQL and PL/SQL workloads, with limited support for PL/pgSQL, improving nightly batch processing by 35%.

Junior DBA → Database Administrator

Kaject Inc
08.2015 - 02.2019
  • Installed, configured, and supported Oracle 10g and 11g databases on AIX platforms in enterprise environments.
  • Monitored database and application server health using Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control.
  • Improved database performance and storage efficiency by using Data Pump and traditional export/import utilities to reorganize schemas, tables, and databases.
  • Executed database cloning and migration activities across Oracle 10g and 11g environments using import/export and Data Pump tools.
  • Proactively identified and resolved performance issues using AWR, ADDM, STATSPACK, SQL Trace, TKPROF, EXPLAIN PLAN, and Oracle tuning packs.
  • Managed day-to-day database administration, including monitoring, maintenance, replication support, and performance tuning.
  • Developed and maintained RMAN backup and recovery scripts, including block recovery, cross-version restores, and backup-based duplication for Oracle 11gR2.
  • Tuned SQL and database workloads, migrated execution plans and optimizer statistics from QA to production, and automated statistics collection with DBMS_SCHEDULER.
  • Implemented Flashback Database and Recycle Bin capabilities to accelerate recovery and reduce downtime.
  • Led Oracle database upgrades from 10.2.0.1 to 10.2.0.5 and 11.1.0.7, including RAC-based deployments.
  • Improved RAC performance by leveraging AWR and ADDM analysis to troubleshoot and resolve bottlenecks.
  • Implemented partitioning, Virtual Private Database, and Fine-Grained Auditing to enhance performance, security, and compliance.
  • Built RMAN-based backup and recovery solutions and supported database infrastructure rollout for two new data centers.
  • Installed ASM and migrated databases from traditional file systems to ASM for better storage management and performance.

Education

Bachelor of Science - Computer Science

University Of Yaoundé
Cameroon
12.2014

Skills

  • Databases: Oracle 11g/12c/19c/21c PostgreSQL 12–17 MySQL 57/80 SQL Server 2016–2022
  • Cloud Platforms: AWS Azure OCI
  • High Availability / DR: Oracle RAC, Data Guard PostgreSQL Streaming Replication MySQL Group Replication SQL Server AlwaysOn GoldenGate, Petroni Logical replication
  • Performance Tuning: AWR, ASH, EXPLAIN ANALYZE, SQL Profiler, pg_stat_statements, Indexing, Partitioning
  • Migration & Automation: AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT), AWS DMS, Azure DMS, Terraform, Ansible, Data Pump, pg_dump, MySQL Dump, Percona XtraBackup
  • Monitoring: Dynatrace, CloudWatch, OEM, pgBadger, Azure Monitor, OCI Monitoring, GRAFANA, SPUNK
  • Security & Compliance: TDE, IAM, SSL, RBAC, Auditing, SOC 2, HIPAA, FedRAMP
  • CI/CD & DevOps: Git, Ansible, Terraform, PowerShell, Python
  • Backup & Recovery: RMAN, RDS Snapshots, Azure Backup, Cross-region Restore, PITR, TSPITR, pg_dumpall
  • Scripting: Shell Scripting, Bash, PowerShell, PL/SQL, T-SQL, Python

Accomplishments

  • Led 100+ enterprise database migrations from on-premises to AWS, Azure, and OCI using AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT), Datapump, AWS DMS, and Oracle Goldengate, achieving zero data loss, near-zero downtime, and a 30% reduction in infrastructure costs.
  • Improved database performance by up to 70% through advanced tuning, indexing, partitioning, Execution Plan and query optimization across Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQL Server platforms.
  • Architected multi-region high availability and Disaster Recovery solutions (Oracle Data Guard, PostgreSQL Streaming Replication, MySQL Group Replication) maintaining 99.99% uptime and RTO under 10 seconds.
  • Automated health checks, Upgrades, Maintenance, cloning, and backup validation using Ansible, Terraform, and RDS snapshots, reducing manual effort by 70% and strengthening reliability.
  • Enhanced observability and proactive alerting by integrating Dynatrace, AWS CloudWatch, and OCI Monitoring, reducing critical incident resolution time by 50%.
  • Enhanced data security and compliance by implementing TDE encryption, IAM policies, SSL, and centralized auditing, ensuring adherence to SOC 2, HIPAA, and FedRAMP standards.
  • Built cross-platform CI/CD pipelines using Git and Ansible, enabling standardized deployments and cutting release time by 60%.
  • Mentored DBA and development teams on database design, query optimization, and automation best practices, driving consistency and operational excellence.

Certification

  • Oracle Certified Associate. (OCA).
  • AWS Certified Solutions Architect.
  • Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Architect Associate.

Timeline

Senior Database Administrator

Prometheus Group
08.2024 - Current

Database Administrator

Prometheus Group
02.2022 - 08.2024

Database Administrator

SECU
05.2019 - 01.2022

Junior DBA → Database Administrator

Kaject Inc
08.2015 - 02.2019

Bachelor of Science - Computer Science

University Of Yaoundé
Derick Sama