Database Engineer

Founded in 2002, ELMO Software is the trusted provider of HR technology solutions to 2,000+ mid sized organisations and more than one million end users across Australia and New Zealand. With a comprehensive suite of ISO certified solutions that span the full employee lifecycle, ELMO Software is designed to scale as organisations grow. Flexible and configurable, ELMO's one stop HRIS fits to your specific needs and workflows. Through powerful technology, automation, data and analytics, ELMO Software empowers HR professionals to play an integral role in company decision making.

At ELMO you will be joining an epic team with the opportunity to make a big impact. We foster an authentic, collaborative, fun working environment and being an ELMOnian means you're part of an amazing team that will push you to grow, support you with challenges and allow you to shine. Some of our benefits include:

• Paid Parental leave - 12 weeks primary, 6 weeks secondary
• Birthday leave, YOU day each year, as well as connecting people leave (up to 2 weeks working from anywhere)
• In house Learning and Development initiatives
• ELMO Social and Diversity clubs
• Mental Health/EAP programs
• Flare Benefits (great discounts, novated leasing, salary sacrifice)

Our values

• Reimagine What's Possible - We believe innovation is human at its core. By staying open, fearless, and adaptive, we continuously push boundaries - while keeping people at the heart of everything we do.
• Obsess over Customers - Everything we do is designed to positively impact our customers.
• Help Others Thrive - Be they colleagues, communities or customers, we champion ways to help others thrive.
• Be Fearlessly Optimistic - We bring unwavering positivity to any challenge, as we know it will drive meaningful change.

About the Role

You're a hands on database expert who lives and breathes AWS RDS - Postgres (Aurora), MySQL (Aurora), and ideally MS SQL Server. You know how to tune a slow query, design schemas that scale, and recover gracefully when something goes wrong at 2 a.m. You take genuine ownership and pride in the reliability and performance of the databases you look after.

At ELMO, you'll be responsible for the reliability, performance, security, and evolution of our AWS RDS database estate, supporting a high scale, multi tenant SaaS platform serving more than one million users across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.

This role is a genuine long term investment for the right person. While the core of the job is deep, hands on database administration, we'll actively support you to build skills in the modern data stack - Snowflake, dbt, Python, and AI assisted engineering tooling - with a clear pathway to grow into a broader Data Engineer role over time. As part of ELMO's AI Native engineering model, you'll also get exposure to working alongside AI agents (including Claude Code and GitHub Copilot) that are increasingly used to accelerate delivery - your database expertise will be what keeps that work safe, performant, and correct.

What you will be doing

• Administer and tune AWS RDS databases across Postgres (Aurora) and MySQL (Aurora), and ideally MS SQL Server - schema design, performance tuning, query optimisation, index management, and backup/recovery.
• Proactively monitor database health, capacity, and performance; identify and resolve bottlenecks before they become incidents.
• Own database security, access controls, and backup/DR strategy for production systems handling sensitive HR and employee data.
• Support schema migrations and changes, working closely with engineering teams to plan safe, low risk deployments.
• Own ISO 27001 evidence collection relevant to database security and data access controls.
• Act as a reviewer for database related changes, helping uphold quality and safety standards across the team.
• Progressively build capability in the modern data stack (Snowflake, dbt, Python) with structured support and mentoring, working toward taking on data pipeline and transformation responsibilities.
• Get hands on exposure to AI assisted engineering workflows (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) as part of day to day work, building comfort with directing and reviewing AI generated database and pipeline changes.

Desired Skills and Experience Must haves

• Strong hands on AWS experience, with AWS RDS as a core part of your day to day work.
• Solid experience administering MySQL (Aurora) and/or PostgreSQL (Aurora) in production environments.
• Demonstrated performance tuning experience - query optimisation, indexing strategy, and diagnosing/ resolving slow running or resource intensive database issues.
• Strong understanding of backup, recovery, and disaster recovery practices.
• Solid SQL skills across schema design, troubleshooting, and data integrity.
• Strong written and verbal communication; comfortable engaging with non technical stakeholders.

Nice to have

• Experience with Microsoft SQL Server.
• Exposure to Python scripting for automation or tooling.
• Interest or early exposure to Snowflake, dbt, or the modern data stack.
• Experience or curiosity around AI assisted development tools (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or similar).
• Familiarity with ISO 27001 or similar data security/compliance frameworks.
• Experience with Terraform, CloudFormation, or other infrastructure as code tooling.

Apply now and be part of the team shaping the future of work at ELMO!

ELMO Software Pty Ltd is an equal opportunity employer, and we encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to join our team. We are also committed to advancing reconciliation at ELMO through our Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). At ELMO, we are passionate about empowering HR with responsible, secure and safe AI, aiming to be among the first in Australia and New Zealand to achieve ISO 42001:2023 certification. Handling sensitive employee data necessitates strict adherence to our ISO 27001:2022 Certified security policies, making data privacy and security paramount in every role.