emagine · Romania ·
Senior Database Architect designs, optimizes, and migrates SQL Server and PostgreSQL databases for a legacy modernization project, ensuring performance and observability during a phased transition.
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Summary:
The legacy application is built on a proprietary platform and proprietary 4GL language, with business logic that is highly coupled across forms, transactions, database operations and functional modules. The modernisation approach is not a conventional rewrite: legacy code is transpiled nightly into a modern .NET/Blazor codebase. The legacy system remains the source of truth, and both the legacy and modern applications coexist in production during the transition, which carries a significant amount of legacy architecture and technical debt into the new application.
The client is looking for a senior specialist to assess the current database landscape, define a pragmatic modernisation strategy, and help establish the technical foundations (design, performance, observability, and migration readiness) required to support this transition safely.
Tasks
Main Responsibilities:
The Senior Database Architect will ensure the integrity and performance of the database systems throughout the modernization process.
Review the current SQL Server database design, indexes, queries, and operational practices.
Identify performance issues, technical debt, risks, and areas that are performing well.
Recommend and prioritize pragmatic improvements.
Assess the feasibility of migrating from SQL Server to PostgreSQL, identifying compatibility issues, risks, expected effort, and migration approaches.
Define and implement robust database observability and performance monitoring, including performance baselines, query diagnostics, wait statistics, blocking/deadlock detection, capacity trends, and actionable alerts.
Work within an AI-native engineering environment using Specification-Driven Development (SDD) frameworks like OpenSpec to structure requirements and implementation plans.
Key Requirements:
Strong, hands-on SQL Server expertise (design, indexing, query optimization, operational practices).
Solid working knowledge of PostgreSQL to assess migration feasibility and compatibility.
Proven experience optimizing query and index performance in production environments.
Experience modernizing or refactoring databases behind legacy applications.
Ability to define and implement database observability/monitoring.
A pragmatic, risk-aware approach that balances improvement efforts with migration costs and business risks.
Experience in assessing and scoping SQL Server to PostgreSQL migrations.
Experience in environments with both legacy and modern systems in production.
Comfort with Specification-Driven Development (SDD) frameworks.
Ability to produce clear, prioritized, business-readable recommendations for non-DBA stakeholders.
Nice to have:
Prior exposure to legacy 4GL or transpiled/generated codebases.
Familiarity with .NET/Blazor application ecosystems as a consumer of the data layer.
Experience with database-heavy ERP systems (payroll, billing, scheduling domains).
Experience in AI-assisted/AI-native engineering workflows more broadly.
Other Details:
Work Model: Remote from Romania
Contract duration: 17.08.2026 - 17.11.2026 (3 months)
English Language Skills: B2, C1, C2