Sentara is hiring for a Lead Databricks Administrator – Remote!

Overview

We are seeking a Lead Databricks Administrator to lead the administration, optimization, and evolution of our enterprise data ecosystem. This senior-level position will ensure reliable, secure, and high-performing database environments while advancing team expertise across Databricks, Databricks Lakehouse, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Cosmos DB, and AI-integrated data operations.

The successful candidate will act as a technical leader, mentor, and cross-functional collaborator ensuring the seamless integration of emerging technologies into our data platform strategy.

Key Responsibilities

  • Lead administration, configuration, and support of Databricks, Databricks Lakehouse, Microsoft SQL Server, and Cosmos DB environments.
  • Ensure data integrity, performance, availability, and security across multiple database technologies.
  • Perform advanced SQL database administration, including backup/recovery, performance tuning, replication, clustering, and maintenance automation.
  • Configure and tune database parameters; define data repository requirements, schemas, and governance standards.
  • Provide actionable platform performance insights, usage analytics, and capacity planning reports to leadership.
  • Develop and maintain runbooks, SOPs, and troubleshooting guides for database and platform operations.
  • Design and implement automation, monitoring, and infrastructure-as-code solutions (Databricks CLI, REST APIs, Terraform).
  • Act as a senior technical escalation point, collaborating with engineering teams to resolve complex or high-impact issues.
  • Identify and integrate platform enhancements that improve reliability, observability, and scalability.
  • Mentor team members to build competency in Databricks, Databricks Lakehouse, Microsoft SQL Server, Cosmos DB, and AI-focused technologies.
  • Participate in both weekday and weekend on-call rotations to ensure 24/7 operational coverage

Core Technical Skills and Experience

Databricks Administration (Required)

  • 5+ years of hands-on Databricks experience in an Azure cloud environment.
  • Expertise with Unity Catalog, external locations, access control, and data governance.
  • Experience managing secrets and credentials using enterprise tools (Azure Key Vault, AWS Secrets Manager).
  • Proficiency with automation and infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, CLI, REST APIs).
  • Strong experience with Spark optimization, Delta Lake management, and schema design for analytics.
  • Familiarity with Databricks workflows, job orchestration, monitoring, and recovery strategies.

SQL Database Administration (Required)

  • 7+ years of experience supporting and administering Microsoft SQL Server databases.
  • Strong skills in query tuning, indexing, backup/restore strategies, replication, and Always On availability groups.
  • Knowledge of database security, encryption, and compliance best practices.
  • Experience supporting ETL/ELT processes, metadata management, and data quality assurance.

Additional Technical Expertise (Highly Desired)

  • Databricks Lakehouse: configuration, tuning, monitoring, replication, and backup/recovery management.
  • Cosmos DB: deployment, scaling, sharding, and performance optimization in enterprise environments. 
  • AI/ML Integration: familiarity with AI tools and frameworks (Databricks ML flow, Azure AI services) and how they integrate into enterprise data pipelines.
  • Scripting and Automation: experience with Python, PowerShell, or Bash for platform automation.
  • Cross-platform data integration: experience connecting and managing multi-database architectures and hybrid environments.

Core Competencies

  • Strategic problem-solving and analytical thinking.
  • Ability to manage complex projects independently with minimal oversight.
  • Strong mentoring and knowledge-sharing mindset.
  • Effective collaboration across cross-functional and cross-platform teams.
  • Commitment to continuous learning and adopting emerging technologies.

Education

  • Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, or a related field (Required)

Certification/Licensure

  • Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate or Professional (Preferred)
  • Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate (Preferred)
  • Databrick Lakehouse or Lakehouse DB Professional Certification (Preferred)

Experience

  • Required to have a minimum of 8 years of total experience in database administration, including database design, performance tuning, and backup/recovery strategies
  • Required to have 7+ years of experience supporting and administering Microsoft SQL Server databases.
  • Required to have 5+ years of hands-on Databricks experience in an Azure cloud environment.
  • Databricks Lakehouse: configuration, tuning, monitoring, replication, and backup/recovery management.
  • Hands-on Databricks or Spark experience in a cloud environment

Keywords: Databricks, MSQL, Microsoft SQL, Azure

We provide market-competitive compensation packages, inclusive of base pay, incentives, and benefits. The base pay rate for Full Time employment is:$106,080.00-$176,820.80. Additional compensation may be available for this role such as shift differentials, standby/on-call, overtime, premiums, extra shift incentives, or bonus opportunities.

Sentara Health, an integrated, not-for-profit health care delivery system, celebrates more than 135 years in pursuit of its mission – “we improve health every day.” Sentara is one of the largest health systems in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, and among the top 20 largest not-for-profit integrated health systems in the country, with 34,000 employees, 12 hospitals in Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina including 10 hospitals with the prestigious Magnet® recognition, and the Sentara Health Plans division which serves more than 1 million members in Virginia and Florida. Sentara is recognized nationally for clinical quality and safety, and is strategically focused on innovation and creating an extraordinary health care experience for our patients and members. Sentara was named a Health Quality Innovator of the Year (2024), was recognized by Forbes as “America’s Best-In-State Employer” (2024), “Best Employer for Veterans” (2022, 2023), and “Best Employer for Women” (2020), and named to IBM Watson Health’s “Top 15 Health Systems” (2021, 2018).

Learn more

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A woman smiling as a healthcare worker helps her with arm exercises in a bright, sunlit room.
A woman smiling as a healthcare worker helps her with arm exercises in a bright, sunlit room.

Our Culture

At Sentara, our differences are our strengths. The unique backgrounds, skills, and experiences that each Sentara colleague brings to work make Sentara special and allow us to deliver excellent service and care to our patients, members, and communities.

Our Benefits

We are committed to consistently enhancing our training, advancement tracks, work-life benefits, and more. Our goal is to make you feel more excited to be here every day!

Two female doctors in lab coats smiling and chatting in a hospital hallway.
Two female doctors in lab coats smiling and chatting in a hospital hallway.
Two female doctors in lab coats smiling and chatting in a hospital hallway.
Two nurses in scrubs smiling and chatting during a break, one holding a coffee cup in a bright hospital setting.
Two nurses in scrubs smiling and chatting during a break, one holding a coffee cup in a bright hospital setting.

The Sentara Nursing Experience

Making a meaningful impact on health requires compassion, dedication, continuous learning, teamwork and collaboration. At Sentara, we also recognize that in valuing the professional and personal well-being of our nurses, we build a stronger, more supportive workplace for our nurses. And that’s making us healthier from the inside out. These principles unite our nurses across various roles and locations.

Two nurses in scrubs smiling and chatting during a break, one holding a coffee cup in a bright hospital setting.
Surgical assistant in scrubs and mask operates medical monitor in an operating room with other staff in the background.

The Sentara Clinical Experience

No matter where you choose to join us, in an inpatient or outpatient setting, you will be part of an interdisciplinary Clinical team passionate about quality care and patient safety. You will have access to the tools and technologies you need to succeed and the chance to learn and grow through training and educational programs so you can advance your career as a Clinical professional.

Smiling healthcare worker assists a male patient at a clinic front desk while another nurse works in the background.

The Sentara Support Services Experience

Each day, the Sentara Support Services team helps improve healthcare at more than 300 Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina sites. We perform various patient care activities, provide multiple services, and handle administrative functions that support our patients and their families. These vital functions include assisting the medical team in all aspects of medical care, such as treatments, procedures, and diagnostic and laboratory testing.

Smiling medical professionals in scrubs and a lab coat sitting at a table.

The Medical Group Experience

As part of Sentara Health, Sentara Medical Group providers have diverse opportunities across regions and inpatient and outpatient locations. For those providers based in one of 12 hospitals, we have close working relationships with the administration, ensuring a collegial and collaborative environment where all can come together around shared initiatives.

Guided by a dedicated board of providers, Sentara Medical Group not only offers leadership opportunities for its providers but also underscores the group’s crucial role in fulfilling Sentara’s overarching mission to meet the needs of our diverse patient populations, some of our most vulnerable communities. Our physicians and APPs enjoy opportunities for both personal and professional career growth through a network of resources aimed to cultivate an environment suitable for a lifelong career home.

Your Perspective Matters

Nurses are the heartbeat of our exceptional team. Our approach empowers nurses to actively participate in decision-making. Our nurses have a stake in shaping their workplace as well as their own career growth; one of the benefits of our focus on supporting and valuing team members. This framework encompasses our nursing mission, vision, values, philosophy, and the essential elements of our Professional Practice Model.

This image illustrates the Sentara Nursing Professional Practice Model. Read more about it on The Sentara Nurse Experience page.

Visual representation of the Sentara Nursing Professional Practice Model.

Our Award-Winning Care

Forbes 2024 America's Best-In-State Employers. Powered by Statista
Forbes 2023 The Best Employers for Veterans. Powered by Statista.
Virginia Values Veterans. Official V3 Certified Company
America's Greatest Workplaces for Women 2025. Newsweek. Plant-A Insights Group
2024 Health Quality Innovator of the Year
2024 LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality High Performer. Human Rights Campaign. Healthcare Equality Index.
Magnet Recognized. American Nurses Credentialing Center.

We Are an Equal Opportunity Employer

Sentara Health is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to the hiring, advancement, and fair treatment of every individual. Sentara and its affiliates do not discriminate against any individual or group of individuals on the basis of race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, marital status, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, medical condition, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristics.

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    We Are an Equal Opportunity Employer

    Sentara Health is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to the hiring, advancement, and fair treatment of every individual. Sentara and its affiliates do not discriminate against any individual or group of individuals on the basis of race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, marital status, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, medical condition, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristics.

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