Principal Database Engineer

We're looking for a Principal Database Engineer This role is Hybrid, Krakow Office To provide expert-level administration, maintenance, and support of the Cornerstone’s database infrastructure, while leveraging AI and intelligent automation to enhance operational efficiency, proactive monitoring, and autonomous remediation. The role ensures high availability, optimal performance, security, and compliance across production and non-production environments supporting business-critical applications and automation platforms. Key Responsibilities AI-Driven Database Operations & Intelligent Automation Support and develop AI-powered monitoring and alerting systems that autonomously detect anomalies, diagnose root causes, and recommend remediation actions. Collaborate on the development and maintenance of LLM-based database agents (Text-to-SQL, knowledge retrieval, automated diagnostics). Contribute to the RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) knowledge base by documenting incidents, resolutions, and runbooks for AI-driven reference. Support AI-driven root cause analysis workflows that use real-time metrics and historical patterns to diagnose database incidents. Maintain and enhance automated playbook execution engines that trigger self-healing remediation workflows. Develop and refine prompt engineering for database-specific AI agents to improve accuracy of diagnostics and recommendations. Feed performance data, incident patterns, and operational telemetry into AI/ML pipelines for trend detection and capacity forecasting. Support natural language query interfaces enabling stakeholders to query database health and metrics without writing SQL. Database Administration & Maintenance Install, configure, and maintain database instances across production, staging, pilot and development environments. Perform daily health checks, proactive monitoring, and maintenance of database platforms. Manage database storage, capacity planning, and growth forecasting. Execute database patching, version upgrades, and service pack deployments following change management procedures. Maintain database documentation including configurations, runbooks, and operational procedures. Performance Monitoring & Optimization Monitor and tune database performance including CPU utilisation, memory pressure, I/O throughput, and query execution. Identify and resolve blocking, deadlocks, long-running queries, and tempdb contention. Analyse execution plans, wait statistics, and DMV outputs to diagnose root causes of performance degradation. Implement and manage indexing strategies, statistics maintenance, and database integrity checks. Provide recommendations for query optimization and schema improvements to development teams. High Availability & Disaster Recovery Administer and maintain High Availability. Design, implement, and test backup and recovery strategies ensuring RPO/RTO targets are met. Perform regular disaster recovery testing and validate restore procedures. Execute failover and switchover operations during planned maintenance and unplanned incidents. Monitor replication health and resolve synchronisation issues. Security & Compliance Implement and manage database security including role-based access control, encryption (TDE), and auditing. Ensure data is accessible only to appropriately authorised personnel. Support compliance requirements including data protection, access reviews, and audit responses. Manage database user accounts, permissions, and authentication configurations. Implement data masking and obfuscation for non-production environments. Automation & Operational Efficiency Develop and maintain automation scripts using T-SQL, PowerShell, and Python for routine database operations. Support and maintain database provisioning and refresh pipelines. Configure and manage SQL Server Agent jobs, alerts, and notifications. Identify opportunities to automate manual processes and reduce operational overhead. Support CI/CD pipelines and deployment processes related to database changes. Incident Management & Support Provide expert-level troubleshooting and resolution for complex database incidents. Participate in on-call rotation for production database support. Perform root cause analysis for incidents and implement preventive measures. Collaborate with application teams, infrastructure teams, and third-party vendors to resolve cross-functional issues. Escalate critical issues appropriately and communicate status to stakeholders. Project Support & Continuous Improvement Support database-related projects including migrations, platform upgrades, and new system implementations. Participate in capacity planning and infrastructure scaling initiatives. Contribute to the evaluation and adoption of new database technologies and best practices. Participate in change advisory processes and provide technical assessment of proposed changes. Share knowledge with team members and contribute to team development. Our Culture Spark Greatness. Shatter Boundaries. Share Success. Are you ready? Because here, right now – is where the future of work is happening. Where curious disruptors and change innovators like you are helping communities and customers enable everyone – anywhere – to learn, grow and advance. To be better tomorrow than they are today. Who We Are Cornerstone powers the potential of organizations and their people to thrive in a changing world. Cornerstone Galaxy, the complete AI-powered workforce agility platform, meets organizations where they are. With Galaxy, organizations can identify skills gaps and development opportunities, retain and engage top talent, and provide multimodal learning experiences to meet the diverse needs of the modern workforce. More than 7,000 organizations and 100 million+ users in 180+ countries and in nearly 50 languages use Cornerstone Galaxy to build high-performing, future-ready organizations and people today. Total Rewards At Cornerstone, we are dedicated to inspiring excellence and pushing boundaries in everything we do. Our compensation strategy is based on three fundamental principles: equitable pay, market-driven research, and skill-based appraisals. As part of our mission to share success and empower individuals to thrive in an ever-changing world, the listed salary range is just one element of Cornerstone’s comprehensive compensation package. This compensation package may also include annual bonuses, short- and program-specific awards depending on the role, and a comprehensive benefit offering. The disclosed salary range reflects the geographic differential based on the location of the position if applicable. The starting salary for the successful applicant will depend on several job-related factors, including education, training, experience, certifications, location, business needs, and market demands. This range is based on a full-time position and may be adjusted in the future. Join us in shaping the future of work — tomorrow, together. Experience flexibility and empowerment in your career at Cornerstone. The BASE salary range for this position is: 222000 - 352000 PLN. Check us out on LinkedIn , Comparably , Glassdoor , and Facebook !