Philip McClarence
Verified Expert in Engineering
Database Developer
Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Toptal member since July 25, 2022
Philip is an experienced database engineer and administrator (DBA) with over 20 years of experience. His primary focus is PostgreSQL, but he has worked with several other databases, including Oracle and the AWS suite. He has worked on every aspect of the database lifecycle, from designing and building greenfield projects to maintaining and tuning high throughput 24/7 systems and everything in between, including complex data migration projects.
Portfolio
Experience
- SQL - 20 years
- Database Administration (DBA) - 12 years
- PostgreSQL - 10 years
- Oracle - 5 years
- Amazon RDS - 5 years
- Data Lakes - 2 years
- Amazon DynamoDB - 2 years
Preferred Environment
PostgreSQL, SQL, Amazon Aurora, Amazon RDS
The most amazing...
...project I've worked on saved clients money by migrating expensive Oracle systems to PostgreSQL.
Work Experience
Principal Database Engineer
Ori Industries
- Designed and built the data systems to support the business.
- Deployed PostgreSQL systems in Kubernetes environments and on AWS.
- Worked with the various forms of replication in PostgreSQL.
- Devised and created graph-database solutions in Neo4j.
Technology Consultant - Data
DXC
- Worked directly with clients to learn requirements and translated them into solutions.
- Delivered proof-of-concept systems to clients expecting to move to AWS.
- Advised on and delivered Oracle to PostgreSQL migrations.
- Used Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL and Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL in AWS.
- Designed and implemented infrastructure as AWS CloudFormation templates.
Senior Database Engineer
Turnitin
- Ensured the health, performance, and availability of all databases within Turnitin and improved the databases' uptime, availability, and durability.
- Reported to the director of operations to propose, design, and implement solutions that met the evolving data needs.
- Managed, monitored, tuned, and ensured uptime and availability of several large-scale (multi-terabyte and high throughput), multi-node, always-on PostgreSQL clusters.
- Researched, planned, and carried out database and cloud migrations—ensuring data consistency and uptime.
- Used technologies such as Puppet, Terraform, Docker, and Kubernetes to automate database deployments, maximize uptime and simplify management.
- Dealt with external vendors and consultants to add to in-house functions.
Senior Database Administrator
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- Facilitated the administration of production databases in the DWP estate.
- Mentored less experienced database administrators.
- Ensured recoverability of databases and performed recoveries; responded to and resolved incidents.
Lead DBA - DWP Projects
Accenture
- Led a team of DBAs working on the DWP projects at Accenture.
- Improved the resiliency and manageability of the Oracle database estate.
- Supervised workload and mentored other database administrators.
- Managed team members in different countries and time zones.
- Designed database monitoring systems and automated them to maximise performance and free up DBA time.
- Devised and implemented backup and recovery strategies using Recovery Manager (RMAN) and import or export tools.
Experience
A Data Mart Built Using the AWS Serverless Application Model
https://github.com/philmcc/AWS-SAM-datamartWhat I like most about this project is that the whole thing was created as one package of code and all of the resources needed in AWS.
The project is self-contained, can be spun up and down at will, and requires no manual steps or intervention to create an environment for it.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Northumbria University - Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Certifications
AWS Certified Data Analytics Specialty
AWS
AWS Certified Database Specialty
AWS
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate
AWS
Oracle Certified Expert, Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g and Grid Infrastructure Administrator
Oracle
Oracle Database 11g Administrator Certified Professional
Oracle
Oracle Database 10g Administrator Certified Professional
Oracle
Skills
Libraries/APIs
PostgREST
Tools
Amazon Redshift Spectrum, AWS CloudFormation, AWS Glue, Terraform, Puppet
Languages
SQL, Python, Go, GraphQL
Paradigms
Database Development
Platforms
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Oracle, Kubernetes
Storage
PostgreSQL, Database Administration (DBA), SQL Performance, Database Architecture, Amazon Aurora, SQL Stored Procedures, SQL Triggers, Cassandra, MySQL Server, Redshift, Databases, Amazon DynamoDB, Data Lakes, MySQL, Neo4j, Oracle 11g, Oracle 10g, CockroachDB
Frameworks
AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM)
Other
Amazon RDS, Data Modeling, Data Architecture, Database Optimization, Apache Cassandra, MySQL DBA, Performance Tuning, GraphDB, PostGraphile, Programming, Hardware, AWS Lake Formation
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