Database Administrator (DBA)

Lightwave Dental was founded in 2016, is a high-growth company building the group model for the future of the dental industry. Lightwave is passionate about doing things the right way with a tight focus on high quality, core values, and taking care of their people. Lightwave is a dental leadership organization that focuses on partnering, training and developing dentists as the natural leaders of the dental practice. Lightwave helps dentists launch their careers, supports dentists leading high-growth dental groups, and assists doctors looking to establish their legacy as they transition into retirement. Lightwave is solving the big problems in dentistry: retirement, management, reimbursements, and partnership by providing the benefits of a group while preserving the essence of private practice. Lightwave currently supports over 80 dental offices in 4 states. For additional information, please visit lightwavedental.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Job Title: Database Administrator (DBA)

Company: Lightwave Dental
Location: Remote in VA or NC (some travel required)
Reports To: Sr. Director of Information Technology

Position Summary

As a Database Administrator at Lightwave Dental, you will be the backbone of our data infrastructure. You will design, manage, optimize, and secure our dental practice databases across a hybrid environment encompassing on-premises and virtual servers. Your primary focus will be on database administration, with a heavy emphasis on Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, and seamless infrastructure modernization through database clustering.

Key Responsibilities

• Database Administration: Design, install, configure, upgrade and maintain dental practice database software and servers in a hybrid cloud environment (on-premises and cloud-hosted servers).


• Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity (DR/BC): Design, implement, and routinely test comprehensive backup and restore strategies. Ensure all data architecture strictly aligns with defined Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO).


• Database Clustering: Design, test, implement, and maintain database cluster(s) to optimize performance and ensure high availability.


• Virtualization & Migration: Lead and execute Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) migrations to modernize legacy clinic servers and integrate them into our broader infrastructure.


• Performance Tuning & Capacity Planning: Monitor database performance and usage, implement changes, and troubleshoot bottlenecks to ensure uninterrupted access to critical dental practice management systems. Monitor hardware, database utilization, and third-party integrations to anticipate and adjust storage and resource requirements as needed.


• Security & Compliance: Ensure all database architectures comply with healthcare data security standards (HIPAA) through robust access controls and encryption.

Required Qualifications

• Core DBA Experience: Proven track record as a Database Administrator managing robust relational database systems, including database clusters.


• Technical Expertise: Strong, hands-on experience with SQL, MariaDB, and InnoDB storage engine.


• Hybrid Environments: Demonstrated ability to manage infrastructure bridging On-Premises networks and Microsoft Azure.


• Resilience Planning: Extensive experience handling database backups, restores, and establishing Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) protocols.


• SLA Management: A strong mathematical and operational understanding of RTO/RPO metrics and how to architect systems to meet them.


• Virtualization: Practical experience performing Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) server migrations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Industry Software: Hands-on experience with Open Dental practice management software is highly desired.


• Advanced Cloud Storage: Familiarity with Azure Blob Storage for managing scalable, cost-effective backup retention and archiving.


• Healthcare Experience: Previous experience working within HIPAA-regulated environments.

In return for providing an excellent employee and patient experience, we offer a great benefits package to include health and dental benefits, 401(k), holiday pay and paid time off.