David Harper
Principal Database Administrator
Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolDavid Harper is a Principal Database Administrator with over two decades of experience designing, tuning and operating large-scale MySQL and PostgreSQL services on Linux, currently managing several hundred instances that underpin the Sanger Institute’s high-throughput scientific pipelines and public data services. He combines deep performance engineering—InnoDB tuning, OS and storage optimization, SQL profiling—with automation of backups, HA and disaster recovery to keep mission-critical systems running 24x7. A longtime developer as well as DBA, he codes in C, Java, Perl and Bash and has led database-backed application projects since the early 2000s. His background in applied mathematics and astronomy informs a rigorous, measurement-driven approach to problem solving and to creating reproducible, publication-quality data visualizations. He also teaches colleagues through tailored training and collaborates closely with software teams to eliminate client-side bottlenecks. Notably, he has maintained continuous production-grade MySQL work since 2001 and has a parallel career producing precision astronomical graphics for publishers.
22 years of coding experience
14 years of employment as a software developer
Postgraduate Diploma, Computing for Commerce and Industry, Postgraduate Diploma, Computing for Commerce and Industry at The Open UniversityPh.D., Applied Mathematics, Ph.D., Applied Mathematics at University of LiverpoolUniversity College London
French
Github Skills (27)
rad8
metadata8
data-management7
rule-engine7
threaded5
federation5
benchmark4
benchmarking4
migrate4
ora2pg3
database3
concurrency3
plsql3
oracle-database3
java3
Programming languages (5)
Github contributions (5)
DavidHarper/animation
Mar 2018 - Dec 2023
Contributions:17 pushes, 3 branches in 5 years 10 months
DavidHarper/astrojava
Aug 2003 - Dec 2022
Contributions:414 commits, 348 pushes, 20 branches in 19 years 7 months
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