I'm Kevin "KB" Benton — a database engineering leader with over 20 years of experience building and leading the teams and systems that keep mission-critical data infrastructure fast, available, and scalable. I have the heart of a teacher — I work with people to help them reach for and realize their goals. From mentoring engineers into senior roles to architecting resilient environments at enterprise scale, I bring technical depth, people development, and operational leadership to every organization I join.
I've built and led DBA teams from scratch, established best practices, and invested in growing every person on my team. I've mentored dozens of engineers into senior roles and promoted 7 of 15 team members at WebEx. Teaching is at the core of how I lead — I build people, not just systems.
Query optimization, index analysis, InnoDB tuning, and server configuration. I find the slow queries that are costing you money and fix them — then build the processes so teams can do it independently.
Master-Slave, Master-Master replication, MySQL Cluster (NDB), failover strategies, and disaster recovery planning that actually gets tested.
Six Sigma methodology, change management, and building the operational discipline that keeps pagers quiet and SLAs green. I measure what matters and automate what repeats.
Migrate database infrastructure to AWS with confidence. RDS, Aurora, EC2 — plus Ansible automation so deployments are repeatable and documented.
Twenty years of database experience is the foundation. AI makes it faster. I use AI daily for IaC, code review, documentation, and operational planning — a force multiplier for getting more done right.
Disaster recovery design, failover testing, backup validation, and business continuity planning. I build the systems and runbooks that keep you running when things go wrong.
Experienced with 24/7 on-call rotations, tiered escalation, and rapid incident response. Managed global NOC operations across 600+ servers on four continents.
I have the heart of a teacher. Over 20+ years I've gone from hands-on DBA work to leading teams of 14, managing 300+ database systems, and building the operational discipline that keeps pagers quiet and SLAs green. But what drives me most is helping people grow — working with engineers to help them reach for and realize their goals. I've done this at SaaS companies, at enterprise scale, and in global operations.
My approach is straightforward: understand the system, measure what matters, automate what repeats, and document everything. At WebEx, that approach took mean time to resolution from 490 minutes down to under 40. At Sears Holdings, it kept 300+ MySQL systems running across a decade of organizational change.
I'm based in Tennessee, work 100% remotely, and I'm at my best when I'm helping teams that are growing faster than their database infrastructure. Whether you need someone to build and lead your database engineering team, architect a resilient infrastructure, or bring operational maturity to a scaling organization — that's what I do.
I've also embraced AI as a practical tool — the same way I've adopted every useful technology over 20 years. I use AI daily for IaC, code review, documentation, and operational planning. Not as a substitute for knowing the work, but as a force multiplier for getting more of it done right.
I start by listening. Before touching anything, I need to understand your architecture, your pain points, and what "working" looks like for your team. No assumptions.
I establish baselines and identify the metrics that actually affect your business. Not vanity numbers — the ones that tell you whether things are getting better or worse.
If I'm doing the same thing twice, it should be a script. I build operational tooling that reduces toil and frees your team to focus on higher-value work.
When I join an organization, I build runbooks, architecture diagrams, and enough context that the team operates confidently. But documentation alone isn't enough — I invest time in teaching, mentoring, and making sure people understand the *why*, not just the *how*.
At Sears Holdings, I led a cross-functional team of 14 DBAs across US and India locations. At WebEx, I managed a 24/7 NOC team of 15 overseeing 600+ servers across four continents. I've built teams from scratch, established best practices, and promoted 7 team members into senior roles.
I start with the fundamentals: defining clear roles and responsibilities, establishing on-call rotation and escalation procedures, and creating the documentation and runbooks that let people work independently. Then I focus on hiring for problem-solving ability over specific tool knowledge — the right mindset scales better than narrow expertise.
Build people, build capability, not dependency. I have the heart of a teacher — I work with each person to understand where they want to go and help them get there. It's easier to train willing learners for success than to find it from scratch. That means real mentoring, not just assigning work. It also means establishing repeatable processes, automating toil, and documenting everything. When I move on, the team and its people should be stronger than when I arrived.
I work 100% remotely and am based in Tennessee. I've worked remotely for years and have the discipline and communication skills to be effective from day one. I'm comfortable with Slack, Zoom, email, or whatever communication tools your team uses.
My deepest expertise is in MySQL 5.x through 8.x, including MySQL Cluster (NDB) and all major replication topologies. I also have extensive experience with AWS database services (RDS, Aurora, EC2), Ansible automation, and building the monitoring and alerting infrastructure around database systems.
Yes. I have hands-on experience building AWS infrastructure with Ansible and managing MySQL in cloud environments including RDS, Aurora, and EC2. I can plan and lead the full migration, including building the team processes to support cloud operations going forward.
I hold an FAA Commercial Pilot License and was a Certified Flight Instructor. I became an instructor because teaching is in my DNA — it's the same instinct that drives me to mentor engineers and develop teams. Flying also teaches you to stay calm under pressure, follow checklists, and never skip the preflight — habits that transfer directly to managing production databases and leading teams through incidents.
The same way I've adopted every useful tool over 20+ years. I use AI daily across concurrent sessions for IaC, DBA tasks, code review, and documentation. I know how to direct it, verify its output, and push back when it gets things wrong. AI doesn't replace knowing the work — it lets someone who already knows the work get more of it done with less human error.
Whether you're building a database engineering team, scaling your infrastructure, or looking for experienced database leadership — I'd welcome the conversation.