About the job
Senior Database Administrator Team
Corporate
Location
Carmel Contract
Full time The role
POSITION PURPOSE
This is a mixed operational and strategic role that has evolved beyond the traditional core DBA Key Responsibilities. In addition to owning core DBA Key Responsibilities, the Senior DBA will help drive modernization initiatives that improve reliability, security, performance, and governance across the enterprise data platform. You will be the senior technical authority on Microsoft SQL Server -• designing for scale, hardening for production, and partnering across IT to keep mission-critical systems stable and performant. This is primarily a SQL Server role. Exposure to adjacent platforms (Azure Synapse, Microsoft Fabric, PostgreSQL, DynamoDB) is part of the broader modernization mission and is described below -• deep, hands-on expertise in those platforms is preferred, not required, on day one. Works closely with data engineering, BI development, application teams, and IT infrastructure.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Core DBA Duties
Database installation & configuration
Deploy and configure SQL Server instances across clustered, standalone, and Azure environments.
Performance monitoring & tuning
Monitor SQL Server health, analyze query execution plans, optimize indexes, and troubleshoot performance bottlenecks across OLTP and analytical workloads.
T-SQL development & optimization
Write, review, and optimize complex queries, stored procedures, and scripts for performance and scalability.
Backup & recovery management
Design and maintain backup strategies (full, differential, transaction log), perform regular restore tests, and ensure compliance with RPO/RTO targets.
High availability & disaster recovery
Implement and maintain HA/DR solutions including Always On Availability Groups, replication, and failover clustering.
Security & compliance
Enforce database security standards, manage roles and permissions, implement encryption (TDE, Always Encrypted), and maintain audit readiness.
Job scheduling & automation
Manage SQL Agent jobs, resolve scheduling conflicts, and develop automation using PowerShell and T-SQL.
Capacity, patch & upgrade management
Monitor disk and compute utilization, forecast growth, apply cumulative updates and service packs, coordinate version upgrades, and validate changes in lower environments.
Documentation & standards
Maintain runbooks, configuration documentation, and operational standards.
On-call support
Provide 24/7 coverage for critical production systems, responding promptly to alerts and incidents.
Strategic Modernization Leadership
Cloud and platform modernization
Lead consolidation of legacy SQL Server instances, evaluate workloads for cloud migration (Azure SQL, Managed Instance, Synapse), and optimize licensing posture.
Synapse and Fabric administration
Maintain Azure Synapse IAM, implement row-level security in Microsoft Fabric workspaces, and tune MPP workloads (distribution, partitioning, statistics, workload management).
Alerting and DR standardization
Standardize alerting and paging coverage across critical pipelines, own the enterprise backup strategy, and validate DR plans through scheduled exercises.
Governance partnership
Partner with the data governance team on Microsoft Purview cataloging, lineage, sensitivity labeling, and data dictionary initiatives.
Standards and automation
Drive connection naming standards, infrastructure-as-code adoption for database deployments, and CI/CD pipelines for schema changes.
Knowledge transfer and mentorship
Author DBA runbooks, enforce best practices, and lead structured knowledge-sharing sessions with data engineers and BI developers.
REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES
The Requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability necessary to perform this job.
EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE
Education
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field preferred; equivalent hands-on experience will be considered in lieu of a degree.
Experience
8 years of experience as a SQL Server DBA in enterprise environments.
T-SQL
Expert-level T-SQL skills for query development, optimization, and troubleshooting.
Monitoring
Experience with monitoring tools and dashboards for observing database health, query performance, and resource utilization.
Upgrades & migrations
Proven ability to upgrade and migrate legacy SQL Server versions (2012/2016) to currently supported releases.
HA/DR and security
Hands-on expertise in HA/DR, performance tuning, and security hardening.
Lifecycle management
Strong knowledge of patching, upgrades, and lifecycle management.
Azure
Working knowledge of Azure SQL and Azure Synapse Analytics.
Incident tooling
Experience with incident and alerting platforms (PagerDuty, Opsgenie, or similar).
Leadership
Proven ability to lead cross-functional projects and communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
PREFERRED EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE
Multi-engine exposure
Hands-on experience with Amazon DynamoDB (data modeling, capacity/throughput management, application integration) and/or PostgreSQL or other relational/NoSQL platforms in production. Valuable for the platform's future direction, not required on day one.
Automation and DevOps
Experience with infrastructure-as-code and configuration management using Ansible and Terraform (PowerShell, SSIS, dbatools, CI/CD for databases).
Synapse MPP
Experience including distribution strategy, partitioning, and workload management.
Microsoft Fabric
Administration and row-level security implementation.
Monitoring platforms
Datadog alerting and dashboarding familiarity.
Governance
Microsoft Purview or comparable data governance experience.
Compliance
Knowledge of compliance frameworks and audit-readiness practices.
LANGUAGE SKILLS
Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, and governmental regulations. Ability to write clear reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals. Strong written and verbal communicator, able to explain technical database decisions -• performance tradeoffs, risk, cost -• in terms that resonate with both engineers and business leadership, and to present confidently to groups of managers, clients, and stakeholders.
REASONING/PROBLEM SOLVING ABILITY
Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists. Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.
DECISION MAKING
Exercises independent judgment on database architecture, performance tuning, and DR strategy. Has authority to approve emergency changes and failover decisions during incidents; budget-impacting decisions (e.g., licensing, hardware) are made in partnership with IT leadership.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an associate to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.
Mobility
Able to move about the work environment.
Presence
Frequently required to stand, walk, sit, talk and hear.
Vision
Able to focus with clear vision at 20 inches or less (computer screen).
WORK ENVIRONMENT
The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an associate encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.
Typically not exposed to extreme environmental conditions.
TRAVEL Requirements Travel up to 5% of the time, primarily for offsite visits.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER, DISABILITY, AND VETERAN ACCOMMODATIONS
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.
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