Sql Admin

Role Overview

We're seeking an experienced SQL Database Administrator (DBA) to lead performance assessment, tuning, and configuration of our SQL database environments. The ideal candidate will proactively analyze workloads, optimize database performance, ensure robust configurations aligned with best practices, and guide remediation to improve reliability, scalability, and cost-efficiency. Experience across Microsoft SQL Server (on-premises and/or Azure SQL), with strong troubleshooting and automation capabilities, is a must.

Bonus: Experience in regulated industries (e.g., Health care and Life Science) and high-availability environments.

Key Responsibilities

Conduct end-to-end database health checks (instance, database, and OS/storage layers).

Analyze performance baselines and trends using DMVs, Query Store, XEvents, PerfMon, and execution plans.

Identify top offenders (blocking, deadlocks, parameter sniffing, missing/unused indexes, bad cardinality estimates).

Implement and refine maintenance jobs (index and statistics, DBCC CHECKDB, backups, integrity checks).

Validate storage and I/O performance (latency, throughput, file placement) and recommend improvements.

Plan and execute capacity sizing and forecasting for growth, performance, and cost optimization (including Azure SQL tiers/DTUs/vCores).

Configure, test, and maintain HA/DR (Always On Availability Groups, FCI, log shipping, replication as applicable) with defined RPO/RTO.

Ensure backup/restore strategy meets business SLAs; perform periodic restore drills.

Enforce security best practices (RBAC, least privilege, encryption at rest/in-transit, auditing, vulnerability assessments).

Implement or refine monitoring (SQL Server-native, Azure Monitor/Log Analytics, or third-party tools like SentryOne, SolarWinds, Redgate).

Define SLIs/SLOs and operational dashboards for performance, availability, and capacity.

Produce clear assessment reports with prioritized findings, root causes, and actionable remediation plans.

Automate routine operations using T-SQL, PowerShell, Azure CLI, or SQL Agent jobs.

Maintain runbooks, configuration standards, and architecture diagrams.

Partner with developers, infra, and application teams to shift-left performance and configuration reviews.

Required Qualifications & Skills

810+ years as a SQL Server DBA (or equivalent), with proven performance tuning and configuration expertise.

SQL Server engine internals, indexing, statistics, cardinality estimation, memory & CPU usage.

Instance & DB configuration (MAXDOP, CTFP, TempDB, memory grants, parallelism).

HA/DR concepts and implementations (AGs, FCI, backups/restore strategies).

Storage & I/O fundamentals (latency KPIs, file layout, SAN/NVMe considerations).

Experience with Azure SQL (PaaS/IaaS) or other cloud-hosted SQL platforms (nice-to-have but preferred).

Excellent documentation & stakeholder communicationable to translate findings into clear business impacts.

Education & Certifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field (or equivalent experience).

Certifications (optional but valued): Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate, DP-300, MCSA/MCSE (legacy