REMOTE - Microsoft Database Administrator
Posted 1 week ago by People Force Consulting Inc
Negotiable
Undetermined
Remote
Remote
Summary: The role of Database Administrator involves overseeing the design, administration, performance, security, and reliability of enterprise database environments hosted on AWS. The position requires extensive experience, particularly with Microsoft SQL Server, and the ability to implement high availability and disaster recovery solutions. The candidate will also collaborate with development teams and lead initiatives for database standards and documentation. This is a remote position with a focus on candidates based in the US.
Key Responsibilities:
- Administer, monitor, and maintain Microsoft SQL Server instances deployed on AWS EC2 (Windows and Linux), ensuring high availability, disaster recovery readiness, and optimal performance at all times.
- Design and implement HA/DR solutions including SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups, log shipping, and AWS-native replication strategies appropriate to the environment.
- Lead capacity planning, storage configuration, and instance sizing decisions in coordination with the cloud infrastructure team.
- Perform advanced performance tuning including index management, execution plan analysis, wait statistics interpretation, and workload profiling.
- Assist in driving the evaluation, planning, and phased adoption of PostgreSQL and AWS Aurora, including migration planning from SQL Server where applicable.
- Develop, maintain, and enforce database standards, naming conventions, security policies, and change control procedures across all supported platforms for the team.
- Author and maintain internal runbooks, knowledge base articles, and technical documentation for use by DBA team members and adjacent technical staff.
- Act as a primary escalation point for complex database incidents and service degradations, including participation in after-hours critical support.
- Collaborate with development teams to review schema designs, stored procedures, indexing strategies, and ORM usage patterns prior to production deployment, with a focus on performance, observability, and known risk areas.
- Execute and oversee scheduled ad hoc maintenance activities including patching, backups, integrity checks, and statistics updates within the approved change management process as needed.
- Identify systemic risks and proactively recommend and implement remediation strategies before issues affect production workloads.
- Participate in or lead Root Cause Analysis (RCA) efforts following major incidents, producing written summaries with corrective action items.
Key Skills:
- 10+ years of production DBA experience with Microsoft SQL Server (2016 and above), including deep expertise in administration, performance tuning, and HA/DR architecture.
- Demonstrated experience administering SQL Server on Linux (RHEL, Ubuntu, or equivalent) in addition to Windows Server environments.
- Hands-on experience deploying and managing SQL Server workloads within AWS, including EC2-hosted instances, EBS storage configuration, and integration with AWS services such as CloudWatch, S3, and IAM.
- Working knowledge of PostgreSQL or AWS Aurora PostgreSQL, with the ability to ramp quickly into a lead role on these platforms.
- Proficiency in T-SQL at an advanced level, including dynamic SQL, window functions, query plan analysis, and performance-oriented refactoring.
- Experience with scripting and automation using PowerShell, Python, or Bash for DBA task automation, monitoring, and deployment pipelines.
- Familiarity with database DevOps practices, including source control, release management, and deployment automation.
- Strong working knowledge of database security principles including encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access control, auditing, and compliance requirements.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, with the ability to clearly convey technical concepts to both technical peers and non-technical stakeholders.
Salary (Rate): undetermined
City: undetermined
Country: undetermined
Working Arrangements: remote
IR35 Status: undetermined
Seniority Level: undetermined
Industry: IT
Detailed Description From Employer:
We are looking for expert-level Database Administrator responsible for the design, administration, performance, security, and reliability of enterprise database environments hosted on AWS.
Experience: - 10+ Years
Location: - Remote / CST work hours (CONSULTANTS SHOULD BE BASED IN US)
Educational Qualifications: -
- Engineering Degree BE/ME/BTech/MTech/BSc/MSc.
- Technical certification in multiple technologies is desirable.
Responsibilities: -
- Administer, monitor, and maintain Microsoft SQL Server instances deployed on AWS EC2 (Windows and Linux), ensuring high availability, disaster recovery readiness, and optimal performance at all times.
- Design and implement HA/DR solutions including SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups, log shipping, and AWS-native replication strategies appropriate to the environment.
- Lead capacity planning, storage configuration, and instance sizing decisions in coordination with the cloud infrastructure team.
- Perform advanced performance tuning including index management, execution plan analysis, wait statistics interpretation, and workload profiling.
- Assist in driving the evaluation, planning, and phased adoption of PostgreSQL and AWS Aurora, including migration planning from SQL Server where applicable.
- Develop, maintain, and enforce database standards, naming conventions, security policies, and change control procedures across all supported platforms for the team.
- Author and maintain internal runbooks, knowledge base articles, and technical documentation for use by DBA team members and adjacent technical staff.
- Act as a primary escalation point for complex database incidents and service degradations, including participation in after-hours critical support.
- Collaborate with development teams to review schema designs, stored procedures, indexing strategies, and ORM usage patterns prior to production deployment, with a focus on performance, observability, and known risk areas.
- Execute and oversee scheduled ad hoc maintenance activities including patching, backups, integrity checks, and statistics updates within the approved change management process as needed.
- Identify systemic risks and proactively recommend and implement remediation strategies before issues affect production workloads.
- Participate in or lead Root Cause Analysis (RCA) efforts following major incidents, producing written summaries with corrective action items.
Skills: -
Mandatory skills
- 10+ years of production DBA experience with Microsoft SQL Server (2016 and above), including deep expertise in administration, performance tuning, and HA/DR architecture.
- Demonstrated experience administering SQL Server on Linux (RHEL, Ubuntu, or equivalent) in addition to Windows Server environments.
- Hands-on experience deploying and managing SQL Server workloads within AWS, including EC2-hosted instances, EBS storage configuration, and integration with AWS services such as CloudWatch, S3, and IAM.
- Working knowledge of PostgreSQL or AWS Aurora PostgreSQL, with the ability to ramp quickly into a lead role on these platforms.
- Proficiency in T-SQL at an advanced level, including dynamic SQL, window functions, query plan analysis, and performance-oriented refactoring.
- Experience with scripting and automation using PowerShell, Python, or Bash for DBA task automation, monitoring, and deployment pipelines.
- Familiarity with database DevOps practices, including source control, release management, and deployment automation.
- Strong working knowledge of database security principles including encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access control, auditing, and compliance requirements.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, with the ability to clearly convey technical concepts to both technical peers and non-technical stakeholders.
Good to have skills
Certifications Recommended
Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate, or equivalent Microsoft SQL Server administration certification.
AWS Certified Database Specialty (DBS-C01).
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate or AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate.
Preferred Skills/Qualifications
- Experience working in a 24x7 operating model with participation in on-call support and critical incident response.
- Experience utilizing SQL Extended Events