Senior SQL Database Administrator

Senior SQL Server DBA / Technical Lead

Location: Tempe, AZ – Onsite

Employment Type: Direct Hire / Full-Time

Salary: $100,000–$125,000

Internal Title: Database Manager

Position Overview

We are seeking a highly hands-on Senior SQL Server DBA / Technical Lead to take ownership of a production Microsoft SQL Server environment in Tempe.

While the internal title for this position is Database Manager, this is not a traditional management-heavy role. The organization is specifically looking for someone who is DBA-first and wants to remain deeply involved in the technical environment.

Approximately 75% of the position is hands-on database administration, including SQL Server production support, performance tuning, high availability, disaster recovery, backup/recovery, SSIS, SSRS, upgrades, migrations, security, monitoring, automation, and troubleshooting.

The position also provides technical leadership to a small team consisting of a Database Administrator and Report Writer / ETL Developer.

This is an excellent opportunity for a Senior SQL Server DBA, Lead DBA, Senior Database Administrator, or Senior Database Engineer who wants broader ownership while remaining hands-on.

Responsibilities

• Administer, maintain, monitor, and troubleshoot production Microsoft SQL Server environments.
• Support SQL Server production, development, staging, and test environments.
• Maintain SQL Server Always On Availability Groups, clustering, high availability, failover, and disaster recovery solutions.
• Manage and validate database backups, restores, recovery processes, retention, RTO/RPO, and DR testing.
• Troubleshoot SQL Server performance issues involving execution plans, indexes, statistics, wait stats, blocking, locking, deadlocks, CPU, memory, storage, and I/O.
• Perform advanced T-SQL troubleshooting and query performance tuning.
• Maintain SQL Server jobs, alerts, maintenance processes, SQL Server Agent, and Database Mail.
• Support SSIS packages, ETL processes, data integrations, scheduled jobs, and data loads.
• Support and troubleshoot SSRS / SQL Server Reporting Services reports and reporting infrastructure.
• Partner with developers and business users to troubleshoot database, query, reporting, and application performance issues.
• Perform SQL Server upgrades, migrations, patching, consolidation, and database refreshes.
• Support Always On, transactional replication, log shipping, clustering, and other HA/DR technologies as applicable.
• Administer SQL Server security including logins, roles, permissions, least privilege, authentication, encryption, auditing, and access controls.
• Support database security and compliance requirements within a regulated environment.
• Automate database administration activities using PowerShell, T-SQL, dbatools, or related scripting technologies.
• Maintain database monitoring and alerting using tools such as Datadog, Redgate, SentryOne, Idera, Grafana, or similar platforms.
• Participate in production incident response, root cause analysis, remediation, and on-call support.
• Maintain technical documentation, database standards, operational procedures, and runbooks.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to a small database/reporting team.
• Review database, reporting, and ETL work and help establish technical priorities and standards.
• Assist with database capacity planning, infrastructure planning, and SQL Server licensing/vendor coordination.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of hands-on Microsoft SQL Server database administration experience in production environments.
• Strong recent experience as a Senior SQL Server DBA, Lead DBA, Senior Database Administrator, Database Engineer, or similar hands-on database professional.
• Strong experience with SQL Server Always On Availability Groups / AlwaysOn, clustering, HA, and disaster recovery.
• Strong backup, restore, recovery, and DR testing experience.
• Advanced T-SQL and SQL Server performance tuning skills.
• Experience troubleshooting execution plans, indexes, statistics, locking/blocking, wait statistics, and database performance issues.
• Hands-on experience with SSIS / ETL.
• Working experience with SSRS / SQL Server Reporting Services.
• Experience with SQL Server upgrades, migrations, patching, and production maintenance.
• Experience with SQL Server Agent, database jobs, monitoring, alerts, and maintenance processes.
• Experience administering database security, permissions, access controls, and auditing.
• Working knowledge of Windows Server, virtualization, storage, and infrastructure concepts supporting SQL Server.
• Experience with PowerShell or database administration automation.
• Ability to participate in an on-call rotation and occasional after-hours production maintenance.
• Strong troubleshooting, documentation, and communication skills.