Job description
About the Role
We are looking for a Senior Database Engineer / DBA to own a large, multi-terabyte Microsoft SQL Server estate running in a highly available, clustered configuration. This is production database work for a live, customer-facing SaaS platform — not an analytics or reporting role.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead maintenance of the production SQL Server environment in an Always On availability group configuration, including failover handling, sync delay troubleshooting, and read replica load management.
- Provide on-call coverage for SQL alerts and lead incident response and root cause analysis for query plan regressions, TempDB contention, and deadlocks or blocking.
- Maintain database security: TDE, auditing, certificate and key rotation, and monitoring for anomalous access patterns.
- Run quarterly cumulative update patching across environments, index and statistics maintenance, and partitioning and archiving on multi-terabyte databases without blocking production.
- Own capacity planning for storage, CPU, and memory, and manage the recurring cycle of environment refreshes (staging, dev, QA).
- Review developers' T-SQL and schema changes before deployment, and advise on table and index design.
- Support customer instance migrations between regions, including database preparation for those moves.
- Handle confidential or legally sensitive data requests when they arise, following established process.
- Design and test disaster recovery for the database environment.
- Be available for on-call, weekend maintenance, and other off-hours work as production requires.
Must-Have Requirements
- 7+ years of hands-on Microsoft SQL Server DBA experience in a 24x7 production environment — not SQL development alone.
- 3+ years of direct experience with Always On availability groups, including failover handling and sync delay troubleshooting.
- Experience managing multi-terabyte production databases, including partitioning, archiving, and index and statistics maintenance without blocking production.
- Experience leading incident response and root cause analysis for production database issues.
- Experience with database security practices: TDE, auditing, certificate and key rotation.
- English fluency sufficient for real-time incident communication, with meaningful business-hours overlap with Pacific time.
Nice to Have
- Experience supporting a SaaS CRM or similarly high-transaction-volume application.
- Exposure to Snowflake, Redshift, or AWS Aurora alongside transactional SQL Server work.
- Experience with customer instance migrations or similar large-scale data movement projects.
- Experience in a SOC 2, HIPAA, or PCI regulated environment.
- Comfort handling legally sensitive or confidential data requests as part of a defined process.
What We're Looking For Beyond Skills
- Treats a multi-terabyte production database the way a surgeon treats an operating table — careful, deliberate, and able to stay calm when something is actively on fire.
- High ownership and a methodical approach to root cause analysis and preventing repeat incidents.
- Clear, composed communication during live incidents and with developers and stakeholders.
- Strong discipline around change control, documentation, and data confidentiality.
*If you take pride in keeping a large production database fast, secure, and available — even at* *2am — we'd love to hear from you.*