Technical Lead - SQL DBA

Roles and Responsibilities:

The person will be responsible for leading Microsoft SQL Server database administration, production support, operational governance and database service delivery for the Database tower. The role requires strong hands-on SQL DBA expertise, technical leadership, troubleshooting capability, database availability management, performance tuning, backup and recovery governance, and coordination with application, infrastructure, security, compliance and vendor teams.

Key Accountabilities:

- Lead end-to-end SQL Server DBA operations, technical delivery and L2/L3 support for Microsoft SQL Server database management scope.
- Administer SQL Server environments including installation, configuration, upgrades, patching, migrations, cloning, database refresh, SQL Agent jobs, storage planning and capacity management.
- Manage high availability and disaster recovery technologies such as Always On Availability Groups, Failover Cluster Instances, log shipping, replication and database mirroring where applicable.
- Plan, validate and support backup and recovery operations including full, differential and transaction log backups, restore testing, point-in-time recovery and DR exercise support.
- Monitor database health, availability, performance, space, jobs, alerts, wait statistics, blocking, deadlocks and logs using SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Server Agent, DMVs or monitoring platforms.
- Analyze and tune SQL Server performance using execution plans, index tuning, statistics maintenance, query optimization, wait analysis, memory/CPU/I/O trend analysis and workload reviews.
- Support security, access management, SQL logins/users/roles, auditing, encryption awareness, vulnerability remediation and compliance controls for SQL Server databases.
- Troubleshoot production incidents such as database availability issues, backup failures, transaction log growth, storage/disk capacity issues, SQL Agent job failures, application connectivity issues and authentication problems.
- Coordinate with application teams, infrastructure teams, backup teams,



Windows/Unix teams, security teams, vendors and customer stakeholders for incident and change resolution.
- Lead technical reviews, guide DBA team members, perform peer reviews, support task allocation and ensure adherence to standards, SOPs and SLA commitments.
- Participate in incident, problem, service request, change, release and knowledge management processes using client-approved service management tools.
- Prepare and maintain runbooks, SOPs, architecture notes, implementation plans, deployment steps, DR test evidence, RCA documents, release notes and knowledge articles.

Experience required:

Good communication skills with ability to work with customer stakeholders, application owners, infrastructure teams, security teams, DBAs and delivery leadership.

- Minimum 10-15 years of IT experience with strong hands-on Microsoft SQL Server DBA experience in production support and enterprise database administration.
- Solid experience with SQL Server 2016/2019/2022 or later, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Server Agent, Always On Availability Groups, Failover Clustering and backup/recovery.
- Experience in SQL Server installation, configuration, patching, upgrades, migrations, database refresh, backup/recovery, performance tuning and operational monitoring.
- Experience in Windows Server environments including service management, event log review, filesystem checks, permissions, PowerShell scripting and deployment support.
- Experience supporting mission-critical databases with high availability, disaster recovery, monitoring and 24x7 production support practices.
- Experience with T-SQL troubleshooting, execution plans, index tuning, statistics, wait events, deadlocks, blocking,



query store and database resource management.
- Experience with database security, access controls, auditing, vulnerability remediation and compliance-driven operational controls is preferred.
- Experience with SQL Server backup tools and enterprise backup platforms such as CommVault is preferred.
- Experience in utility, regulated infrastructure, NERC CIP-adjacent systems, SaaS/cloud readiness or managed services environments is preferred.
- Ability to lead a technical DBA team, guide junior resources, review deliverables and deliver tasks as per agreed SLAs and timelines.

Technical Skills

- Microsoft SQL Server Database Administration: SQL Server 2016/2019/2022 or later, installation, configuration, upgrade, patching, migration, cloning and refresh.
- Always On Availability Groups, Failover Cluster Instances, log shipping, replication, database mirroring, high availability and disaster recovery support.
- SQL Server backup and recovery, transaction log management, restore/recovery testing, point-in-time recovery and DR exercise support.
- SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Server Agent, DMVs, Query Store, Extended Events, Profiler, performance counters and monitoring tools.
- T-SQL, stored procedures, functions, jobs, indexes, statistics, execution plan analysis, wait statistics, deadlock/blocking analysis and performance tuning.
- Windows Server administration for DBA support, PowerShell scripting, event log analysis, service account handling, storage checks and deployment support.
- Database security, auditing, access management, encryption awareness, vulnerability remediation and compliance support.
- Azure SQL, SQL Server on Azure VM, Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server, automation, or cloud readiness experience is preferred.
- Knowledge of ITIL processes, incident/problem/change/release management and service management tools such as ServiceNow/Jira/BMC Remedy.
- Managed services operations, SLA reporting, RCA documentation, runbooks, SOPs, audit evidence and knowledge management.

📌 SQL Database Administrator (Vancouver)
🏢 Epsilon Solutions
📍 Vancouver