We are seeking an experienced Senior SQL DBA – Technical Lead to lead Microsoft SQL Server database administration, production support, operational governance, and database service delivery for a mission-critical enterprise environment.

The ideal candidate will combine deep hands-on Microsoft SQL Server DBA expertise with strong technical leadership, troubleshooting, performance tuning, high availability, disaster recovery, and production support capabilities.

You will work closely with application, infrastructure, security, compliance, vendor, and customer stakeholder teams to ensure database platforms remain secure, highly available, performant, and aligned with operational and SLA requirements.

Key Responsibilities

- Lead end-to-end Microsoft SQL Server DBA operations and provide L2/L3 production support.
- Administer SQL Server environments including installation, configuration, patching, upgrades, migrations, cloning, and database refresh activities.
- Manage SQL Server 2016/2019/2022 or later environments.
- Configure and support Always On Availability Groups, Failover Cluster Instances, log shipping, replication, and database mirroring where applicable.
- Plan, validate, and support database backup and recovery operations, including full, differential, and transaction log backups.
- Perform restore testing, point-in-time recovery, and support disaster recovery exercises.
- Monitor database health, availability, performance, storage, SQL Agent jobs, alerts, wait statistics, blocking, deadlocks, and logs.
- Perform advanced SQL Server performance tuning using execution plans, index tuning, statistics maintenance, query optimization, wait analysis, and resource utilization analysis.
- Troubleshoot production issues including database availability problems, backup failures, transaction log growth, storage capacity issues, SQL Agent failures, connectivity issues, and authentication problems.




- Support database security, access management, SQL logins/users/roles, auditing, encryption awareness, vulnerability remediation, and compliance requirements.
- Work collaboratively with application, infrastructure, backup, Windows/Unix, security, vendor, and customer teams to resolve incidents and implement changes.
- Lead technical reviews, guide DBA team members, perform peer reviews, and support task allocation.
- Ensure adherence to operational standards, SOPs, service levels, and delivery timelines.
- Participate in incident, problem, service request, change, release, and knowledge management processes.
- Prepare and maintain runbooks, SOPs, implementation plans, deployment procedures, RCA documents, DR test evidence, release notes, and knowledge articles.

Required Qualifications & Technical Skills
- 10–15 years of IT experience, with strong hands-on experience as a Microsoft SQL Server DBA.
- Extensive experience in enterprise SQL Server database administration and production support.
- Strong hands-on experience with SQL Server 2016, 2019, 2022 or later.
- Strong knowledge of:
- SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
- SQL Server Agent
- T-SQL
- Always On Availability Groups
- Failover Cluster Instances
- Backup and Recovery
- High Availability and Disaster Recovery
- Experience with SQL Server installation, configuration, patching, upgrades, migrations, cloning, and database refreshes.
- Robust experience with SQL Server performance tuning, including:
- Execution plans
- Index tuning
- Statistics




- Query optimization
- Wait statistics
- Blocking and deadlock analysis
- Query Store
- Database resource management
- Experience supporting mission-critical databases in production environments.
- Experience with Windows Server administration relevant to DBA operations, including service management, event logs, filesystem checks, permissions, and storage.
- Hands-on experience with PowerShell scripting.
- Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.
- Proven ability to lead DBA resources and work effectively with technical and customer stakeholders.
- Strong communication skills with the ability to coordinate across application, infrastructure, security, vendor, and delivery teams.

Preferred Qualifications

- Experience with log shipping, replication, and database mirroring.
- Experience with SQL Server security, auditing, encryption, vulnerability remediation, and compliance controls.
- Experience with enterprise backup platforms such as CommVault.
- Exposure to Azure SQL, SQL Server on Azure VM, or Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server.
- Experience with ITIL-based service management processes.
- Familiarity with tools such as ServiceNow, Jira, or BMC Remedy.
- Experience in utility, regulated infrastructure, managed services, or other mission-critical environments.
- Exposure to NERC CIP-adjacent environments or cloud-readiness initiatives

What You Will Bring

- Strong ownership of enterprise SQL Server database operations.
- Ability to troubleshoot complex production issues independently.
- Strong understanding of database availability, resilience, performance, and recovery.
- Ability to provide technical direction to DBA team members.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
- A proactive approach to operational improvements, automation, documentation, and service reliability.

📌 Senior Sql Database Administrator (Vancouver)
🏢 N2P Systems
📍 Vancouver