Benefits: - Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Competitive salary
AET Federal is seeking a Senior SQL DBA to join a four-person team supporting a federal agency's server-based applications, which run on SQL Server and Oracle databases across every business unit. The team has a Senior and a Mid-Level DBA for SQL Server and the same pair for Oracle.
The Senior SQL DBA serves as the SQL Server Team Lead and is responsible for the administration, performance, availability, maintenance, and recovery of the agency's SQL Server environments. This role leads SQL Server and SQL Cluster operations, failover and disaster recovery activities, performance tuning, patching, and critical incident response. The Senior SQL DBA also provides technical guidance and backup support to the Mid-Level SQL DBA.
Key Responsibilities
Operations, monitoring and incident response- Lead daily administration and health monitoring of SQL Server instances and SQL Clusters, including backups, failed jobs, cluster and availability group status, errors, and capacity
- Troubleshoot complex SQL Server, SQL Cluster, and application-related database issues
- Lead response to critical database incidents, perform root-cause analysis, restore services, and implement corrective actions
- Manage and oversee ServiceNow incidents, requests, and change activities through resolution
- Use Idera and SolarWinds for proactive performance monitoring, troubleshooting, capacity planning, and alert management
Maintenance and change management- Plan and execute Requests for Change (RFCs), including implementation, validation, testing, and backout procedures
- Lead SQL Server cumulative update, security update, and patching activities during scheduled maintenance windows
- Perform and oversee routine database maintenance, including index and statistics maintenance, DBCC CHECKDB, storage management, and database integrity checks
- Plan and execute SQL Server upgrades and other major database maintenance activities
- Ensure database changes follow established change-management procedures and operational requirements
Database and application support- Design, configure, administer, and troubleshoot standalone and clustered SQL Server databases
- Troubleshoot SQL Server and application integrations, including MS Access, SharePoint, ODBC connections, linked servers, and connection strings
- Review and tune T-SQL queries, stored procedures, execution plans, indexes, and database configurations
- Provide technical guidance for database configuration, performance, security, and application support
- Provide support and technical guidance for PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB environments as needed
High availability and disaster recovery- Design, administer, and maintain SQL Server high-availability environments, including Windows Server Failover Clustering and Always in availability groups
- Lead and execute planned and unplanned failovers and disaster recovery activities
- Develop, maintain, and test database backup and recovery procedures
- Perform database restores and point-in-time recovery testing to validate recoverability
- Lead disaster recovery exercises and maintain DR runbooks and recovery procedures
- Identify and resolve high-availability and recovery risks before they affect production operations
Leadership, reporting and collaboration- Serve as the technical lead for SQL Server database operations
- Provide technical guidance and support to the Mid-Level SQL DBA and cover operational responsibilities when needed
- Coordinate with application teams, system administrators, infrastructure teams, and other technical stakeholders
- Lead troubleshooting and technical coordination during critical incidents
- Contribute to the weekly support activity report delivered to the customer's COR
- Maintain database documentation, procedures, recovery plans, and technical standards
- Stay available on Microsoft Teams during core hours
Required Qualifications
- 8+ years of hands-on database administration experience, with SQL Server as the primary platform
- Extensive experience with SQL Server and SQL Clustering, including Windows Server Failover Clustering and/or Always On availability groups
- Demonstrated hands-on experience executing failovers, disaster recovery activities, database restores, and recovery testing
- Strong experience with SQL Server backup and recovery, including point-in-time recovery
- Advanced SQL scripting and T-SQL skills
- Strong SQL Server performance tuning and troubleshooting experience
- Experience using performance and capacity monitoring tools such as Idera and SolarWinds
- Demonstrated experience with database patching, upgrades, maintenance, and scheduled after-hours changes
- Experience leading response to critical production database incidents and performing root-cause analysis
- Experience working with ServiceNow or a comparable ITSM tool for incidents, service requests, and change management
- Working knowledge of PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, and other database platforms
- Experience troubleshooting MS Access databases and database/application integrations
- Proven ability to administer and maintain highly available, mission-critical database environments
- Strong communication, documentation, leadership, and collaboration skills
- Ability to work independently while providing technical leadership to other database administrators
- Willing and able to pass a federal background investigation
- Able to work 8 hours per day within 7:30 AM-6:00 PM ET, with occasional scheduled after-hours maintenance
- Willing to sign a letter of commitment for this proposal
This is a remote position.
Compensation: $125,000.00 - $155,000.00 per year
