Senior Azure SQL DBA – SQL Server, Performance Tuning & Cloud Database Administration

Astra-North Infoteck Inc. ~ Conquering today’s challenges, achieving tomorrow’s vision!; Montreal; On-site; CAD 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Astra-North Infoteck Inc. is seeking a Senior Azure SQL DBA to manage SQL Server environments across on-prem, Azure SQL Database, Managed Instance, and SQL Server on Azure VMs. You will diagnose performance bottlenecks, optimize queries, and implement robust HA/DR strategies.

Responsibilities include tuning, capacity planning, and automation using PowerShell and Azure CLI, with emphasis on secure, scalable cloud database administration. Montreal-based, full-time role.

Qualifications

• 8–14 years of database administration experience required.
• Strong L3 MSSQL and Azure DBA expertise.
• Hands-on experience with SQL Server on Azure and related services.

Responsibilities

• Administer and support SQL Server across on-premises, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and SQL Server on Azure VMs.
• Lead performance diagnostics and tuning using Query Store, execution plans, DMVs, Extended Events, wait statistics, and monitoring tools.
• Govern Azure SQL automatic tuning and Database Advisor recommendations with production safeguards.
• Design high availability and disaster recovery using Always On, failover groups, and backups.
• Plan migrations, upgrades, consolidation, modernization, and cloud adoption with minimal downtime.
• Own incidents, root-cause analysis, vendor escalations, and stakeholder communications.

Skills

MSSQL expertise

Azure DBA

Performance tuning

Query Store

Azure SQL Database

Azure SQL Managed Instance

Azure Virtual Machines

T-SQL

PowerShell

Monitoring & troubleshooting

Tools

Azure CLI

SQL Profiler

Extended Events

PerfMon

Job description

Senior Azure SQL DBA – SQL Server, Performance Tuning & Cloud Database Administration

Your Responsibilities

• Administer and support SQL Server across on-premises, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines.
  
• Lead performance diagnostics and tuning using Query Store, execution plans, Dynamic Management Views, Extended Events, wait statistics, PerfMon, SQL Profiler, and Azure monitoring.
  
• Optimize complex T-SQL, stored procedures, indexing, statistics, partitioning, memory, TempDB, parallelism, locking, blocking, deadlocks, CPU, storage I/O, and transaction logs.
  
• Detect query-plan regressions and workload bottlenecks, establish performance baselines and capacity forecasts, and validate measurable improvements.
  
• Govern Azure SQL automatic tuning and Database Advisor recommendations, including production safeguards and rollback readiness.
  
• Design and support high availability and disaster recovery using Always On availability groups, failover groups, clustering, replication, log shipping, backup, restore, and point-in-time recovery.
  
• Plan and execute database migrations, upgrades, patching, consolidation, modernization, and cloud adoption with minimal disruption.
  
• Manage Azure SQL service tiers, elastic pools, scaling, geo-replication, private connectivity, firewall rules, and cost-performance optimization.
  
• Implement least-privilege access, Microsoft Entra authentication, managed identities, encryption, auditing, vulnerability remediation, secrets management, and compliance controls.
  
• Automate provisioning, configuration, health checks, maintenance, backup validation, and reporting with PowerShell, T-SQL, Azure CLI, and infrastructure-as-code practices.
  
• Own P1/P2 incidents, outages, root-cause analysis, corrective actions, vendor escalations, and stakeholder communications.
  
• Maintain standards, runbooks, recovery procedures, dashboards, and knowledge articles; mentor L1/L2 teams and support change and release readiness.
  

Your Profile

• 8–14 years of relevant database administration experience, with strong L3 MSSQL and Azure DBA expertise.
  
• Advanced hands-on experience with Microsoft SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines.
  
• Deep knowledge of Query Store, performance monitoring, execution