Senior Database Reliability Engineer

Perch Group; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 54,000 - 66,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus up to 20%

Pension contributions

EAP programme

Perch Perks (discounts and more!)

Perch Day!

Formal qualifications support

Job summary

Perch Group is seeking a Senior Database Reliability Engineer to strengthen the reliability, performance, security, and operations of our enterprise data estate. The role blends deep SQL Server DBA work with modern reliability engineering practices.

You will ensure resilience, scalability, and secure data services while collaborating with Data Engineers and Infra teams in a hybrid office pattern (Blackpool or Manchester).

Qualifications

• Extensive SQL Server DBA experience including HA/DR.
• 5+ years advanced T-SQL development and performance tuning.
• 3+ years Azure DB management and monitoring.
• Experience with Always On Availability Groups.
• PowerShell scripting and automation.
• Experience with Azure DevOps and CI/CD.
• Familiar with IaC and cloud platform engineering.
• Experience in regulated industries such as finance/debt/insurance.
• Willingness to participate in automation for reliability.

Responsibilities

• Manage and maintain SQL Server environments for high availability and reliability.
• Implement proactive monitoring, alerting, and health checks.
• Lead root-cause analysis and resolve database incidents.
• Drive continuous improvements for stability and operational efficiency.
• Support Azure-based DB services and cloud migration initiatives.

Skills

T-SQL development

SQL Server DBA

Azure database management

Always On Availability Groups

Azure monitoring

PowerShell scripting

Azure DevOps & CI/CD

Data warehousing & analytics

Regulated industries experience

Infrastructure-as-Code basics

Job description

Perch are recruiting for a Senior Database Reliability Engineer.

• £60,000 + up to 20% of your annual salary, paid as a bonus.
• Located at our Blackpool or Manchester office.
• 37.5 hours per week between 8am and 6pm Monday - Friday with a hybrid working pattern (3-4 days in office dependent on location).

Who are we?

At Perch Group, our vision is clear: to lead the UK debt purchase and collection industry by harnessing cutting-edge technology to drive ethical, efficient, and data-driven debt resolution.

Our annual mission is to empower hundreds of thousands of customers to positively engage with and resolve their outstanding debts. We do this through an empathetic and customer-centric approach that is at the heart of our success.

Could this be the next step in your career?

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Database Reliability Engineer (DBRE) to help drive the reliability, performance, security, and operational excellence of our enterprise data estate.

This role combines deep SQL Server DBA expertise with modern reliability engineering practices. You will be responsible for ensuring our database platforms remain resilient, scalable, performant, and secure while supporting critical business systems and data services.

What we need you to do

Database Reliability & Operations

• Manage and maintain SQL Server environments, ensuring high availability, performance, and reliability.
• Implement proactive monitoring, alerting, and health checks across database platforms.
• Lead root-cause analysis and resolution of database incidents and performance issues.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on platform stability, resilience, and operational efficiency.
• Establish and maintain database reliability standards, operational runbooks, and support procedures.

SQL Server Administration

• Administer SQL Server environments including installation, configuration, patching, upgrades, and maintenance.
• Manage backup, recovery, high-availability, and disaster recovery solutions.
• Monitor and optimise database performance, storage, indexing strategies, and resource utilisation.
• Manage security, permissions, encryption, and compliance requirements.
• Support capacity planning and future platform growth.
• Administer and optimise Azure-based database services.
• Monitor Azure SQL environments, performance metrics, costs, and utilisation.
• Support cloud migration, modernisation, and optimisation initiatives.
• Implement best practices for security, resilience, monitoring, and operational support across Azure database services.
• Develop automation solutions using T-SQL, scripting, and tooling to reduce operational overhead.
• Improve deployment, monitoring, patching, and maintenance processes through automation.
• Collaborate with Data Engineers, Architects, and Infrastructure teams to improve platform reliability.
• Support DevOps and Infrastructure-as-Code initiatives where appropriate.

What you'll bring

• 5+ years advanced T-SQL development experience, including performance tuning, query optimisation, indexing strategies, stored procedure development, troubleshooting complex database workloads, dynamic SQL patterns.
• 5+ years SQL Server DBA administration experience, including installation and configuration, backup and recovery, high Availability / disaster recovery, performance monitoring and tuning, security and permissions management, capacity planning and maintenance.
• 3+ years Azure database management experience, including one or more of Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure VM-hosted SQL Server, Azure monitoring and performance management.
• Experience with Always On Availability Groups.
• Exposure to Azure monitoring and observability tooling.
• PowerShell scripting and automation.
• Experience with Azure DevOps and CI/CD practices.
• Understanding of data warehousing platforms and large-scale analytical workloads.
• Experience working in regulated industries such as financial services, debt recovery, insurance, or utilities.
• Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code and cloud platform engineering principles.
• Up to 20% of your annual salary paid as a bonus at the end of the financial year
• Pension contributions
• EAP programme
• Perch Perks (discounts and more!)
• Perch Day! (An annual day out for all employees to celebrate our colleagues and successes – check out our Careers page for more!)
• The opportunity to complete formal qualifications supported by the organisation

The Application Timeline

• A first stage video call with the internal recruitment team (15 minutes)
• A SQL technical test over Zoom (1 hour)
• A face-to-face interview with the hiring manager (1 hour)

Typically, the average successful applicant will be within this timeline for 2-3 weeks. Please note we will close this role once we have enough applications for the next stages therefore you should submit your application asap to avoid any disappointment.

If you do not receive a response after 3 weeks of applying, please assume you have been unsuccessful as we may experience a high volume of applications.

We’re an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to age, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family or parental status, national origin, or veteran, neurodiversity or disability status.

If you have any questions or suggestions of how we can assist you in your application due to disability or personal reasons, please email [e-mail].

PLEASE NOTE - All new employees must undergo a full DBS and Credit Check upon acceptance of a job offer with Perch Group.