Sr. SQL Server DBA Engineer

GSS Group; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 1,200,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Job summary

GSS Group is seeking a Senior SQL Server DBA Engineer with deep expertise in Microsoft SQL Server Administration, HA/DR, automation, and DevOps practices to design, administer, and optimize enterprise SQL Server environments.

The role emphasizes delivering highly available database platforms, performance tuning, security, and collaboration with infrastructure, cloud, and application teams in large-scale deployments.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience administering Microsoft SQL Server environments.
• Proven expertise in SQL Server 2019+ and related architectures.
• Strong understanding of HA/DR designs, automation, and security practices.

Responsibilities

• Administer, monitor, and maintain enterprise SQL Server environments.
• Design, implement, and support highly available and disaster recovery solutions.
• Automate SQL Server administration tasks including provisioning, patching, upgrades, deployments, backups, and health checks.
• Perform SQL Server installation, configuration, patching, upgrades, and migrations across enterprise environments.
• Configure and manage HA/DR architectures and SQL Server Clusters.

Skills

Strong analytical skills

Troubleshooting

Agile delivery

Stakeholder management

Ownership mindset

Tools

SQL Server

PowerShell

T-SQL

SQL Server Profiler

Query Store

Job description

We are looking for a highly experiencedSenior SQL Server DBA Engineerwith strong expertise in Microsoft SQL Server Administration, Database DevOps, High Availability (HA), Disaster Recovery (DR), and database automation. The ideal candidate will be responsible for designing, administering, optimizing, securing, and automating enterprise-scale SQL Server environments while ensuring high availability, reliability, performance, and operational excellence across mission-critical platforms.

The role requires strong hands-on experience with SQL Server administration, database infrastructure, automation, cloud platforms, and modern DevOps practices in large enterprise environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Administer, monitor, and maintain enterprise Microsoft SQL Server environments.
• Design, implement, and support highly available and disaster recovery database solutions.
• Automate SQL Server administration tasks including provisioning, patching, upgrades, deployments, backups, and health checks.
• Perform SQL Server installation, configuration, patching, upgrades, and migrations across enterprise environments.
• Design, implement, and manage High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) architectures.
• Configure and administer SQL Server Always On Availability Groups (AG), Distributed Availability Groups (DAG), SQL Clustering, Replication, Mirroring, and Windows Failover Clusters.
• Perform database performance tuning, query optimization, and troubleshooting for mission-critical applications.
• Analyze execution plans and optimize SQL queries using Query Store, SQL Profiler, and other SQL Server performance tools.
• Manage database backup, restore, recovery strategies, and disaster recovery testing.
• Implement SQL Server security best practices including Auditing, TLS encryption, authentication, authorization, and compliance controls.
• Plan and execute database migration and upgrade activities with minimal downtime.
• Collaborate with infrastructure, application, cloud, and DevOps teams to deliver highly available database platforms.
• Support Agile delivery teams and participate in release planning, deployment activities, and production support.
• Maintain database documentation, operational procedures, and platform standards.
• Troubleshoot complex production incidents and proactively improve database reliability and operational efficiency.

Required Technical Skills

Microsoft SQL Server Administration

• Strong hands-on experience administering Microsoft SQL Server environments.
• Deep expertise in SQL Server 2019 and higher versions.
• Strong understanding of SQL Server architecture, installation, configuration, and maintenance.

High Availability & Disaster Recovery

• SQL Server Always On Availability Groups (AG)
• Distributed Availability Groups (DAG)
• SQL Server Replication
• Database Mirroring
• SQL Server Clustering
• Windows Failover Clustering
• High Availability (HA)
• Disaster Recovery (DR)

SQL Server Automation

• Database provisioning automation
• SQL Server patching automation
• SQL Server upgrade automation
• Operational automation
• Database deployment automation

Performance & Optimization

• SQL Server Performance Tuning
• Query Optimization
• Query Store
• SQL Profiler
• Execution Plan Analysis
• Index Optimization
• Resource Optimization

Database Administration

• Backup & Restore
• Recovery Models
• Database Migration
• SQL Server Upgrades
• In-place Upgrades
• Rolling Upgrades
• SQL Server Security
• Auditing
• TLS Configuration

Programming & Scripting

• SQL
• T‑SQL
• PowerShell

DevOps & Automation

Hands‑on experience with:

• Ansible
• Jenkins
• Terraform
• ArgoCD

Cloud Platforms

Experience administering SQL Server on one or more cloud platforms:

• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)
• Microsoft Azure
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Operating Systems & Infrastructure

• Windows Server
• Linux
• Unix
• VMware
• Hyper‑V

Nice to Have

• Bash scripting
• Python scripting
• Experience with other relational or NoSQL databases
• Exposure to enterprise database platform modernization initiatives

Required Competencies

• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills.
• Excellent problem‑solving capability.
• Strong understanding of enterprise database architecture and infrastructure.
• Ability to automate repetitive database administration tasks.
• Experience working in Agile delivery environments.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong ownership mindset with focus on reliability, security, and operational excellence.
• Ability to work in production‑critical environments with high availability requirements.
• Experience collaborating with infrastructure, cloud, DevOps, and application engineering teams.

Preferred Experience

• Experience supporting large-scale enterprise SQL Server environments.
• Experience with mission‑critical banking or financial services platforms.
• Experience managing high‑volume transactional databases.
• Strong understanding of Database DevOps, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and CI/CD practices.
• Experience delivering highly available, secure, and scalable database platforms in enterprise environments.