MS-SQL DBA Expert - Optimization & Tuning

NorthBay Solutions; Karachi Division; Hybrid; PKR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading tech firm in Pakistan seeks a hands-on Microsoft SQL Server expert with over 8 years of experience. The role focuses on optimizing performance and availability in clustered SQL Server environments hosted on AWS. Ideal candidates should possess deep SQL Server internals knowledge and have experience with HA/DR solutions. Competitive salary and benefits are offered.

Benefits

Competitive salary and benefits

Fuel expense reimbursement

Paid holidays and vacations

Medical outpatient reimbursement

Career path in a productive environment

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience with 5 years focused on SQL Server DBA/Engineer roles.
• Expertise in DB performance, HA/DR environments, and SQL Server internals.
• Hands-on experience in AWS, specifically with EC2 and database operations.

Responsibilities

• Optimize database configurations and indexing strategies.
• Resolve performance bottlenecks across various system resources.
• Monitor database health and stability with effective tooling.

Skills

SQL & T-SQL optimizations

Troubleshooting performance bottlenecks

Designing and troubleshooting Windows Failover Clustering

Experience with AWS

Strong communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

SQL Server Management Studio

AWS Management Console

PowerShell

Job description

Location: Lahore/Islamabad/Karachi

Experience: 8+ years

NorthBay is looking for a hands‑on Microsoft SQL Server expert who can own the performance, stability, and availability of multiple clustered SQL Server environments running on AWS Windows‑based EC2. The role is focused on assessment/discovery, deep‑Dive/troubleshooting & performance optimization against high‑volume production systems. You will be the go‑to expert for identifying bottlenecks, tuning SQL & T‑SQL (including SPs/Functions), stabilizing cluster/DR failovers, and designing/improving observability including proactive monitoring and alerting.

Requirements

• Overall 8+ years of experience with at least 5 years of Core SQL Server hands‑on experience as a SQL Server DBA/Engineer, with a strong focus on performance and HA/DR in mission‑critical environments


• Deep understanding of SQL Server internals (storage engine, query optimizer, plan cache, buffer pool, TempDB behavior etc.).


• Expert‑level experience in diagnosing wait stats, DMVs, extended events, profiler/tracing, execution plan analysis, query rewrites, indexing strategy design


• Troubleshooting CPU spikes, I/O bottlenecks, memory pressure, TempDB contention, log bottlenecks (e.g. WRITELOG waits) etc.


• Expert in SQL & T‑SQL optimizations including SPs, triggers, views, functions etc. along with in depth understanding of locking, blocking, deadlocks, and transaction‑related performance issues


• Ability to identify & analyze resource‑heavy queries/processes and systematically optimize them (indexing, hints, plan guides, code refactoring, re‑architecture where needed)


• Hands‑on expertise in designing, deploying, and troubleshooting Windows Failover Clustering (WSFC), Always On Availability Groups (AGs), Failover Cluster Instances (FCI), log shipping, mirroring & replication


• Experience with AWS Cloud, EC2, instance families/sizes, EBS volumes, IOPS, throughput, networking, and Multi‑AZ designs in relation to MSSQL Server performance, HA/DR & monitoring & observability


• Strong experience with database monitoring tools and enterprise level monitoring/observability expectations, including SQL Server dashboards (performance, waits, blocking, deadlocks, availability), focus on implementing actionable alerting to reduce the noise


• Experience with T‑SQL, PowerShell & SQL Server Agent etc.


• Having experience with Reporting Services (SSRS) performance and optimization will be preferred


• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex database issues to non‑DBA stakeholders and mentor developers on SQL best practices.

Responsibilities

• Optimize database architecture, configuration, indexing strategy, statistics, TempDB, log & data file layout in line with SQL Server best practices


• Review MS SQL Server configurations, analyze and resolve performance bottlenecks across CPU, memory, I/O, and network


• Conduct wait stats, DMVs, execution plans, and XEvents analysis to identify root causes


• Review and refine MAXDOP, cost threshold for parallelism, memory settings, TempDB configuration, and disk layout to improve performance and stability


• Review, tune, and refactor complex SQL and T‑SQL stored procedures, views, and functions


• Identify and resolve locking, blocking, deadlocks, transactional contentions, and long‑running queries by optimizing indexing and/or query tuning and rewrites


• Assess and document existing HA/DR implementations across clusters, troubleshoot and stabilize cluster switchovers/failovers, including issues seen during planned and unplanned events


• Define and implement HA/DR designs to meet RPO/RTO targets & develop/test failover/runbooks


• Improve proactive & reactive monitoring/observability by recommending/implementing comprehensive monitoring & alerting across SQL Server health and performance, HADR/Cluster state, sync latency etc.


• Recommend and implement best‑fit monitoring tools (e.g. advanced Datadog usage, plus tools such as SQL Sentry, Redgate SQL Monitor, SolarWinds DPA, native SQL tools, etc.).


• Incident response & root cause analysis as lead on critical incident investigations for production performance and availability issues


• Recommendations based on architecture, design best practices by reviewing existing SQL Server architecture, and configurations and bring them in line with current best practices


• Advise on capacity planning, scaling strategies, backup/restore strategy, indexing & maintenance plans


• Automate repetitive tasks e.g., index maintenance, stats updates, log cleanups, data archiving


• Contribute to documentation, standards, and knowledge sharing for DB usage across teams

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and benefits


• Fuel expense reimbursement


• Paid holidays and vacations


• Medical outpatient reimbursement & health insurance facility


• Career path to make a difference in a highly productive environment