Senior Database Administrator

Hirewell; Schaumburg (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Hirewell is seeking a Senior Database Administrator to join a high-availability financial trading platform. The role is hands-on, covering both database infrastructure and application-level administration.

The ideal candidate brings deep MS SQL Server expertise and strong performance-tuning skills to maintain reliability and drive best practices across teams. Responsibilities include backups, health monitoring, incident resolution, security controls, and disaster recovery planning.

Qualifications

• 5–10 years of hands-on production database administration experience.
• Deep expertise with Microsoft SQL Server architecture and internals.
• Experience with Always On Availability Groups and SQL Server clustering.
• Advanced T-SQL skills.
• Experience designing backup and disaster recovery strategies.
• Familiarity with ETL processes and data movement.
• Experience with Azure SQL or other cloud platforms is a plus.
• Bachelor's degree in CS/IT preferred; equivalent experience considered.
• Microsoft SQL certifications such as DP-300 are a plus.

Responsibilities

• Manage database backups and regularly perform/test restores to ensure recoverability.
• Monitor database health, events, deadlocks, blocking, and other performance issues.
• Investigate and resolve database-related incidents and production issues.
• Monitor SQL Server Agent jobs and troubleshoot failures.
• Optimize tables, indexes, queries, and overall database performance.
• Leverage SQL Server features such as partitioning to improve data management and system performance.
• Implement encryption-at-rest and other database security controls supporting compliance initiatives.
• Establish database change-management procedures for engineering teams.
• Develop and enforce database and stored procedure naming standards.
• Create and maintain runbooks for database incidents and operational procedures.
• Participate in production incident response and provide support during critical events.
• Partner with engineering and technology teams on database architecture, reliability, and future initiatives.
• Support future BI and data-related projects.

Skills

SQL Server

Always On AG

T-SQL

Performance tuning

Backups & DR

Cloud/Azure SQL

DB architecture

Security controls

Clustering

DP-300

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/IT

Job description

Industry: Financial Technology / Electronic Trading

About the Role

We are looking for a Senior Database Administrator to join a technology team supporting a high-availability financial trading platform. This is a hands-on position with responsibility across both database infrastructure and application-level database administration.

The ideal candidate will have deep experience with Microsoft SQL Server, strong troubleshooting and performance-tuning skills, and a solid understanding of high-availability and disaster recovery environments. This person will play an important role in maintaining database reliability, improving processes, supporting engineering teams, and helping establish best practices around database management.

What You'll Do

• Manage database backups and regularly perform/test restores to ensure recoverability
• Monitor database health, events, deadlocks, blocking, and other performance issues
• Investigate and resolve database-related incidents and production issues
• Monitor SQL Server Agent jobs and troubleshoot failures
• Optimize tables, indexes, queries, and overall database performance
• Leverage SQL Server features such as partitioning to improve data management and system performance
• Implement encryption-at-rest and other database security controls supporting compliance initiatives
• Establish database change-management procedures for engineering teams, including changes to tables, stored procedures, and other database objects
• Develop and enforce database and stored procedure naming standards
• Create and maintain runbooks for database incidents and operational procedures
• Participate in production incident response and provide support during critical or catastrophic events
• Partner with engineering and technology teams on database architecture, reliability, and future initiatives
• Support future business intelligence and data-related projects

What We're Looking For

• 5–10 years of hands-on production database administration experience
• Deep expertise with Microsoft SQL Server architecture and internals
• Strong experience with Always On Availability Groups and SQL Server clustering
• Advanced T-SQL skills
• Strong understanding of database performance tuning and troubleshooting, including:
• Execution plans
• Query Store
• Extended Events
• Dynamic Management Views (DMVs)
• Experience designing, implementing, and testing backup and disaster recovery strategies
• Familiarity with ETL processes and data movement
• Basic understanding of certificates, encryption, and database security
• Experience with Azure SQL or other cloud database platforms is a plus
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field preferred; equivalent experience will also be considered
• Microsoft SQL certifications such as DP-300 are a plus

What Makes You Successful

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Calm and effective when troubleshooting high-impact production issues
• Clear communicator who can work with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Highly detail-oriented with a strong sense of ownership
• Comfortable managing multiple priorities and initiatives at the same time
• Proactive mindset with a focus on reliability, security, and continuous improvement

Why This Opportunity

This is an opportunity to take ownership of database infrastructure supporting a high-availability financial trading environment, while also helping shape database standards, security practices, disaster recovery processes, and future data initiatives.