Senior Database Engineer

Datavail; Boulder (CO); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Full medical benefits

Job summary

Datavail is seeking a Senior Database Engineer/SQL Server DBA to support mission-critical databases across multiple clients. This role emphasizes automated, cloud-enabled best practices, proactive tuning, and strong client relationships. Travel up to 20% domestically is required for on-site client visits.

Full-time with comprehensive medical benefits. The candidate will act as Primary DBA for multiple clients, champion performance baselining, and guide cloud strategy across Azure and AWS

Qualifications

• Senior SQL Server DBA with deep production experience.
• Ability to optimize T-SQL, rewrite procedures and tune performance.
• Strong knowledge of cloud databases and cross-cloud architecture.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a trusted advisor, proactively identifying performance, availability, and security risks.
• Advise on cloud database architecture, migration, and cost optimization (AWS/Azure).
• Lead architecture design, disaster recovery, and capacity forecasting.
• Own backup strategy, HA/DR config, tuning, and roadmap planning.
• Define and track SLOs for database availability and performance.
• Lead root-cause analysis and post-incident reviews to drive automation.
• Design scalable database structures, including partitioning and audits.
• Develop deployment/rollback scripts and coordinate updates across environments.

Skills

SQL Server

T-SQL optimization

Query plan analysis

Indexing strategy

Automation (Python/PowerShell)

Cloud-native databases

Tools

Azure SQL Database

Azure SQL Managed Instance

AWS RDS for SQL Server

Job description

Job Description

Datavail is hiring a Senior Database Engineer/SQL Server DBA to join our high-performing team supporting mission-critical database systems across a wide range of clients and industries. This isn’t a traditional, reactive DBA role - we’re looking for a forward-looking database professional who thinks like an engineer: automating instead of repeating manual work, treating cloud-native platforms as the default rather than the exception, and getting ahead of problems before they become a ticket. As a leading managed services provider, we deliver 24×7 support through a proven multi-tiered model, consistently meeting and exceeding client SLAs

We’re looking for a senior-level SQL Server specialist who operates as a trusted technical advisor - someone who goes beyond reactive troubleshooting to proactively identify risk, tune performance, and guide clients on cloud and architecture strategy. The ideal candidate will serve as the Primary DBA for one or more clients, building strong client relationships while leading service delivery with a blend of hands-on engineering depth and consultative guidance. This is a full-time position with full medical benefits

Travel: Up to 20% domestic (US) travel for client onsite visits - this role is relationship-driven, and in-person time with clients is part of building that trust

• Performance Tuning & Cloud-Native Database Expertise (Core Focus)
• This is a defining requirement for the role, not a secondary skill:
• T-SQL query optimization - reading and rewriting execution plans, resolving parameter sniffing, statistics/cardinality issues, and Query Store-based tuning
• Rewriting and refactoring existing stored procedures and T-SQL code for performance - not just tuning execution plans, but redesigning logic and set-based approaches where needed
• Indexing strategy - designing and maintaining clustered/nonclustered/covering indexes, evaluating columnstore where appropriate, and managing fragmentation/maintenance without breaking SLAs
• Root-cause performance diagnosis - wait-stats analysis, CPU/memory/I-O bottleneck isolation, tempdb contention, and blocking/deadlock resolution
• Cloud-native platform tuning - hands-on optimization specific to Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and AWS RDS for SQL Server: correct service tier/vCore or DTU sizing, storage throughput/IOPS tuning, elastic pool configuration, and working within PaaS resource-governor limits
• Proactive performance baselining - establishing and monitoring baselines so degradation is caught before it becomes a client-facing incident, not just reactive firefighting

In this role, you will:

• Serve as a trusted advisor to clients, proactively identifying performance, availability, and security risks before they become incidents
• Advise clients on cloud database architecture, migration, and cost optimization across AWS and Azure (IaaS and PaaS)
• Lead architecture design, disaster recovery planning, and capacity forecasting initiatives
• Own the end-to-end database service lifecycle - backup strategy, HA/DR configuration, proactive tuning, and platform roadmap planning
• Define and track service-level objectives (SLOs) for database availability and performance, and drive automated remediation for recurring failure patterns rather than manually resolving the same issue repeatedly
• Lead root-cause analysis and post-incident reviews for major issues, translating findings into automation or process changes that prevent recurrence
• Design and implement scalable database structures, including partitioning strategies and audit specifications
• Develop and maintain deployment/rollback scripts and coordinate version updates across environments
• Build automation (Python, PowerShell) for backup validation, monitoring, alerting, and reporting integrations (e.g., Power BI)
• Migrate/support SSIS packages and SSAS cubes, and develop stored procedures for reporting
• Collaborate directly with client technical teams and executive stakeholders, translating technical findings into business-relevant recommendations

About the Team

Datavail’s Team of SQL Experts Can Save You Time and Money

As a Microsoft Gold Partner for over 17 years, we have extensive experience with just about everything in SQL Server. Our consultants, architects, DBAs and development team have experience with the entire Microsoft stack and our experts have an average of 15 years of experience. They’ve overcome every obstacle in helping clients manage everything from databases, analytics, reporting, migrations, and upgrades to monitoring and overall data management.

You can free up your IT resources to focus on growing your business rather than fighting fires. Our SQL experts can guide you through strategic initiatives or support routine database management.

Datavail’s Comprehensive SQL Database Services

Datavail offers SQL consulting services that allow you to take advantage of all the features of the SQL database. By providing high availability solutions, building high end database systems, architectural support, and managed service support our team can ensure optimal performance for your database on-prem or in the cloud.

SQL Database Managed Services

Datavail’s business focuses on helping you use your data to drive business results through cost-saving services. The success of your business depends on how well you understand and manage your data. Our managed cloud services give you the power to unleash your organization’s potential. We provide comprehensive and technically advanced support for SQL installations to ensure that your databases are safe, secure, and managed with the utmost level of care.

Our delivery performance in data management leads the industry. We offer highly trained SQL database administrators via a 247, always on, always available, global delivery model.

With the combination of a proven delivery model and top-note experience ensures that Datavail will remain the database experts on demand you desire. Datavail’s flexible and client-focused services always add value to your organization.