SQL Engineering Manager: Lead Platform & High-Impact Team

Pivotal Solutions; Asheville (NC); On-site; USD 140,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Pivotal Solutions seeks an experienced SQL Engineering Manager to lead our SQL Engineering team and ensure a reliable, scalable data platform across critical applications. You will mentor engineers, build partnerships with stakeholders, and drive architectural standards.

The role is about 70% leadership, strategy, and delivery and 30% technical guidance and architecture, with a focus on SQL Server, performance optimization, CI/CD, and operational excellence to support growth.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading, mentoring, or managing database or software engineers.
• Demonstrated success with hiring, coaching, performance management, career development, and difficult conversations.
• Deep production experience with Microsoft SQL Server, including database architecture, schema design, query optimization, indexing strategies, and T-SQL development.
• Experience improving engineering workflows through source control, CI/CD, deployment automation, monitoring, and operational tooling.
• Experience leading delivery across roadmap initiatives, operational support, technical debt, and cross-functional dependencies.
• Experience partnering effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain technical tradeoffs clearly.
• Demonstrated ability to influence priorities across multiple teams and build trusted working relationships.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, mentor, and develop a high-performing SQL Engineering team.
• Create clear expectations through regular feedback, career development, succession planning, and performance management.
• Recruit, hire, and retain exceptional engineers while fostering accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Build an environment where engineers are empowered to make decisions while maintaining high technical standards.
• Provide architectural leadership across Microsoft SQL Server environments supporting mission-critical business systems.
• Guide database architecture, schema design, T-SQL development, performance optimization, and engineering best practices.
• Establish practical standards around source control, peer review, testing, CI/CD, deployment automation, monitoring, and operational excellence.
• Improve platform reliability through root-cause analysis, automation, observability, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with Analytics Engineering and Product teams to establish reliable data contracts and protect downstream systems during database changes.

Skills

Leadership

Mentoring

Microsoft SQL Server

T-SQL

CI/CD

Performance optimization

Architectural guidance

Stakeholder management

Communication

Job description

Pivotal Solutions seeks an experienced SQL Engineering Manager to lead our SQL Engineering team and ensure a reliable, scalable data platform across critical applications. You will mentor engineers, build partnerships with stakeholders, and drive architectural standards.

The role is about 70% leadership, strategy, and delivery and 30% technical guidance and architecture, with a focus on SQL Server, performance optimization, CI/CD, and operational excellence to support growth.