Team Lead MS SQL Engineer

Level-Up; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 1,000,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading cloud solutions provider in Johannesburg is seeking a Team Leader for an MS SQL role. The ideal candidate will manage an SQL engineering team, focus on high availability and performance tuning of databases, and ensure effective incident response. Required qualifications include a bachelor's degree in IT, relevant certifications, and at least 5 years of experience, including 2 years in a managerial role. This position demands a passion for mentoring and providing support in a 24/7 operational environment.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years working experience in IT.
• 2 years of experience managing technical teams.
• Experience in a 24/7 production support environment.

Responsibilities

• Manage the enterprise SQL engineering team.
• Provide technical oversight and ensure service reliability.
• Handle incidents and problem resolutions effectively.

Skills

Technical strength

Team management experience

Incident management

Database performance tuning

Cloud infrastructure knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree or Equivalent IT Qualification

Certifications in SQL Server, Azure Data Engineer

ITIL

CobIT

Tools

SQL Server

Azure Data Services

Monitoring tools

Job description

Introduction

Team Leader : Microsoft SQL role managing experienced professionals in server software, MS SQL, and cloud infrastructure. Requires technical strength, team management experience, mentoring small software / cloud teams, and passion for 24 / 7 production support. Focus on implementing / enhancing services, ensuring high availability, quick resolutions, and overseeing all SQL infrastructure aspects, including integration with development teams, leaders, 3rd parties, and vendors. Maintain liaisons with operational / project / development / product teams for defined service levels in a dynamic, positive culture.

Job description

• Manages enterprise SQL engineering team, recruiting, and mentoring the members of the team, both technically and for career growth
• Provides technical oversight across systems and architectures, with an emphasis on reliability, architecture, and automation
• Helps to drive the vision for the future of the SQL at and reliability of applications and services running in the Cloud and on premises.
• Provides a holistic view of the production environment for both technology and business management, working closely as a trusted partner with development team leaders
• Performs controlled resolution of incidents and problems including prioritization and escalation to relevant groups when appropriate, root cause analysis of all problems with follow-through to resolution
• Communicates status to development teams, ensuring outstanding issues are tracked to closure, both for remediation and long-term resolution
• Consults with the primary stakeholders of the application in conjunction with development leaders and technical leads to better understand the objectives of the development teams
• Requires awareness of audit and compliance related issues
• Contributes to formulation of strategies for network growth and stability
• Champion initiatives to enable high availability for Business-As-Usual which includes monitoring, failover and resiliency
• Ability to handle incidents, problems and change at a global enterprise level
• Responsible for delivery of results which directly impacts the development teams
• Servers (on-premises and cloud)
• Management of servers
• Oversee database performance tuning, indexing strategies, and query optimization across environments.
• Ensure that user access to SQL is managed and limited
• Ensure that server data is backed up as agreed with the appropriate business owner
• Ensure that servers are monitored for performance and uptime
• Architect and maintain scalable, secure, and high-performing relational databases (SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or equivalent).
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (DevOps, BI, Cloud, Security) to deliver data-driven solutions.
• Monitor and troubleshoot production database issues, ensuring 24 / 7 stability and availability.
• Ensure All critical Business databases are replicated at DR.
• Manage software upgrades when licensing provides an upgrade path.

Security

Third Party access policy

Perform regular risk assessments

Address risks identified by risk assessments

Manage the various device and system logs

Create and / or regularly update the procedures for data encryption

Create and / or regularly update the procedures for use of external storage medium

Create and / or regularly update the procedures for information exchange wirackerth external entities.

Create and / or regularly update the policy and procedures for user access, permitted operations and monitoring of operations

Operating Systems

Ensure all OSs are licensed

Ensure all OSs are on required patch level

Ensure all OSs comply with business standards and are IT approved

Ensure all OSs are monitored by the Network Operator team

Mange the upgrade of operating systems to newer versions if required

Capacity Planning

Create and / or regularly update a capacity management process and procedure

Regular review of capacity management monitoring results

Implementation of appropriate actions to address findings of capacity management monitoring

Minimum requirements

A bachelor's degree or Equivalent IT Qualification or Diploma.

Certifications in SQL Server, Azure Data Engineer, or equivalent.

Mandatory Microsoft Training and Certifications

Microsoft Certified : Azure Database Administrator Associate.

Microsoft Certified : Data Analyst Associate.

Experience and product specific training as it relates to the role and technologies in use

ITIL

CobIT

Minimum 5 Years Working Experience

2 years of experience managing people in a technical environment.

2 years' experience in participating in on-call rotations, and providing after-hours support in an environment that operates 24 / 7

5 years of experience as a System and Cloud Administrator (experience in Microsoft license management).