Senior SQL BDA

1. SQL Server Administration and Operations

• Manage SQL Server databases through all lifecycle environments (development UAT production).

• Install configure maintain patch and upgrade SQL Server instances and related components.

• Configure and maintain SQL Server services Agent jobs maintenance plans linked servers operators alerts and database mail.

• Monitor SQL Server health performance capacity availability storage jobs backups and replication.

• Investigate and resolve production incidents service outages performance degradation blocking deadlocks and corruption risks.

• Maintain operational documentation runbooks inventory and change records.

• Participate in planned maintenance windows after-hours support release deployments and on-call rotations.

2. High Availability Disaster Recovery and Resilience

• Design configure maintain and troubleshoot HA/DR solutions (Always On Availability Groups Failover Cluster Instances replication log shipping).

• Monitor and validate HA components (replicas listeners quorum failover behavior synchronization health).

• Maintain log shipping configuration backup copy schedules and failover readiness.

• Perform DR testing failover validation and recovery validation.

• Define and support RPO and RTO objectives in partnership with business and risk teams.

• Maintain documented recovery procedures for restore failover and rollback scenarios.

• Ensure production and DR environments remain aligned (logins permissions jobs etc.).

3. Backup Restore Recovery and Data Protection

• Design and maintain backup strategies (full differential transaction log copy-only).

• Maintain transaction log backup frequency and retention aligned to business requirements.

• Perform regular restore tests to validate backup integrity and recoverability.

• Troubleshoot backup/restore failures including VSS/application-aware backup issues.

• Work with enterprise backup platforms (e.g. Veeam) for application-aware backups.

• Maintain restore procedures for same-server alternate-server point-in-time and object-level recovery.

• Ensure monitoring alerts clearly identify failed or missed backups.

4. Performance Tuning Query Optimisation and Developer Support

• Assist developers with complex query tuning indexing strategy and execution plan analysis.

• Troubleshoot blocking deadlocks wait statistics parameter sniffing and memory/CPU pressure.

• Use native SQL Server tools to identify performance bottlenecks and root causes.

• Review inefficient queries missing indexes fragmentation and high-cost workloads.

• Isolate issues (database code infrastructure storage network or external dependencies).

• Support release deployments with impact assessment rollback planning and validation.

• Promote database design standards that improve performance and scalability.

5. Partitioning Data Lifecycle and Large Database Management

• Design maintain and troubleshoot table partitioning strategies for large/high-growth databases.

• Implement and maintain partition functions schemes indexes and staging tables.

• Automate partition management (rolling window archive movement compression cleanup).

• Work with teams to define data retention archive and purge requirements.

• Optimize large-table performance via partitioning indexing compression and statistics.

• Monitor database growth filegroup usage and long-term capacity requirements.

• Document partitioning standards and operational checks.

6. Security Encryption and Key Management

• Manage SQL Server authentication authorization roles permissions and least-privilege access.

• Implement and troubleshoot Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) backup encryption and dependencies.

• Manage certificates asymmetric/symmetric keys database master keys and secure key backup.

• Maintain key management documentation (ownership rotation restore recovery).

• Ensure encryption keys and certificates are protected and tested as part of DR readiness.

• Support auditing vulnerability remediation security reviews and data protection requirements.

• Investigate unauthorized access failed logins permission issues and encryption errors.

7. Automation Scripting and Operational Improvement

• Develop and maintain PowerShell/T-SQL scripts for health checks reporting partition management and validation.

• Automate recurring checks for job status backups blocking HA health and key expiry.

• Track issues and maintain repeatable support processes.

• Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives to reduce manual effort and improve stability.

8. Monitoring Capacity Planning and Operational Reporting

• Configure and maintain monitoring for SQL Server health performance HA/DR and security events.

• Perform capacity planning for databases storage memory CPU tempdb and backups.

• Maintain operational dashboards alerts and reports for critical services.

• Identify recurring risks and capacity pressure points before they become outages.

• Collaborate with server VMware SAN backup network and application teams on infrastructure dependencies.

9. Cloud Azure SQL and Hybrid Database Services

• Support future planning for cloud-based database platforms (Azure SQL DB Managed Instance SQL on Azure VMs).

• Understand Azure storage backup networking private connectivity and identity integration.

• Assist with cloud readiness assessments migration planning and performance comparisons.

• Troubleshoot hybrid connectivity DNS firewall authentication and performance issues.

• Work with cloud and infrastructure teams on secure supportable architectures.

10. Documentation Standards and Mentorship

• Author scripts and documentation for administration DR architecture and operational procedures.

• Maintain SQL Server standards for builds backups security HA and monitoring.

• Share expertise and provide mentorship to peers and junior team members.

• Cross-train to improve broader support capability across infrastructure and database teams.

• 10 years of Microsoft SQL Server administration experience in enterprise/production environments.

• Strong performance tuning and optimisation using native monitoring and troubleshooting tools.

• Strong T-SQL scripting stored procedure trigger indexing and execution plan analysis.

• Strong experience with backups restores recovery models and point-in-time recovery.

• Deep knowledge of HA/DR: Always On Availability Groups failover clustering replication log shipping.

• Hands-on experience with SQL Server security encryption (TDE) certificates and key management.

• Experience with partitioning strategies and automation for large/high-growth databases.

• Experience with Windows Server and Active Directory dependencies.

• Ability to assist developers with complex query tuning and production investigations.

• Ability to work independently multitask and context-switch effectively.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate (or equivalent experience).

• Microsoft SQL Server administration performance tuning or data platform certifications.

• Microsoft Azure Administrator or Azure Solutions-related certification.

• ITIL Foundation.