MS-SQL DBA Expert - Optimization & Tuning
Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
Contracted to Full Time
MSP Team
Experienced
Job Title: MS-SQL DBA Expert – Optimization & Tuning
Employment Type: Contractual (Extendable)
Contract Duration: 2 Months
Work Mode: Remote
Location: Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad
Experience Required:
- Overall Experience: 8+ years
- Relevant Experience: 5+ years as SQL Server DBA / Engineer
Job Summary
NorthBay is seeking a highly experienced MS-SQL DBA Expert with strong expertise in SQL Server performance optimization, tuning, and high availability. The role involves hands-on assessment, troubleshooting, and optimization of mission-critical SQL Server environments running on AWS Windows-based EC2 instances. The selected candidate will lead performance tuning initiatives, stabilize HA/DR setups, and enhance monitoring and observability for high-volume production systems.
Key Skills and Competencies
- Microsoft SQL Server DBA
- SQL Server Performance Tuning
- T-SQL Optimization
- SQL Server Internals
- Query Optimization and Indexing
- High Availability and Disaster Recovery
- AWS EC2 and EBS
- SQL Server Monitoring and Alerting
- Windows Failover Clustering
- Always On Availability Groups
- Incident Management and Root Cause Analysis
Required Qualifications
- 8+ years of overall IT experience with at least 5+ years of hands-on SQL Server DBA or Engineering experience
- Strong knowledge of SQL Server internals including storage engine, query optimizer, buffer pool, plan cache, and TempDB behavior
- Advanced experience analyzing wait stats, DMVs, Extended Events, SQL Profiler, and execution plans
- Proven expertise in diagnosing CPU, memory, I/O, TempDB, and transaction log performance issues
- Expert-level SQL and T-SQL skills including stored procedures, functions, triggers, and views
- In-depth understanding of locking, blocking, deadlocks, and transactional performance issues
- Experience identifying and optimizing resource-intensive queries through indexing, query rewrites, and architectural improvements
- Hands-on experience with SQL Server HA/DR technologies including WSFC, Always On AGs, FCI, Log Shipping, Mirroring, and Replication
- Strong experience working with AWS infrastructure including EC2 instance sizing, EBS volumes, IOPS, throughput, and Multi-AZ designs
- Experience with enterprise-level SQL Server monitoring and observability tools
- Hands-on experience with T-SQL, PowerShell, and SQL Server Agent
- Experience with SSRS performance tuning is a plus
- Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams
Key Responsibilities
- Optimize SQL Server architecture, configuration, indexing strategies, statistics, TempDB, and file layouts
- Analyze and resolve performance bottlenecks across CPU, memory, I/O, and network
- Conduct deep-dive troubleshooting using wait stats, DMVs, execution plans, and Extended Events
- Review and fine-tune SQL Server settings including MAXDOP, cost threshold for parallelism, memory configuration, and TempDB
- Tune and refactor complex SQL and T-SQL stored procedures, views, and functions
- Identify and resolve locking, blocking, deadlocks, transactional contention, and long-running queries
- Assess, troubleshoot, and stabilize existing HA/DR and cluster environments
- Design and implement HA/DR solutions aligned with RPO and RTO requirements
- Improve proactive and reactive monitoring through actionable alerts and dashboards
- Lead incident response and root cause analysis for production issues
- Provide architectural recommendations and align environments with SQL Server best practices
- Support capacity planning, scaling strategies, backup and restore, and maintenance plans
- Automate operational tasks such as index maintenance, statistics updates, log cleanup, and data archiving
- Maintain documentation and contribute to knowledge sharing initiatives
What We Offer
- Competitive contractual compensation
- Contract extension opportunity based on performance and business needs
- Fuel expense reimbursement
- Paid holidays and vacations
- Medical outpatient reimbursement and health insurance
- Opportunity to work in a high-performance, cloud-focused environment
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