MS-SQL DBA Expert - Optimization & Tuning

Islamabad, Federal Territory, 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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