MS-SQL DBA Expert - Optimization & Tuning

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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