Lead Database Administrator Location: Basingstoke | Hybrid (3 days office-based) Are you ready to take ownership of an organisation's database landscape at a pivotal time of transformation? This is a unique opportunity for an experienced Lead Database Administrator to shape, modernise and future-proof a growing data platform. You'll be the driving force behind database performance, resilience, and compliance, while steering the evolution from traditional systems to modern cloud-based solutions. From enterprise-scale SQL Server estates to emerging data lake technologies, this role offers both breadth and depth, with real influence across business-critical systems. What you'll be doing Lead database strategy, ensuring high availability, scalability and cost efficiency. Drive performance tuning, optimisation and proactive monitoring for reliable services. Oversee upgrades, migrations and integrations with modern platforms (Azure, Data Lake, Fabric). Manage BAU operations: patching, security updates, backups and incident resolution. Partner with teams and providers to ensure governance, GDPR, PCI-DSS compliance and operational excellence. Support new change deployments and contribute to the cloud and automation journey. What we're looking for Deep expertise in Microsoft SQL Server (enterprise estates) plus experience with MySQL. Proven track record in performance tuning, optimisation and troubleshooting. Strong knowledge of SQL, SSRS, SSIS, PowerShell, security, replication and DR strategies. Experience with Azure services (Data Factory, Logic Apps, Data Sync) and exposure to data lakes (Azure Data Lake, Fabric, Delta Live Tables). Understanding of Windows Server, Active Directory and infrastructure dependencies. Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage stakeholders. Familiarity with DevOps (CI/CD, version control) and automation. Desirable extras Python scripting, data warehousing and modern data formats (JSON, XML, Parquet). Knowledge of AWS or GCP. Experience with BI tools such as Power BI. Why join? This isn't just BAU. It's a chance to lead a high-impact transformation: modernising a legacy estate, embedding automation, and shaping the organisation's data future. You'll enjoy the freedom to innovate, collaborate across teams, and see the real-world impact of your work on business performance and resilience. To be considered you must have experience in a previous or similar DBA role with the above technologies. Please only apply if you possess this.