Role: Senior SQL DBA - AWS & Azure Cloud
* Location - London
* Work mode - Hybrid (2 to 3 days onsite work)
* Position - FTC (6 months)
JD - the highlighted part is must have.
About the Role
We're looking for a
Senior SQL Database Administrator
with deep expertise in
Microsoft SQL Server
and hands-on experience operating in
AWS
and
Azure
. You'll own database
architecture, performance, reliability, security, and cost
across on-prem and cloud, lead complex migrations/modernization, and mentor a small team of DBAs/engineers. This role partners closely with
Solution Architects, Cloud Engineers, DevOps, Security, and Application teams
to ensure our data platforms are robust, performant, and scalable.
Key Responsibilities
Architecture & Engineering
* Design and implement highly available SQL platforms:
* On-Prem:
SQL Server 2012–2022, Always On Availability Groups, FCI, Log Shipping, Distributed AGs.
* AWS:
Amazon RDS for SQL Server, Amazon Aurora (if applicable), SQL on EC2, EBS optimization, S3-based backups, AWS Backup, DMS for migrations, KMS for encryption.
* Azure:
Azure SQL Database,
Azure SQL Managed Instance
, SQL Server on Azure VM (IaaS), Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery (ASR), Key Vault integration.
* Define standards for
schema design, indexing strategy, partitioning, and filegroup layouts
.
Performance & Reliability
* Lead
performance tuning
: query plans, wait stats, Query Store, indexing (covering, filtered), statistics, TempDB optimization, memory/IO tuning.
* Capacity planning, baselining, and proactive monitoring (CPU/IO/Memory/Concurrency/Blocking/Deadlocks).
* Implement
HA/DR
SLOs with RTO/RPO targets; design and execute
failover and DR drills
.
Security & Compliance
* Implement
TDE
,
Always Encrypted
,
Row-Level Security
,
Dynamic Data Masking
,
Auditing
.
* Manage secrets & keys with
AWS KMS
and
Azure Key Vault
; enforce
least privilege/segregation of duties
.
* Ensure compliance with
SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA/PCI
(as applicable): auditing, data retention, secure transport, and encryption at rest/in transit.
Automation & DevOps
* Automate provisioning, patching, backups, and checks using
PowerShell
,
T-SQL
,
DBATools
,
Azure CLI
,
AWS CLI
.
* Infra-as-Code & CI/CD:
Terraform/Bicep/CloudFormation
,
Azure DevOps / GitHub Actions
,
AWS CodePipeline
for DB deployments (pre/post scripts, DACPACs).
* Implement
blue/green or rolling
deployment strategies for schema changes.
Operations & Monitoring
* Own
backup/restore strategy
(native, S3/Blob, snapshots, PITR), validation restores, and integrity checks (DBCC).
* Monitoring & alerting with
CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Grafana, Prometheus, SCOM, Redgate SQL Monitor
.
* Incident response, root cause analysis, and permanent fixes for production issues.
Cloud Networking & Cost
* Design secure connectivity:
VPC/VNet
, peering, PrivateLink/Private Endpoints, Subnets, SG/NSG, routing, DNS.
* Cost optimization
: right-sizing, storage tiering (gp3/io2), reservation planning, auto-stop/non-prod schedules, tagging/FinOps governance.
Collaboration & Leadership
* Partner with app teams to model data and review SQL code; guide design for
transactional vs. analytical
workloads.
* Mentor junior DBAs and champion best practices and
runbooks/KBs
.
* Vendor management for tools/licenses; support audits.
Required Qualifications
* 8–12+ years
as a SQL Server DBA;
3–5+ years
in
cloud (AWS & Azure)
.
* Strong with
SQL Server 2012–2022
(engine internals, storage, concurrency, backups/restore, security).
* Performance tuning
expertise (Query Store, waits, plan cache, index tuning).
* HA/DR
: Always On AGs, FCI, Log Shipping, backups, DR testing.
* AWS
: RDS for SQL Server, EC2, EBS (gp3/io2), S3, DMS, KMS, Backup, CloudWatch, IAM.
* Azure
: Azure SQL DB,
SQL Managed Instance
, SQL on Azure VM, Key Vault, Azure Backup, ASR, Monitor/Log Analytics.
* Scripting
: T-SQL,
PowerShell
(DBATools), plus one:
Python/Bash
preferred.
* Networking basics
: VPC/VNet, subnets, peering, PrivateLink/Private Endpoint, security groups/NSGs, firewalls.
* DevOps/ IaC
: Terraform or Bicep (or CloudFormation), Azure DevOps/GitHub Actions (or AWS CodePipeline).
* OS: Windows Server and
Linux-based SQL
administration exposure.
Nice-to-Have
* Experience with
Azure SQL Hyperscale
,
Read Scale-Out
,
Elastic Pools
,
Serverless
,
RDS Multi-AZ
,
Aurora
,
Always On across regions
.
* Exposure to
PostgreSQL/MySQL
on RDS/Aurora or
NoSQL
(Cosmos DB, DynamoDB) for polyglot scenarios.
* Observability
stacks (Elastic, Splunk) and
APM
(AppDynamics, New Relic).
* Data protection & archival
strategies (Glacier/Archive tier, lifecycle policies).
* Data migration at scale
: DMS + native backups + log shipping to cloud;
zero/minimal downtime cutovers
.
* Familiarity with
Snowflake/Databricks/Synapse
for downstream analytics integrations.
* ITIL
process familiarity (Change/Incident/Problem).
* Azure
and
AWS
Education & Certifications
* Bachelor's in Computer Science / IT or equivalent experience.
* Preferred certs
(any mix):
* Microsoft
: DP-300 (Administering Microsoft Azure SQL Solutions), DP-900 (fundamentals), AZ-104, AZ-305.
* AWS
: AWS SysOps Administrator, AWS Solutions Architect – Associate/Professional, AWS Database – Specialty.
* Redgate
or
ITIL Foundation
(nice to have).