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Senior SQL Server DBA — Always On Availability Groups

Full-time

Data Infrastructure · Remote (US, East Coast) · Posted 2026-05-18

CYFR Watch's operational data layer runs on SQL Server 2022 Enterprise Edition across multi-subnet Always On Availability Groups. We are looking for a senior DBA who has managed AGs in production at terabyte scale and understands the query optimizer well enough to explain why a plan regressed after a CU patch.

Responsibilities

  • Manage and monitor multi-subnet Always On Availability Groups across three data centers
  • Own backup and restore strategy — native backups, log shipping to secondary DR site, point-in-time recovery SLAs under 15 minutes
  • Tune query performance: index strategy, statistics maintenance, plan guide management, Query Store analysis
  • Manage SSIS catalog and ETL jobs for billing, invoicing, and customer analytics pipelines
  • Design and enforce Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) key rotation and column-level encryption using Always Encrypted with secure enclaves
  • Write and maintain operational runbooks, DR playbooks, and patching SOPs
  • Participate in on-call rotation (1 week per 6 weeks) with 15-minute response SLA

Requirements

  • 7+ years as a production SQL Server DBA in an enterprise environment
  • Deep experience with Always On Availability Groups — multi-subnet, distributed AGs, read-scale replicas
  • Expert-level T-SQL including window functions, CTEs, dynamic SQL, and query plan analysis
  • Experience with SQL Server on bare-metal Windows Server (not just Azure SQL / RDS)
  • Familiarity with TDE, Always Encrypted, row-level security, and SQL audit specifications
  • Comfortable with PowerShell and dbatools for automation
  • Excellent written communication — documentation, runbooks, and incident postmortems

Nice to Have

  • MCSE: Data Management and Analytics certification (or equivalent)
  • Experience with SSAS tabular models and DAX
  • Familiarity with Service Broker or SQL Server replication
  • Experience migrating on-prem SQL Server to/from Azure SQL Managed Instance
  • Knowledge of PCI DSS or SOC 2 data security requirements

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