Senior SQL DBA

About this role

Q - What did the DBA say to the Developer? A - It doesn't matter, he wasn't listening anyway Q - What did the Developer say to the DBA? A - It doesn't matter, the answer is "No". Enough with the humor! Let's get to the point. DistantJob is hiring a Senior SQL DBA for one of our clients, a growing US-based SaaS company serving 150+ enterprise clients on a highly customized, multi-tenant platform. This isn't a "big data" role — the databases themselves are modest in size.

The real challenge is complexity: each client runs on their own database instance, and while most of the schema and logic is standardized, a meaningful portion is customized per client. That means no two performance issues look exactly alike, and a one-size-fits-all runbook doesn't cut it here. What you'll do: Serve as the primary point of contact for critical database issues during US business hours, diagnosing and resolving performance, reliability, and availability problems Partner with developers to design, review, and optimize SQL queries, stored procedures, and database logic — and coach the team on performance best practices Proactively monitor database health across client environments, building alerting thresholds, runbooks, and dashboards to catch risks before they become incidents Own the database side of test-environment readiness — syncing test databases, validating configuration, and building automation to reduce manual setup work Review and approve database-related pull requests, maintaining coding standards and evaluating changes for performance, risk, and backward compatibility Perform routine database maintenance (backups, patching, capacity planning) during business hours to avoid production disruption Document recurring issues, resolutions, and operational procedures for the team What we're looking for: 7+ years of experience as a DBA, with real production support experience — not purely development-side database work Strong SQL Server / T-SQL skills, including query optimization and execution plan analysis Comfort working across highly customized, multi-instance environments rather than a single standardized database Genuine interest in both reactive incident response and proactive, collaborative dev support — this role is a mix of both, and that balance is expected to shift over time as processes mature Azure and .NET/ORM familiarity a plus Schedule: Primarily CST hours (EST also considered) — this role exists specifically to extend coverage into the US afternoon.