Senior DBA/DBE Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

Job Information Job Taxonomy:Database EngineerJob Title:Senior DBA/DBE EngineerJob Description: Senior DBA/DBE Engineer
SQL Server Performance & Scalability | Job Description

Position Details
Department: Technology Database Engineering & Operations
Reports To: Director, Database Engineering
Engagement Type: [Consultant / Contract-to-Hire]

About Green Dot
Financial technology company and bank holding company
Green Dot Bank is regulated by the OCC and FDIC
Runs prepaid, debit, banking-as-a-service (BaaS), and money-processing platforms
Operates mission-critical, high-volume transactional systems
Treats reliability, data integrity, and security as non-negotiable

Position Summary
Technical authority on SQL Server internals, performance engineering, and scalability
Hands-on, high-impact role supporting our highest-volume financial transaction databases
Diagnoses and fixes hot spots, latch/lock contention, blocking, plan regressions, and I/O bottlenecks
Designs durable fixes: partitioning, indexing standards, query redesign, and HA/DR architecture
Works with application engineering, SRE, architecture, and security teams
Mentors the internal DBA team and serves as the escalation point
Driving outcomes: Owns results end to end, from diagnosis to measurable improvement in latency, stability, and scalability, with clear accountability and follow-through

Key Responsibilities
Apply deep knowledge of SQL Server internals (storage engine, query optimizer, SQLOS, memory, transaction log, tempdb) to diagnose complex production issues
Perform root-cause analysis using wait statistics, DMVs, Extended Events, Query Store, and PerfMon counters
Have strong knowledge of Stored Procedure design and optimization skills. Should have ability to read code and provide feedback to optimize the code.
Analyze execution plans at the operator level: cardinality estimation, memory grants, spills, parallelism, and row goals
Advise on engine configuration: MAXDOP, cost threshold for parallelism, compatibility levels, database-scoped configurations, and trace flags
Own end-to-end performance tuning for latency-sensitive OLTP workloads (authorization, ledger, payments, account services)
Resolve parameter sniffing, plan regressions, implicit conversions, and non-SARGable predicates
Use Query Store and Intelligent Query Processing features for baselining, plan forcing, and regression control
Govern indexing and statistics strategy: clustered key design, covering and filtered indexes, columnstore, and maintenance
Troubleshoot and resolve hot spots, including last-page insert contention (PAGELATCH_EX), tempdb contention, and spinlock contention
Resolve blocking chains, deadlocks, lock escalation, and isolation-level issues, recommending RCSI or snapshot isolation where appropriate
Write, refactor, and review complex high-performance T-SQL, including stored procedures, set-based logic, window functions, and dynamic SQL written to be safe from SQL injection
Review developer and ORM-generated (e.g., Entity Framework) SQL, and publish coding standards and anti-pattern guidance
Design batched large data changes (purges, backfills, archival) that are safe to run online
Design and operate table and index partitioning for multi-billion-row financial tables, including sliding-window patterns (SWITCH, SPLIT, MERGE)
Support data lifecycle, archival, compression, and retention that meet regulatory requirements
Design, implement, and troubleshoot Always On Availability Groups (sync/async commit, readable secondaries, distributed AGs, WSFC quorum)
Diagnose AG redo lag, log send queue growth, HADR_SYNC_COMMIT waits, and failover issues
Design, operate, and troubleshoot transactional and peer-to-peer replication, including latency and data consistency issues
Validate HA/DR against RTO/RPO targets, and lead DR tests and failover drills with audit-ready documentation
Enforce least-privilege access and data protection controls (TDE, Always Encrypted, TLS, SQL Server Audit)
Support audit readiness for PCI-DSS, SOX, GLBA, and FFIEC-aligned controls, and follow CAB change management
Design proactive monitoring and alerting for performance, blocking, AG health, replication, jobs, and capacity
Build idempotent automation with PowerShell (dbatools), T-SQL, and CI/CD pipelines
Find opportunities for AI-assisted operations, anomaly detection, and self-healing remediation
Lead or support P1/P2 incidents, and deliver RCA reports with corrective and preventive actions
Establish performance baselines, SLOs, and capacity models, and quantify every change with before/after metrics
Mentor DBAs and developers, and present findings to leadership in terms of risk, cost, and business impact

Required Qualifications
10 years of hands-on SQL Server DBA or database engineering experience
5 years in a senior or principal-level performance-focused role
Expert knowledge of SQL Server 20162022 internals
Proven tuning of large, high-concurrency OLTP systems (thousands of TPS, multi-TB databases)
Experience in financial services, payments, or banking
Demonstrated resolution of hot spot, latch, lock, and tempdb contention in production
Advanced T-SQL development and execution plan analysis
Hands-on design and operation of partitioning at scale
Deep production experience with Always On AGs and SQL Server Replication
Strong proficiency with Query Store, Extended Events, DMVs, and wait-stats methodology
Working knowledge of Windows Server, WSFC, SAN/NVMe storage, and virtualization
PowerShell scripting and automation (dbatools preferred)
Experience working under PCI-DSS, SOX, or similar audit controls
Strong written communication, including RCA reports and executive summaries

Preferred Qualifications
Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure SQL Database, or SQL Server on Azure/AWS VMs
Cloud performance and cost optimization experience
In-Memory OLTP and columnstore for hybrid workloads
SQL Server on Linux and containers
Database DevOps: SSDT, Flyway, or Liquibase, plus CI/CD and automated testing
Additional platforms such as PostgreSQL, Cosmos DB, or Snowflake
Certifications such as DP-300 (Azure Database Administrator Associate) or MCSE/MCM Data Platform
Community contributions (blogs, speaking, open-source tools)

Key Competencies
Analytical rigor: Diagnoses with evidence (waits, plans, XE), not guesswork
Production ownership: Stays calm under P1 pressure; contains the impact first, then fixes permanently
Engineering judgment: Weighs reliability, performance, cost, and complexity trade-offs
Communication: Explains technical findings in terms of business impact
Knowledge transfer: Builds team capability and documents to audit-ready standards