SQL DBA

About The Role

Stavtar is seeking a dedicated Database Administrator (DBA) to strengthen database performance, reliability, and development quality across our client environments.

Lot of StavPay's business logic resides in the database, with significant customization across clients. This makes database expertise critical to the scalability, stability, and quality of our platform.

The DBA will serve as the primary point of contact for database issues during U.S. business hours, partnering closely with developers on SQL design and optimization, proactively monitoring database performance, managing the database-related aspects of test-environment readiness, and reviewing database changes created by the Onboarding team.

This is not solely a production-support position. The successful candidate will serve as a database engineering partner and quality advocate throughout the software-development and client-delivery lifecycles.

Key Responsibilities

Database Support and Incident Resolution

• Serve as the primary point of contact for critical database issues during U.S. business hours, providing rapid response and resolution.
• Diagnose and resolve database performance, reliability, and availability issues.
• Support Product Development, Support, and Onboarding teams with database-related questions and incidents.
• Partner with engineering and infrastructure teams to troubleshoot, root-cause, and remediate production database incidents, identifying preventative improvements.
• Investigate slow-running SQL queries, blocking, resource contention, and other database bottlenecks.
• Document recurring issues, resolutions, and operational procedures.
  
  

SQL Development and Optimization

• Partner with developers to design, review, and optimize SQL queries, stored procedures, functions, and other database code.
• Identify inefficient queries and recommend improvements to execution plans, indexing, data access patterns, and database design.
• Help ensure database logic is maintainable, scalable, reliable, and consistent across client implementations.
• Provide guidance on handling client-specific database customizations without compromising platform quality.
• Coach developers and other technical team members on SQL development and performance best practices.
  
  

Proactive Performance Monitoring

• Monitor database health and performance across client environments in real time, identifying and resolving emerging risks before they become production incidents.
• Establish meaningful performance baselines, alerting thresholds, and escalation procedures to improve consistency of incident response.
• Implement and maintain runbooks to support reliable and repeatable incident handling.
• Analyze query trends, database growth, capacity, and resource utilization.
• Recommend and implement performance improvements in coordination with engineering teams.
• Develop reports or dashboards that provide visibility into database health and performance.
• Perform routine database maintenance — including backups, patching, performance tuning, and capacity planning — during U.S. business hours to minimize disruption to production systems.
  
  

Test-Environment Readiness

• Own the database-related aspects of preparing client-specific test environments.
• Upgrade and synchronize test databases with current application and database versions.
• Validate database readiness, integrity, configuration, and compatibility before testing begins.
• Develop repeatable processes and automation to reduce manual environment-preparation work and developer time spent on database setup.
• Partner with Product Development and Quality Assurance to ensure environments support thorough and reliable testing.
  
  

Database Code Review and Governance

• Review and approve database-related pull requests submitted by Product Development and Onboarding teams.
• Establish and maintain database coding standards, review criteria, and implementation guidelines.
• Validate database changes for correctness, maintainability, security, scalability, and performance.
• Identify potential client impact, deployment risks, and backward-compatibility concerns before release.
• Ensure database changes include appropriate testing, documentation, rollback planning, and performance considerations.
• Promote consistent database engineering practices across teams and client implementations.
  
  

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of proven experience as a Database Administrator with hands-on ownership spanning development support, performance management, and production operations — not limited to a single function.
• Strong SQL development, troubleshooting, and query-optimization skills.
• Experience reviewing execution plans and diagnosing database performance problems.
• Strong understanding of indexing, locking, blocking, transactions, stored procedures, and relational database design.
• Experience supporting production databases in high-availability environments and resolving time-sensitive incidents.
• Proven track record managing incident response and reducing downtime.
• Experience with Azure SQL, Microsoft SQL Server and Azure.
• Experience reviewing database code and enforcing development standards.
• Ability to evaluate database changes for performance, reliability, and deployment risk.
• Experience managing or refreshing databases in development and test environments.
• Exposure to .NET application development, including familiarity with data access patterns, ORM usage, and how application-layer decisions affect database performance.
• Ability to work independently during U.S. business hours while collaborating with distributed teams.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain database concepts and recommendations clearly to developers and other stakeholders.
• Reliable high-speed internet and a suitable remote-work setup capable of supporting real-time production incident response.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting database-intensive, multi-client, or highly customized software platforms.
• Experience working in a software product-development organization.
• Familiarity with source control, pull-request workflows, and CI/CD practices for database changes.
• Experience automating database deployments, upgrades, monitoring, or environment preparation.
• Familiarity with database monitoring and observability tools.
• Experience supporting client onboarding, implementation, or data-migration activities.
• Understanding of database security, access controls, backup, recovery, and business-continuity practices.
• Experience collaborating with globally distributed engineering teams.
  
  

Success Measures

• Faster diagnosis and resolution of database issues during U.S. business hours, with measurable reduction in MTTR and fewer recurring production incidents.
• Higher database code quality through consistent standards, stronger PR controls, and earlier identification of client-impacting risks.
• Reduced developer time spent on test-environment setup and more reliable client-facing releases.