Lead Database Administrator (SQL Server & Cloud Platforms)

Gallagher•Rolling Meadows, IL

About The Position

Gallagher Bassett, a division of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., is seeking an accomplished Lead Database Administrator (SQL Server & Cloud Platforms) to provide technical leadership, strategic direction, and operational excellence across the enterprise database ecosystem. This role is responsible for the administration, security, performance, resiliency, and modernization of mission-critical SQL Server platforms spanning on-premises, hybrid, and cloud environments. The Lead Database Administrator will serve as the senior technical authority for database services, partnering with application, infrastructure, security, architecture, data, and business teams to ensure highly available, scalable, secure, and compliant database platforms. This individual will lead database initiatives, mentor DBA resources, drive automation and operational improvements, and support Gallagher Bassett’s cloud modernization and enterprise platform strategy. This role requires a hands-on leader with deep Microsoft SQL Server expertise, strong cloud platform experience, a mature operational mindset, and the ability to communicate technical risk, resiliency posture, and strategic recommendations to technology and business leadership.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field. Equivalent professional experience may be considered.
Minimum 8+ years of progressive database administration experience with at least 3 years serving in a senior, lead, or principal DBA capacity.
Expert-level knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server architecture, administration, troubleshooting, performance tuning, security, backup/recovery, and operational support.
Experience managing large-scale, highly available SQL Server environments supporting mission-critical applications in a 24x7x365 enterprise setting.
Strong hands-on experience with SQL Server Always On Availability Groups, Windows Server Failover Clustering, backup and recovery architecture, replication, log shipping, and disaster recovery testing.
Demonstrated experience with Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure SQL Database, SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines, Azure monitoring, Azure storage/recovery services, and cloud migration methodologies.
Deep understanding of SQL Server internals, T-SQL, execution plans, indexing strategies, query optimization, statistics, wait types, locking, blocking, deadlocks, tempdb optimization, and resource management.
Experience with Shadowbase or similar enterprise replication technologies; experience supporting HPE NonStop to SQL Server data synchronization is a plus.
Strong understanding of database security best practices including encryption, auditing, access controls, privileged access management, vulnerability management, data classification, and compliance support.
Experience automating repeatable DBA tasks, health checks, reporting, deployment support, and operational workflows.
Experience implementing monitoring, observability, alerting, capacity planning, and performance management solutions for enterprise database environments.
Strong project leadership, stakeholder management, vendor management, change management, and risk management skills.
Ability to lead multiple initiatives simultaneously, prioritize competing demands, and make sound decisions based on business impact, technical risk, and operational urgency.
Exceptional analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving capabilities with a structured approach to incident resolution and root cause analysis.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively with technical teams, business stakeholders, auditors, vendors, and executive leadership.
Demonstrated ability to mentor technical staff, influence without direct authority, and establish credibility as a trusted database platform leader.
Typically requires a University Degree and minimum 7 years of prior relevant experience, or equivalent experience.
Typically requires a Bachelor’s degree and 8+ years of experience in database administration, database architecture, and physical database design; equivalent professional experience may be substituted in lieu of education.
Prior enterprise-scale Microsoft SQL Server database administration experience is required.
Experience serving as a lead DBA, senior DBA, database platform owner, or technical escalation lead is required.
Strong working knowledge of project planning, project tracking, reporting, governance, change management, and operational readiness processes.
Familiarity and experience using workload automation, enterprise job scheduling, and operational orchestration software.
Experience supporting highly regulated, highly available 24x7x365 environments.
Experience working with cross-functional teams including application development, infrastructure, cybersecurity, architecture, compliance, audit, and business operations.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading database modernization, SQL Server upgrade, cloud migration, platform consolidation, or data center transformation initiatives is strongly preferred.
Hands-on experience with Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure SQL Database, SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines, and/or Amazon RDS for SQL Server is strongly preferred.
Microsoft certifications related to Azure, SQL Server, data platforms, cloud architecture, or security are preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead the administration, configuration, and ongoing support of enterprise Microsoft SQL Server environments across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud platforms.
Serve as the technical lead and escalation point for complex SQL Server issues, production incidents, performance concerns, and database platform decisions.
Provide technical leadership, coaching, mentoring, and knowledge transfer to DBA team members, application teams, and other IT operations resources.
Define and implement database standards, governance processes, architecture patterns, naming conventions, operational procedures, and best practices for enterprise database management.
Own and/or participate in database capacity planning, lifecycle management, patching strategy, upgrade planning, and roadmap development.
Design, implement, and support highly available and resilient SQL Server architectures using Always On Availability Groups, Failover Clustering, replication, log shipping, backup/restore strategies, and cloud-native resiliency capabilities.
Develop, maintain, and regularly test disaster recovery and business continuity plans to meet established recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO).
Lead complex database migrations, consolidations, upgrades, cloud modernization initiatives, platform rationalization efforts, and decommissioning activities.
Manage and optimize cloud database platforms including Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure SQL Database, SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines and related cloud data services.
Evaluate, plan, and execute SQL Server modernization patterns including rehost, refactor, replatform, managed instance adoption, and cloud-native data service transitions.
Monitor and optimize database performance through advanced query tuning, index optimization, workload analysis, execution plan review, wait statistics analysis, resource governance, and automation.
Support and enhance Shadowbase replication technologies used to synchronize data between HPE NonStop and Microsoft SQL environments, including monitoring, troubleshooting, validation, and operational documentation.
Enhance proactive monitoring, alerting, observability, capacity forecasting, and health reporting processes to ensure database platform stability, scalability, and reliability.
Drive automation initiatives using AI, PowerShell, T-SQL, SQL Agent, automation frameworks, Infrastructure as Code concepts, workload automation, and enterprise scheduling tools.
Partner with application development, architecture, and data teams to establish data design standards, database development practices, and application performance optimization strategies.
Implement and maintain database security controls including least-privilege access, encryption at rest and in transit, auditing, privileged access management, vulnerability remediation, data retention, and regulatory compliance requirements.
Collaborate with cybersecurity, governance, risk, audit, and compliance teams to ensure adherence to enterprise policies, regulatory obligations, and industry standards.
Develop executive-level reporting and communicate database risks, operational health, modernization progress, resiliency posture, and strategic recommendations to IT leadership.
Create and maintain comprehensive database architecture, operational, security, monitoring, backup, recovery, and runbook documentation.
Contribute to vendor evaluations, licensing analysis, support escalations, cost optimization opportunities, and platform selection decisions related to SQL Server and cloud database services.
Participate in leadership-level planning for mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, data center initiatives, and enterprise transformation efforts when database platforms are impacted.
Participate in an on-call rotation supporting 24x7x365 business-critical operations by providing senior escalation coverage when needed.