SQL Server Database Administrator (Mid-Level)

ActiveProspect, Inc.•Grand Rapids, MI

About The Position

We are seeking a Database Administrator to own the day-to-day administration, support, and scheduled release of our Microsoft SQL Server environment. The role combines responsive request handling — ad-hoc queries, restores, and environment support for internal teams — with the disciplined execution of recurring production data releases on a defined schedule. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable troubleshooting a time-sensitive issue and managing a multi-component release from planning through completion, while keeping the databases performant, secure, and reliable.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
3+ years of hands-on Microsoft SQL Server database administration experience.
Strong proficiency in T-SQL, including writing and tuning complex queries, stored procedures, functions, and views.
Solid understanding of backup and recovery, high availability, and disaster recovery concepts.
Familiarity with automation and scripting (e.g., PowerShell, SQL Agent jobs, or similar) to streamline routine tasks.
Experience managing scheduled or recurring production release cycles across multiple environments or product lines.
Experience with performance monitoring, tuning, and capacity management on production databases.
Working knowledge of database security and access management.
Ability to manage and prioritize multiple concurrent requests in a ticket-driven environment.
Strong attention to detail, organizational skills, and clear written documentation.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Microsoft Transparent Data Encryption, Mirroring and Replication preferred.
Experience administering cloud-hosted databases (e.g. managed SQL Server on a major cloud provider) preferred.

Responsibilities

Install, configure, upgrade, and patch SQL Server instances across production, testing, and development environments, including cloud-hosted databases.
Monitor database health, capacity, and performance; proactively tune queries, indexes, and configurations to meet stability and performance targets.
Implement and maintain backup, recovery, and high-availability strategies, and validate restores on a regular basis.
Administer database security, access controls, and user management in line with company policy.
Maintain clear documentation of the database environment, standards, and procedures.
Serve as the point of contact for incoming database requests from internal teams (e.g., product, data, support, and operations), tracked through a ticketing system.
Triage and prioritize requests by severity and business impact, managing competing demands against agreed response expectations.
Execute ad-hoc queries against production and non-production databases to retrieve and validate data on behalf of requesting teams.
Restore, refresh, and test databases on demand, and stand up databases in development and test environments.
Generate schema and DDL scripts — tables, indexes, views, functions, stored procedures, and related objects — to support development and environment setup.
Reload or correct data sets when source files are missing or require reprocessing.
Plan and execute recurring (e.g., monthly) production data releases across multiple product lines and database servers.
Coordinate releases composed of many database components, ensuring each is updated accurately and on schedule.
Track release progress through a defined workflow (planned, in progress, completed) and communicate status to stakeholders.
Manage release timelines and dependencies, and perform the scheduled maintenance and deployment activities each release requires.
Partner with development, infrastructure, and operations teams to resolve database issues and support a smooth end-user experience.
Assist developers with query tuning, schema refinement, and best practices.
Identify and implement improvements to database processes and standards, automating routine tasks to reduce manual effort and risk.