Senior DBA/DBE Engineer

Job Information Job Taxonomy

Database Engineer

Job Title

Senior DBA/DBE Engineer

Job 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