Role description and responsibilities

A senior SQL Server DBA role with strong ownership of production database operations, deeply integrated with Azure cloud services. The role requires solid technical autonomy, cloud-native expertise and the ability to operate independently across the full DBA lifecycle — from performance tuning to incident resolution and release management. Infrastructure partners provide support but the DBA maintains direct operational responsibility.

Administer Microsoft SQL Server databases in production, integrated with Azure cloud services, with strong operational ownership
Manage Always-On Availability Groups, Failover Cluster Instances and storage account operations
Lead technical resolution of SQL Server incidents: diagnose, remediate and produce structured root cause analysis independently
Execute and validate production releases using Azure DevOps and UrbanCode Deploy (UCD)
Perform query tuning, T-SQL optimisation and execution plan analysis
Administer and optimise Azure SQL, Azure Pipelines, Azure Monitor and Azure Event Hub
Enforce security, permissions management and audit-quality documentation
Collaborate with application teams, infrastructure partners and release management
Contribute to runbook quality and continuous improvement of database operations

Requirements

University degree in Computer Science, Engineering or comparable technical field
5–10 years of hands-on experience with Microsoft SQL Server in production environments
Proven track record in incident management, production support and performance tuning
Strong Azure platform experience is mandatory
SQL Server installation and configuration
Always-On Availability Groups (must)
Failover Cluster Instances (FCI)
T-SQL scripting (must)
PowerShell automation (must)
Execution plan analysis
Storage account management
Azure SQL, Azure DevOps, Azure Pipelines, Azure Alerts, Azure Event Hub, Azure Monitor (must)
PostgreSQL, PowerShell, SQL
Tools: MS SQL Server, UrbanCode Deploy, Jira, DBeaver
Professional English C1 (spoken and written) — mandatory
Strong ownership and accountability; comfortable operating with autonomy in complex production environments
Structured troubleshooting mindset; clear communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders
Generalizing-specialist profile — open to working across multiple database technologies
Must own a valid work permit or EU/Schengen Space nationality to legally work in Portugal
Lisbon/Portugal-based — hybrid working model

Nice to have

Azure Database Administrator certification is a plus
Microsoft SQL Server certifications valued
French and/or Dutch is a plus
Experience in regulated environments (e.g., financial services) is a strong plus

Senior SQL Server DBA

Job Description