SQL DBA Developer

About Employee Navigator

Employee Navigator is a rapidly growing and highly profitable $100M ARR SaaS insurance & HR technology company that works with the nation’s leading insurance carriers, payroll companies & insurance brokers. Our products are designed to make it easier for our customers to manage the complexity of employee benefits & HR including benefits administration, employee onboarding and much more. Employee Navigator is the leading broker-centric benefits administration and HR platform in the US serving over 175,000 companies.

We’ve been recognized as one of The Washington Post’s Top Workplaces for eight consecutive years — and in 2025, we proudly earned our first Top Workplace award in Salt Lake City in our very first year of eligibility. Join us to help carry on our award-winning culture and be part of building something new and meaningful here!

About the Role

Employee Navigator’s success is powered by a highly available, scalable, and performant SQL Server infrastructure that grows every year to meet increasing demand. Our databases run on a mix of Azure VMs, Managed Instances and Azure SQL DBs designed to handle mission-critical workloads in a multi-shard architecture.

We are seeking a Mid to Senior Level SQL Server DBA and Developer to join our core Database Engineering team. You will handle day-to-day administration, tuning, and optimization of our SQL Server environments while contributing to ongoing modernization efforts including SQL Server version upgrades, automation, performance scaling, and best practice enforcement.

This role is perfect for someone who wants to own their work, grow technically, collaborate across teams, and play a key role in a high-performance, data-driven environment.

Location: Onsite at our Bethesda, MD headquarters.

Here’s What You'll Do Day-to-day

• Manage and maintain SQL Server databases (2016, 2019, 2022) across multiple shards and environments (Development, QA, Staging, Production).
• Configure, monitor, and support Always On Availability Groups (AOAG) and Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) for high availability and disaster recovery.
• Monitor performance and identify bottlenecks using tools like Idera, Extended Events, WorkloadTools, Query Store, and wait statistics.
• Hands-on experience with performance tuning, indexing strategies, and execution plan analysis.
• Collaborate with developers to review SQL code, enforce best practices, and eliminate issues like parameter sniffing and implicit conversions.
• Automate recurring tasks and deployments using t-sql, PowerShell, dbatools, and Infrastructure-as-Code tools such as Terraform or Ansible.
• Participate in the SQL Server 2022 upgrade initiative by validating workloads and optimizing compatibility levels.
• Support and fulfill ad-hoc data requests and data fixes while ensuring accuracy, compliance, performance, and data security.
• Maintain documentation for environments, jobs, issues, and recovery procedures.
• Contribute to regular team discussions, share lessons learned, and help evolve database coding and review standards.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with the Security, Infrastructure, and Development teams to ensure a secure, scalable, and reliable environment.

Here’s What You’ll Need

• You are not just a DBA. You understand the full lifecycle of database development, deployment, and performance at scale. You take ownership of tasks, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively with developers and infrastructure teams.
• 6–10 years of experience as a SQL Server DBA and Developer in a production environment.
• Strong T-SQL development, troubleshooting, and performance tuning skills.
• Experience with SQL Server 2016 or later, including AOAG configuration and support.
• Hands-on expertise in query optimization, indexing strategies, execution plan analysis, and code review.
• Familiarity with sp_whoisactive, Idera SQL Diagnostic Manager, SQL Sentry Plan Explorer, Extended Events, Ola Hallengren Maintenance Scripts.
• Understanding of Azure Cloud, Azure VMs, Managed Instances, and Azure SQL Databases.
• Exposure to Git-based workflows and DevOps collaboration practices.
• Strong understanding of data security and compliance (encryption, masking, access control).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Detail-oriented and reliable - ensures correctness, consistency, and documentation discipline in all deployments and data fixes.
• Breaks down complex problems logically and communicates solutions clearly.
• Collaborative and humble - works effectively across teams, listens actively, shares credit, and learns from feedback.

Bonus Points

• Prior experience in a multi-shard or multi-tenant SQL Server environment.
• Experience with AI or automated SQL code review tools for enforcing coding standards and performance best practices.
• Exposure to configuration tools like Terraform, Ansible, or PowerShell for automation and configuration management.
• Microsoft SQL Server certification (2012 or later).