Senior Enterprise Database Administrator

Dentons US LLP is currently recruiting for a Senior Enterprise Database Administrator. This position reports to the Enterprise Business Systems team and is responsible for the reliability, modernization, security, and performance of the Firm’s database platforms and the enterprise applications that depend upon them.

This is a hybrid database platform and enterprise application support role. The successful candidate will provide advanced SQL Server administration, support application troubleshooting and implementation activities, and help lead the transition of appropriate database workloads from traditional infrastructure to Azure-managed database services, including Azure SQL Managed Instance and Azure SQL Database.

The role will take ownership of production issue resolution, database and application performance, cloud database migration, platform lifecycle management, technical documentation, and the implementation of tactical and strategic initiatives supporting core business functions.

• Assess database platform needs and develop and implement tactical and long-term strategic initiatives for production databases in collaboration with data owners and business stakeholders.
• Design, implement, secure, and manage resilient on-premises and cloud database environments, including SQL high-availability clusters, mirroring, synchronization, backup, recovery, disaster recovery, data archiving, access controls, and retention requirements.
• Partner with Infrastructure teams and application stakeholders to ensure databases and critical data are protected in accordance with business requirements and the Firm’s security, disaster recovery, compliance, and data retention policies.
• Provide day-to-day administration and advanced support for the Firm’s SQL systems and dependent applications, proactively monitoring and tuning database and application performance and taking ownership of production issues through resolution.
• Plan and coordinate data migrations, database upgrades, and platform modernization initiatives across on-premises and cloud environments.
• Design, implement, administer, secure, and optimize Azure SQL Managed Instance and Azure SQL Database environments, including connectivity, resiliency, backup, recovery, and compliance configurations.
• Develop and maintain testing and change-control processes for database, application, infrastructure, and patching activities, ensuring proposed changes are appropriately tested and include rollback plans.
• Support enterprise application implementations from initiation through completion, including installation and configuration of middle-tier application components when required.
• Provide timely third-line support by troubleshooting and resolving escalated database and application issues and fulfilling backup, restore, mirroring, synchronization, access, and availability requests.
• Participate in platform lifecycle maintenance, patching activities, technical documentation, and the on-call rotation supporting the Firm’s operations.
• Perform other duties as assigned to fully meet the requirements of the position.

• Bachelor’s degree in business, computer science, information systems, or a related field, or equivalent relevant certifications.
• At least five years of experience serving as a technical subject-matter expert in a 24 x 7 global support environment; law firm or professional services experience is preferred.
• Expert knowledge of SQL clustering, high-availability implementations, backup, recovery, and disaster recovery concepts for database systems.
• Hands-on experience implementing, administering, securing, optimizing, and migrating workloads to Microsoft Azure SQL Managed Instance and Azure SQL Database.
• Demonstrated…