Senior SQL Server Database Administrator Consultant – AI & Vector Data Platforms

IWU is seeking a Senior SQL Server Database Administrator Consultant – AI & Vector Data Platforms (Independent Contractor ‑ 1099 / Contract‑to‑Hire) for a large-scale technology reorganization project.

• IWU's enterprise re-platforming depends on reliable, high-performance data services – relational systems of record, analytics pipelines, and the vector storage layer that powers retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for our on-premises AI platform. We are seeking an Senior Microsoft SQL Database Administrator with hands‑on vector storage experience (Weaviate) to design, operate, and optimize data and embedding stores across our multi‑site active/active data center footprint.
• This is not a cloud DBA role. IWU runs database workloads on infrastructure we own and operate in commercial colocation.
• You will administer production SQL Server environments
  , implement backup, HA, and DR patterns that meet our RTO/RPO targets.
• You will stand up and support vector‑capable storage – whether native SQL Server vector indexes
  , Weaviate or other dedicated vector databases that AI and application teams depend on for semantic search and RAG.
• You will be a hands‑on senior individual contributor
  : you will translate industry database standards into deployed, monitored services, partner with infrastructure, security, AI, and application teams, and keep data platforms auditable, recoverable, and performant at enterprise scale.

• Administer Microsoft SQL Server production and non‑production instances – installation, patching, configuration, Always On availability groups, log shipping, replication, and failover testing across dual‑site topologies.
• Design and maintain backup, restore, and point‑in‑time recovery procedures – full, differential, and log backups, offsite retention, restore validation, and documented runbooks.
• Monitor and tune database performance – query plans, index design, wait statistics, tempdb, memory grants, I/O latency, and capacity planning triggers.
• Implement security controls – TDE, column‑level encryption where required, least‑privilege access, SQL Audit, and alignment with organizational hardening standards.
• Manage schema migrations, deployment pipelines, and change control for line‑of‑business databases, integration hubs, and platform services.

• Design, deploy, and operate vector storage for AI and RAG workloads – embedding ingestion pipelines, index types, similarity search latency targets, and capacity planning for embedding growth.
• Evaluate and implement vector capabilities on SQL Server (native vector data types and indexes) and/or alongside dedicated vector databases per enterprise standards.
• Partner with the Enterprise AI Architect and application teams on RAG data models – chunking strategies, metadata filters, hybrid search (vector + keyword), and refresh cadences for knowledge bases.
• Optimize vector query performance – index rebuilds, shard/replica strategy, batch vs. real‑time ingestion, and benchmarking under concurrent inference load.

• Architect SQL Server and vector store replication for active/active dual‑site operation – synchronous or near‑synchronous replication, automatic failover, conflict handling, and site‑independent read/write patterns where standards require.
• Align database DR posture with enterprise RPO/RTO targets – failover runbooks, regular DR exercises, and post‑incident review.
• Coordinate with infrastructure on storage tiering, network latency between sites, and connection pooling.

• Maintain database controls for FERPA, HIPAA, SOC 2, and PCI‑DSS obligations where applicable – classification, access reviews, audit trails, and evidence for auditors.
• Document standards, runbooks, and integration patterns for developers and data engineers.
• Participate in on‑call rotation for database incidents – corruption, replication lag, failover events, and performance degradation – with clear escalation paths.

• According to Indiana Wesleyan University policy, all employees and contract‑to‑hire…