DBA Manager

Database Administration (DBA) Manager

IT Infrastructure |

Reports to:

Datacenter Senior Manager |

Location:

Lincolnshire, IL (Hybrid)

The DBA Manager is the primary owner of Camping World's structured data infrastructure — the systems underpinning our retail, e-commerce, and enterprise platforms across 180+ locations. This role leads a team of Database Administrators responsible for the availability, performance, security, and scalability of our SQL Server environment (on-premises and Azure), while actively driving cloud migration, automation, and DR modernization initiatives.

The ideal candidate brings deep hands-on SQL Server expertise, a track record of leading enterprise DBA teams, and the communication skills to operate as a peer to engineering, Dev Ops, and analytics leadership. This is both a technical leadership and a people management role.

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of Database Administrators, setting day-to-day priorities, long-term direction, and providing escalation support.
• Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and knowledge sharing across the DBA team.
• Define and own team hiring, onboarding, and skills development roadmaps.
• Participate in an on-call rotation and maintain 24/7 escalation coverage for P1 database incidents.

• Own the design, implementation, and maintenance of high-availability database systems, primarily SQL Server 2016–2022 on-premises and Azure SQL / Managed Instance.
• Administer and optimize Always On Availability Groups, log shipping, and replication topologies to meet defined RPO/RTO targets.
• Lead performance tuning, query optimization, and root-cause analysis for complex database issues across production environments.
• Develop and enforce database policies, standards, and best practices for backup/recovery, patching, and security hardening.
• Manage capacity planning, monitoring, and cost optimization across on-prem SQL clusters and cloud database tiers.

• Lead and execute cloud migration strategies for existing on-premises SQL workloads to Azure SQL, Azure Managed Instance, or Azure Data Factory pipelines.
• Partner with engineering, Dev Ops, and analytics teams to design scalable, cloud-native data architectures for new applications.
• Evaluate and implement automation tools, infrastructure-as-code approaches (Terraform, ARM templates), and database Dev Ops practices (CI/CD for schema changes).
• Assess and recommend emerging database technologies aligned with the company's Azure-first cloud strategy.

• Own DR strategy and execution for all database systems, including RPO/RTO definition, failover testing, and documentation.
• Coordinate with the IT Disaster Recovery Architect on enterprise DR exercises and ensure database recovery procedures are integrated into the broader DR runbook.
• Maintain and enforce database security, data governance, and compliance standards (PCI-DSS, SOX where applicable).
• Ensure audit logging, access control, and encryption standards are implemented and continuously validated.

• Serve as the primary technical liaison between the DBA team and engineering, Dev Ops, analytics, and business stakeholders.
• Provide executive-level reporting on database health, performance metrics, incident trends, and strategic initiatives.
• Manage vendor relationships, licensing, and support contracts for database and monitoring tooling.
• Operate within the company's ITSM and change control framework (CAB participation, change ticketing, and incident management).
• Broker technical solutions across geographically distributed teams and time zones.

• 15+ years of hands-on database administration experience, with at least 5 years in a leadership or management role.
• Expert-level SQL Server administration (2016–2022):
  Always On AG, failover clustering, replication, log shipping, TDE, and auditing.
• Proven experience with Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, or equivalent cloud database platforms.
• Deep proficiency in performance tuning, query plan analysis, index strategy, and…