Sr. SQL Server Database Administrator Security Clearance

Position: Sr. SQL Server Database Administrator with Security Clearance
Why AIS? When you join AIS, you're joining a mission-driven team that's passionate about making a difference. You'll work on projects that matter, alongside industry-leading experts, in an environment that fosters innovation, driving client success, and empowering our team to make a lasting impact. As an employee-owned company, we value collaboration, inclusivity, continuous growth, and shared success.
* Employee Ownership:
Your contributions directly impact the company's success, and you share in its achievements.

* Continuous Learning:
Access to resources, training, and mentorship to support your professional growth.

* Inclusive Culture: A workplace where diversity is celebrated, and everyone's voice is valued.

* Mission-Driven Work:
Engage in projects that make a meaningful difference for our clients and communities. What are we looking for? At AIS, we're looking for more than just skills - we're looking for driven individuals who are passionate about making a difference, eager to grow, and aligned with our core principles. Working@AIS
At AIS, we are dedicated to providing our employees with diverse opportunities to grow their careers while supporting a variety of impactful projects. For this position, we are seeking a talented individual to join AIS as a Lead Software Engineer.
* Core Knowledge &

Skills:

Operates independently or as a team lead, selects appropriate persistence technologies (e.g., EF, Dapper), defines source control strategies, and designs subsystem infrastructure.

* Work & Complexity:
Tackles complex problems with thorough analysis, manages cross-functional delivery, and improves system reliability and scalability.

* Quality & Independence:
Consistently meets deadlines even under challenging conditions, enforces standards through detailed reviews, and establishes productivity benchmarks for the team.

* Teamwork & Communication:
Provides functional leadership by setting objectives, organizing resources, resolving conflicts, and engaging confidently with both internal and external stakeholders.

* Consulting & Engagement:
Troubleshoots advanced client issues, supports requirements gathering, and contributes to vendor presentations or proposal activities. As your initial project assignment, you will support the unique needs of our client as a Sr. SQL Server Database Administrator. Project Summary We are seeking a highly skilled Senior SQL Server Database Administrator (DBA) to support, secure, and optimize mission-critical database environments across multiple security domains.

This role is responsible for full-lifecycle SQL Server administration, including installation, configuration, backup/recovery, performance tuning, HA/DR, security hardening, and compliance enforcement. The ideal candidate brings extensive hands-on experience managing enterprise SQL Server environments and supporting advanced analytics, reporting, and application teams. An active Top Secret clearance is required.

Key Responsibilities
* Install, configure, and maintain Microsoft SQL Server across Dev, UAT, and Production environments hosted on Windows Server and cloud platforms.

* Own SQL Server installation, configuration, patching, backup/recovery, performance tuning, and security enforcement.

* Provide daily operational support, including monitoring, troubleshooting, maintenance jobs, and vulnerability remediation.

* Design, implement, and support HA/DR solutions, including Always On Availability Groups and Windows Server Failover Clustering.

* Perform advanced performance tuning, T-SQL optimization, index management, and issue resolution.

* Support SQL Server components such as SSRS, SSAS, and Power BI Report Server.

* Proactively maintain SQL environments for performance, reliability, and compliance.

* Implement and enforce database security controls, including TDE, encryption standards, STIG compliance, and audit readiness.

* Resolve complex database issues, such as performance bottlenecks, data corruption, and connectivity problems.

* Maintain detailed documentation for configurations, standards, procedures, and recovery strategies.

* Collaborate with developers on schema design, stored procedures, and query optimization.

* Plan and execute database upgrades, migrations, and patch cycles.

* Ensure compliance with regulatory, industry, and customer security requirements.

* Participate in on-call rotations for after-hours support.

* Install and support Oracle databases as needed. Required For This Opportunity
* Active Top Secret clearance.

* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, or related field (or equivalent experience).

* Minimum 9 years of database administration experience, including 5+ years of recent SQL Server DBA work.

* Deep understanding of SQL Server architecture, internals, and performance optimization.

* Proven experience with HA/DR technologies (Always On AG, WSFC, failover technologies).

* Expertise in encryption methods (TDE, SSL), database security, and STIG compliance.

* Advanced T-SQL skills for troubleshooting,…