SQL Server Architect

· Deep SQL Server architecture & internals - query engine, storage engine, transaction/locking/isolation levels, execution plan internals; 15+ yrs hands-on, architect-level design authority (not admin-level)

· HA/DR design mastery - Always On AGs, clustering, replication topologies; able to architect DR strategy across on-prem VMs and hybrid cloud, not just configure it

· Cloud migration engineering - hands-on RDS for SQL Server (and/or Azure SQL/MI) migration mechanics: DMS, native backup/restore, licensing model trade-offs (BYOL vs. License Included)

· Strong Python scripting - automation, tooling, and integration development; not “can write a script” but production-grade automation engineering

· AI-assisted engineering fluency - daily hands-on use of AI coding assistants (GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor, or similar) to accelerate schema design, query optimization, and code review

· LLM/agentic infrastructure exposure - working knowledge of embeddings, vector databases, RAG, and semantic search as they intersect with data platform design

· AI-enabled database operations - experience evaluating or building AI-driven observability, anomaly detection, or self-healing/auto-remediation tooling for database platforms

· MCP / tool-integration awareness - familiarity with Model Context Protocol or comparable frameworks for connecting AI agents to data systems

· Performance engineering at scale - wait-stats methodology, indexing strategy, parameter sniffing mitigation - demonstrable via live plan-reading, not resume claims

· IaC & CI/CD fluency - Terraform/CloudFormation, Git, automated pipelines for database deployment and change management