Public Safety SQL Server Engineer - Mission-Critical 911 Systems (Brooklyn, Hybrid)

• Review all Microsoft SQL Server databases and identify performance bottlenecks, fragmentation, and inconsistencies - using wait statistics, blocking chains, and query plan analysis to separate symptom from cause
• Perform routine maintenance - index rebuilds and reorganizations against fragmentation thresholds, statistics updates (including full-scan where sampling misleads the optimizer), and DBCC CHECKDB integrity checks on a defined cadence
• Handle database creation, configuration, and file/filegroup layout; manage tempdb configuration, autogrowth settings, and transaction log sizing
• Own monitoring and alerting - SQL Server Agent jobs, operators, alerts, and maintenance windows - so failures surface before users report them
• Administer security: logins and database users, role-based least-privilege access, AD group mappings, orphaned user cleanup, encryption at rest, and audit trails

High availability and failover

• Monitor and maintain Always On Availability Groups across SQL clusters, including synchronous and asynchronous commit replicas, readable secondaries, and listener configuration
• Verify synchronization state across replicas - tracking send/redo queue depth, replica lag, and seeding status, and resolving replicas that fall out of sync
• Perform scheduled failover testing and execute planned and unplanned failovers during live incidents, including the Windows Server Failover Cluster layer: quorum configuration, node health, and cluster validation
• Maintain complementary HA and recovery mechanisms where in use - database mirroring, failover cluster instances, log shipping, and replication

Patching and migration

• Schedule and perform SQL Server cumulative updates, service packs, and security patching, coordinating with stakeholders to minimize downtime
• Execute rolling patch sequences across AG replicas - secondaries first, controlled failover, then former primary - to keep databases available through maintenance
• Assess existing applications and databases and work with application owners to plan and execute migrations to SQL Server 2019
• Drive migration mechanics end to end: compatibility assessments, database compatibility levels, collation and configuration parity, and cutover/rollback planning
• Ensure compatibility and performance optimization throughout the migration, including regression testing against the newer cardinality estimator and using Query Store to detect and remediate plan regressions after upgrade

Consolidation and architecture

• Identify opportunities to consolidate SQL servers into shared instances
• Evaluate resource utilization and performance impact before and after consolidation - CPU, memory pressure, storage latency, and instance-level resource governance - with capacity baselines to prove the result
• Review SQL Server and database requests as part of the build cycle and provide best practice recommendations on schema and index design, performance tuning, and security

Backup, recovery, and analysis

• Review and optimize SQL backup schedules and technologies across full, differential, and transaction log backups, aligned to recovery models and defined RPO/RTO targets
• Implement backup strategies supporting data integrity and disaster recovery readiness, including verification, retention, and offsite/secondary-site copies
• Monitor backup jobs, troubleshoot failures, and run periodic recovery tests - including point-in-time restores and full DR exercises that prove the runbook actually works
• Perform root cause analysis on internal and external data and processes using SQL Server Profiler, Dynamic Management Views, Extended Events sessions, deadlock graphs, and Query Store history; identify patterns, trends, and anomalies and propose data-driven solutions

Project support

• Provide project management support for SQL-related initiatives - coordinating tasks, timelines, and resources
• Communicate effectively with stakeholders to provide updates and manage expectations
• Work within formal change control for production changes on life-safety systems

• 12+ years hands-on experience as a Microsoft SQL Engineer / DBA - administering SQL Server instances in production, not writing queries against them as a developer or analyst
• Advanced SQL querying - complex queries, stored procedures, triggers, and SQL performance optimization through execution plan analysis, indexing strategy, and query rewriting
• Proficiency across database administration: creation, configuration, monitoring, backup and recovery, security management, user access control, and optimization
• Demonstrated experience implementing and maintaining high availability - Always On Availability Groups, database mirroring, failover clustering, and disaster recovery planning - including hands-on failover execution, not design documents alone
• Proven ability to diagnose and troubleshoot database issues using SQL Server Profiler, Dynamic Management Views (DMVs), and Extended Events
• Experience patching, upgrading, and migrating production SQL Server estates across versions with minimal downtime
• Advanced working knowledge of relational databases and query authoring, with working familiarity across a variety of database platforms, * Knowledge of MySQL, Oracle, or MongoDB
• Experience with VMware, Active Directory, and DNS
• Prior experience in public safety, emergency communications, healthcare, or another environment where database downtime carries real-world consequences, * Microsoft SQL Server DBA: 10 years (Preferred)

• Hybrid schedule with 2 fixed onsite days per week in Downtown Brooklyn - this is not a fully remote role
• Supports 911 systems that run 24x7; patching, failover testing, and cutover work happen during off-hours maintenance windows
• Overtime beyond 35 hours must be requested in the agency timekeeping system and approved in advance by the project manager

OZ Solutions Group is a Brooklyn-based technology staffing and IT consulting firm supporting large-scale public sector technology operations across New York City. We place experienced engineers on mission-critical infrastructure and support programs.