SQL Server DBA

Role: SQL Server DBALocation: Dallas, TXType: ContractSummary:Client is looking for a senior SQL DBA - Not necessarily required to do development work but needs a very solid experienced DBA who can focus on doing heavy admin, tuning, and cleanup work on the SQL DB that sits behind their Retail System (Yellow Dog).They will have to have excellent communication skills and business acumen - and will be expected to consult and collaborate effectively and intelligently communicate and interpret requirements across multiple stakeholders (including individual contributors and executive leaders) across various BUs (Retail & Hotel Ops, Finance etc.) and ensure the DB is conditioned to support multiple business and reporting needs. They need help providing day to day support to the SQLDB and will also be expected to identify where there are data gaps, make recommendations for improvements. and improve documentation of their architecture and data flow and advise Gustaaf and various stakeholders on how to better stabilize and scale the system.Reason for Opening:The IT team is required to support centralized reporting for thinks like inventory, revenue allocation, shrink, reorder point calculations, etc. and needs to address challenges with database performance, data quality, and stability, which impacts retail / hotel / restaurant operations, field/hotel-level inventory accuracy, and financial integrity.Currently, they have an overextended internal team, leaving retail systems unsupported, so Gustaaf Schrils (CIO) is looking for a SQL DBA dedicated to their Retail System (Yellow Dog) to address performance / stability issues (i.e. Slow queries, Poor indexing, Bloated tables, Fragmentation, Deadlocks etc); and sync issues between POS Yellow Dog ERP (Oracle EBS) which are creating reporting delays which adversely impact speed of business decisions.Omni frequently updates/expands operations through M&A or multi-property rollouts- and has to often scale retail DBs across properties which requires strong SQL oversightInventory accuracy is suffering and audits, shrink management, and compliance which can result in poor retail inventory data and can also result in reconciliation problems, financial discrepancies, can create lost revenue so needs a SQL DBA to ensure the DB underneath Yellow Dog cleaned, deduped, reconciled, and better structured or retail teams cannot trust inventory counts. About the Company: Client is a large hospitality operator / Hotel Company with: • Hotel retail outlets (gift shops, spas, golf shops, food retail, boutiques). • Distributed retail systems across 50+ properties. • Multi-property POS ecosystem integrating with:PMS) Property Management Systems like (for example: Opera, StayNTouch, Light-speed)Retail POS systems (Yellow Dog - hospitality / retail tool whichintegrates with property and POS systems and is used to manages inventory across many outlets and runs on Microsoft SQL Server back-end-and needs ongoing maintenance because it stores large volumes of transacted, item-level, multi-location retail data)Financial ERP (Oracle EBS) Fundamental Requirements:Core SQL Server / DBA Skills:SQL Server 2016-2022 administrationQuery tuning, indexing, and performance optimizationDatabase maintenance (DBCC checks, index rebuilds, shrink/cleanup strategies)Backup/restore + HA/DRSQL Security & Role-Based Access ControlUnderstanding of SQL Agent jobs and ETL schedulesFamiliarity with integrations:API feedsScheduled batch importsFile-based ingestSync issues between systemsExperience with large transactional databases (retail /hospitality requires heavy item-level transactionsAbility to understand and correlate Hospitality + Retail + Multi-Property Ops Context:Retail outlets operate 7 days a week → uptime criticalHotel PMS + POS integration complexityDistributed systems across 50+ hotels (WAN latency, local servers, replication)Seasonality spikes (holidays, events) impacting performanceInventory shrink + financial reconciliation processes Desired Skills/ Experience: Retail System-Specific Technical Skills are desired (i.e.. - Understanding of things like):Inventory adjustmentsRetail/Field-level vs centralized inventoryPurchase ordersReceiving processesPrice booksSKU structuresAbility to interpret POS (Point-of-Sale) data structuresExperience with inventory systems or retail ERPYellow Dog is a plus (not required if strong SQL + inventory background) Tools/Technologies:SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)SQL Profiler, Extended EventsSQL monitoring (RedGate or SolarWinds)Power BI or Tableau (for data quality dashboards)Windows Server & Active Directory basicsETL tools (SSIS likely)Git or version control (light usage for scripts)Yellow Dog APIs / integration layer (desired but not required) Business / Soft Skills Needed: Because the CIO emphasized "solid business acumen," this is NOT just a backend DBA. They need someone who can:Talk to Retail / Restaurant/ Hotel operations managersExplain data errors to non-technical teamsUnderstand why bad inventory data = lost revenueDocument and recommend operational improvementsWork cross-functionally with:FinanceRetail GM/DirectorsStore managersOmni corporate ITTranslate root causes into business impactExample: "SKU duplication is causing margin calculation errors ") Daily ActivitiesMonitor SQL Server database health:Review slow queries, blocking, deadlocksManage backups, restores, and failover preparedness:Validate data feeds from POS →Yellow Dog → downstream systemsFix data hygiene issues:orphaned recordsmismatched SKUsduplicate itemsincorrect unit conversionAnalyze data anomalies impacting retail operationsWork with retail operations and finance to understand data gapsDocument DB architecture and data flowProvide guidance on how to stabilize and scale the system Project Work:Index tuning & rebuildingMigrating SQL instances or consolidating serversHardening SQL Server securityImproving disaster recovery and backup strategyBuilding monitoring dashboardsWorking with Yellow Dog vendor supportSupporting new store openings or rolloutsHelping prepare for PCI or SOX compliance (retail touches payments → high compliance needs)