Senior SQL Database Engineer

Senior SQL Database EngineerThis role is with a DeWinter Financial Services PartnerBoston, MA - Hybrid Role - We are targeting local candidates that can be in the Boston office 3 days per week.12 Month + contract (or contract to hire, if desired)Position OverviewWe are looking for a hands-on SQL Server Database Engineer to support the day-to-day operation of our production database environments. The primary focus of this role is SQL Server administration, troubleshooting, performance optimization, and production support.In addition to traditional database responsibilities, this person will help automate recurring operational tasks and contribute to broader data-platform initiatives involving Python, AWS, PostgreSQL, Snowflake, and data pipelines.This is a hands-on engineering position for someone who is equally comfortable troubleshooting a production database issue and building automation to improve how database environments are managed.Key ResponsibilitiesSupport and troubleshoot production Microsoft SQL Server environments.Diagnose performance issues involving blocking, deadlocks, capacity, availability, and failed jobs.Analyze execution plans and improve query performance through tuning, indexing, and database-design recommendations.Manage SQL Server backup and recovery, security, monitoring, maintenance, patching, upgrades, and deployments.Support high-availability and disaster-recovery environments.Automate repetitive database administration and operational tasks using Python, PowerShell, Bash, or similar tools.Help improve CI/CD processes and automated database deployments.Develop and support data pipelines and scheduled workflows.Contribute to platform initiatives involving SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Snowflake, and AWS.Partner with application-development teams to resolve database and production issues.Participate in an on-call rotation for production database services.Required ExperienceStrong hands-on experience administering and supporting Microsoft SQL Server in production.Strong SQL skills, including query tuning, execution-plan analysis, indexing, and performance troubleshooting.Experience with SQL Server backup and recovery, security, maintenance, patching, upgrades, and HA/DR.Experience automating operational or database tasks using Python, PowerShell, Bash, or another scripting language.Experience supporting production incidents and performing root-cause analysis.Ability to balance daily operational support with automation and engineering projects.Strong problem-solving and communication skills.Preferred ExperienceAWS experience, particularly with RDS, EC2, EBS, S3, VPC, IAM, or CloudWatch.Experience with PostgreSQL or Snowflake.Experience building ETL/ELT workflows or data pipelines.Familiarity with Git, CI/CD, and Terraform.Experience with Airflow, Docker, Kubernetes, or Kafka.Ideal CandidateThe ideal candidate is a strong production SQL Server DBA or database engineer who has expanded beyond traditional administration into automation, cloud infrastructure, and modern data engineering. This person should still be willing and able to handle day-to-day database operations rather than focusing only on architecture or project work.