Principal sql database administrator (sql dba, aws, performance tuning, architect)

The insurance industry runs on Vertafore. We equip agencies, MGAs, and carriers with the core digital systems, specialized AI, and data-driven foundation to eliminate distribution drag across the insurance lifecycle, spanning sales, servicing, and back-office operations.

Underpinned by unmatched speed and performance power, we are the trusted backbone that’s taking the insurance industry from friction to flow with Distribution Velocity – speed, performance, and trust - to drive growth at scale.

With over 95% of the top agencies and insurers and 50% of industry compliance transactions running through Vertafore, we lead at the intersection of innovation and trust, giving insurance professionals the confidence to transform and win in the AI era.

Our reach is global, with headquarters in Denver, Colorado, and offices across the U.S., Canada, and India.

Job Description

As a Principal DBA, you will provide technical leadership and hands-on expertise across Vertafore's enterprise database ecosystem supporting large-scale, business-critical applications. This role is focused on Microsoft SQL Server Administration, SQL Development, Performance Engineering, Query Optimization, AWS Database Services, and Database Modernization.

You will partner with Engineering, Architecture, Product, DevOps, and SRE teams to drive database performance, scalability, reliability, and operational excellence. The ideal candidate combines deep expertise in SQL Server Administration, T-SQL Development, Performance Engineering, AWS database technologies, automation, and high availability solutions, with the ability to influence technical strategy and mentor engineering teams.

Core Requirements and Responsibilities:

Essential job functions include but are not limited to the following:

• Provide technical leadership for the architecture, administration, modernization, and support of SQL Server database platform across on-prem and AWS (EC2,RDS) supporting mission-critical applications.
• Partner with development teams to improve database architecture, SQL coding standards, application performance, and cloud database adoption across On-prem and AWS platforms.
• Lead database performance engineering initiatives through query tuning, Query Store, DMVs, execution plan analysis, wait statistics, indexing strategies, and workload optimization.
• Analyze, troubleshoot, and resolve complex production database issues involving performance, scalability, availability, and reliability while implementing long-term engineering solutions.
• Drive modernization efforts by optimizing database designs, T-SQL code, stored procedures, functions, views, ETL processes, and legacy database architectures.
• Participate in production support, critical incident management, root cause analysis, and on-call activities as required.
• Lead on-premises to AWS (EC2/RDS) database migrations, independently driving migration strategy, architecture decisions, risk mitigation, and performance optimization to ensure successful cloud transformation.
• Develop and enhance database automation, CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code solutions, monitoring frameworks, and operational tooling to improve deployment reliability and engineering productivity.
• Establish database engineering standards, governance, security controls, monitoring practices, and operational best practices across the organization.