Overview
We are seeking a SQL Server Performance & Data Warehouse Consultant to join our team on a 3-month initial contract. In this hybrid role, you will lead an optimisation programme within a substantial Microsoft SQL Server estate, addressing performance, storage, and scalability challenges across an 80TB SQL Server 2022 Data Warehouse. Working closely with technical and leadership stakeholders, you will provide hands-on consultancy, implement improvements, and ensure the team is equipped for ongoing optimisation efforts.
Responsibilities
- Review database architecture, filegroup design, storage configuration, and maintenance strategies.
- Analyse workload characteristics to identify performance, capacity, and storage bottlenecks.
- Optimise query performance through execution plan analysis, indexing, statistics management, and workload tuning.
- Diagnose complex SQL Server issues including blocking, deadlocking, and TempDB contention.
- Leverage SQL Server 2022 capabilities such as Intelligent Query Processing and columnstore technologies.
- Produce a prioritised remediation roadmap balancing risk, effort, and technical value.
- Deliver documentation and knowledge transfer to the internal team to continue optimisation efforts.
Requirements
- Extensive experience supporting and optimising large-scale, multi-terabyte SQL Server environments.
- Deep expertise in SQL Server performance tuning, query optimisation, and indexing.
- Strong understanding of SQL Server internals, storage architecture, and capacity planning.
- Proven experience using Query Store, DMVs, Extended Events, and performance baselining techniques.
- Experience optimising data warehouse environments, including partitioning and compression strategies.
- Ability to assess, recommend, implement, and effectively communicate with stakeholders at all levels.