Job Description & Details
This is a heavy-duty infrastructure role managing mission-critical SQL Server environments for a client in Little Rock. You will be knee-deep in performance tuning, disaster recovery, and high availability, meaning this isn't just a maintenance gig—you need to actually know how SQL Server behaves under pressure. Be prepared for a traditional onsite setup with 24/7 support rotations, so it demands real operational commitment.
What You'll Actually Be Doing
Your day-to-day will revolve around keeping heavy enterprise databases online, fast, and secure. You'll spend a lot of time upgrading legacy instances, patching Windows and SQL environments, and writing PowerShell scripts to automate the boring stuff. When a complex query brings production to its knees, you'll be the one diving into Dynamic Management Views and Extended Events to find the bottleneck. You'll also manage Always On Availability Groups, configure Windows Failover Clusters, and occasionally touch AWS EC2 instances and Active Directory to ensure everything talks to each other securely.
The Core Tech Stack
You need deep, battle-tested expertise in SQL Server 2016 through 2022, alongside strong Windows Server administration and AWS EC2 management. The non-negotiables here are Always On Availability Groups, advanced T-SQL performance tuning, and PowerShell automation. If you don't instinctively know how to troubleshoot blocking, deadlocks, and index fragmentation using DMVs, you're going to struggle here. Bonus points if you've worked with government tax systems like GenTax, but pure database reliability and security compliance are what they really care about.
Interview Expectations
Expect the hiring team to test your real-world troubleshooting instincts by asking you to walk them through how you would diagnose a sudden, severe spike in CPU usage caused by an unoptimized query in a production environment. They want to see if you immediately jump into Extended Events and DMVs or if you just guess blindly. They will also likely drill down into your experience with Always On Availability Groups, specifically asking how you handle split-brain scenarios or quorum loss during a disaster recovery failover. They are looking for calm, methodical engineers who don't panic when production breaks.
Application Advice
To get past the ATS, make sure your resume explicitly lists the exact versions of SQL Server you've managed, alongside keywords like 'Always On Availability Groups', 'PowerShell automation', and 'Windows Failover Clustering'. Don't just list job titles; detail the scale of the databases you've maintained in terms of size and transaction volume. Emphasize any past experience with 24/7 on-call rotations and security compliance frameworks, as local teams hiring for critical infrastructure want absolute proof that you can handle the operational weight of the role.