SQL Server Performance & Data Warehouse Consultant

About Us

Our mission is to dominate the betting and gaming industry on a global scale and we need the very best Tech Talent to help us achieve this. With our proprietary platform powering everything we do, it's an exciting time to join us. We're pioneering new products and driving more advanced, creative technologies. The result? Unrivalled experiences for millions of customers worldwide.

Job Purpose

We are seeking an experienced SQL Server Performance & Data Warehouse Consultant to join the Data Platform team on an initial three-month contract to lead a comprehensive performance, capacity and storage optimisation programme for a large-scale, on-premises Microsoft SQL Server estate, the main focus will be an 80 TB SQL Server 2022 Data Warehouse platform.

Working closely with the Data Engineering team, the successful consultant will undertake a comprehensive technical assessment of the existing platforms, identify performance, storage and capacity constraints, determine their root causes, and implement agreed improvements that deliver measurable gains in performance, scalability, operational resilience and long-term maintainability.

The successful consultant will be expected to investigate performance holistically across the entire technology stack, recognising that enterprise database performance challenges frequently originate outside of the SQL Server engine. This includes the operating system, virtualisation platform, compute, storage, SAN, networking and associated infrastructure, requiring the ability to identify and resolve bottlenecks wherever they exist.

The engagement will conclude with a prioritised remediation roadmap, comprehensive technical documentation and knowledge transfer to enable the Data Engineering team to confidently support and evolve the SQL Server estate.

Background & Problem Statement

The Microsoft SQL Server estate supports several business-critical platforms, including an 80 TB SQL Server 2022 Data Warehouse. Continued growth in data volumes and workload complexity has introduced performance, storage and capacity challenges that now require specialist investigation and remediation.

Current challenges include:

• Database and transaction log files that are inefficiently sized and configured
• Limited available storage capacity constraining maintenance operations and future growth
• Database shrink operations causing fragmentation, blocking and unnecessary performance overhead
• Inefficient indexing strategies and statistics maintenance affecting query performance
• Increasing maintenance windows and operational overhead as the platform continues to grow
• Opportunities to better leverage SQL Server 2022 performance capabilities and modern data warehouse optimisation techniques
• Potential infrastructure constraints within the compute, storage and network layers impacting overall database performance

Job Duties

• Review database architecture, storage configuration, filegroup design and maintenance strategies
• Analyse workload characteristics to identify performance, storage and capacity constraints
• Develop and implement sustainable strategies for database growth, storage optimisation and capacity management
• Optimise query performance through execution plan analysis, indexing strategies, statistics management and workload tuning
• Diagnose complex SQL Server performance issues including parameter sensitivity, cardinality estimation, blocking, deadlocking, concurrency, memory grants, TempDB contention, parallelism and execution plan instability
• Assess opportunities to leverage SQL Server 2022 capabilities including Query Store, Intelligent Query Processing, Query Store Hints, Parameter Sensitive Plan optimisation, partitioning, compression and columnstore indexing where appropriate
• Produce a prioritised remediation roadmap balancing technical benefit, operational risk and long-term maintainability
• Produce comprehensive technical documentation, operational recommendations and knowledge transfer for the Data Engineering team.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

Essential:

• Extensive experience administering and optimising large-scale (multi-terabyte) Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise environments across multiple SQL Server versions
• Expert understanding of SQL Server storage engine internals, including database and transaction log architecture, allocation structures, filegroups, autogrowth behaviour, recovery and storage optimisation
• Deep understanding of SQL Server query optimisation, including execution plan analysis, Query Optimiser behaviour, cardinality estimation, parameter sensitivity, indexing strategies and statistics management
• Extensive experience diagnosing complex production performance issues using native SQL Server diagnostic capabilities, including Query Store, Dynamic Management Views (DMVs), Extended Events, wait statistics and performance baselining
• Strong understanding of SQL Server workload optimisation, including concurrency, blocking, deadlocking, isolation levels, memory grants, TempDB optimisation and parallelism
• Demonstrable experience leveraging SQL Server 2022 capabilities, including Intelligent Query Processing, Query Store enhancements and modern data warehouse optimisation techniques to improve performance, scalability and operational efficiency
• Strong understanding of enterprise data warehouse architectures and optimisation techniques, including partitioning, compression, columnstore indexing, data lifecycle management and large-scale analytical workloads.
• Proven ability to deliver complex technical remediation programmes within enterprise SQL Server environments, balancing technical improvements against operational risk
• Excellent analytical, communication and documentation skills, with the ability to work independently and deliver effective knowledge transfer

Desirables:

• Experience optimising ETL workloads and enterprise reporting platforms
• Experience working within Data Platform, Business Intelligence or Analytics engineering teams.
• Experience delivering consultancy or specialist technical engagements.

Expected Deliverables

By the conclusion of the engagement, the successful consultant will have delivered:

• A comprehensive technical assessment of the SQL Server estate.
• A prioritised performance, capacity and storage remediation roadmap.
• Implemented improvements across agreed performance and optimisation workstreams with recommendations for sustainable maintenance, capacity planning and future platform growth.
• Comprehensive technical documentation covering findings, recommendations and implemented improvements and knowledge transfer sessions enabling the Data Engineering team to confidently support and continue the optimisation of the SQL Server estate.