senior database administrator.

We are seeking a highly accomplished and multi-faceted Senior Database Administrator for an enterprise-level contract opportunity based out of Toronto or Kingston. In this role, you will take on a premier technical capacity within the database engineering and data operations streams, specializing in the design, implementation, administration, and performance optimization of enterprise-scale data infrastructure.

As a principal data guardian, you will bridge the gap between legacy data systems and modern cloud-native architectures. Operating entirely onsite, you will evaluate system capacity, manage complex cloud services, construct robust physical database designs, and establish automated data distribution pathways. This role is ideal for a senior technical leader who can independently engineer secure, scalable, and high-performance relational, transactional, and data warehouse structures.

Location: Toronto or Kingston, ON

Assignment Type: Onsite (5 days/week, 7.25 hours/day)

Contract Duration: 15 months (with potential for extension)

Advantages
Modern Stack Depth: Direct, hands-on administration of leading Azure cloud database services, virtual machines, and modern Data Lakehouse platforms.

Diverse Database Exposure: Elevate your portfolio by combining classic enterprise relational engines with distributed systems, large data warehouses, and automated DataOps tools.

Strategic Architectural Control: Drive the design of high-availability (HA), disaster recovery (DR), and multi-tenant database infrastructures.

Predictable Long-Term Runway: Secure an impactful 15-month foundational framework with a strong extension pipeline.

Responsibilities
Enterprise DBMS Administration: Formulate physical database designs, install, configure, migrate, and administer enterprise-tier database management systems (DBMS).

Cloud Platform Management: Oversee cloud data repositories, virtual machines, disks, key vaults, and multi-cloud database environments, ensuring high reliability across infrastructures.

Pipeline Engineering & Optimization: Design, construct, and fine-tune secure, automated data pipelines extending from primary source environments down to end-user presentation tiers.

Performance Tuning & Diagnostics: Conduct advanced database troubleshooting, analyze system wait statistics, execute input/output (IO) analyses, and deploy query optimization and indexing strategies.

Data Warehouse & Mart Blueprinting: Act as a central subject matter expert on data warehouse architectures, executing upgrades, multi-node configurations, cloning, and tech-stack expansions.

Capacity & Lifecycle Planning: Direct long-term storage growth forecasting, capacity planning, resource sizing, and platform life-cycle management for mission-critical setups.

Data Protection & Encryption: Enforce cloud authorization models, configure role-based access controls (RBAC), manage key systems, and apply transparent data encryption (TDE) alongside data masking protocols.

Incident & Change Governance: Manage environment patches, maintenance packs, and system releases following strict Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) aligned configuration management procedures.

Security & Vulnerability Remediation: Research, isolate, and implement active cybersecurity remediations, checking firewall rules and network security boundaries to mitigate platform threats.

Cross-Functional Mentorship: Function as a premier senior technical authority, providing architectural alignment, technical blueprints, and operational mentorship to cross-functional engineering teams.

Qualifications
Core Technical & Database Requirements
Professional Tenure: 7 to 10+ years of progressive experience in Database Administration, with a track record spanning the design, implementation, and optimization of enterprise-scale database systems.

Azure Cloud Platform Expertise: Deep technical mastery administering cloud database environments, with an explicit focus on Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines.

Cloud Infrastructure Savvy: Hands-on experience provisioning and managing cloud-native data services, including virtual networks, private endpoints, cloud storage, Databricks Lakehouses, and Azure Data Factory.

Advanced Performance Engineering: Expert knowledge of performance tuning tools, including Azure SQL Query Store analysis, Intelligent Performance features, TempDB optimization, and mitigating cloud throttling thresholds.

Multi-Engine & OS Capability: Strong background in Unix and Linux operating systems, shell scripting, database query languages, and distributed architectures (such as multi-node Oracle RAC configurations, Oracle EBS R12.2, Data Guard, or WebLogic setups).

Methodologies & Compliance Skills
Data Governance & Security: Solid understanding of enterprise information management principles, data classification frameworks, and database auditing routines.

Regulatory Compliance: Proven experience ensuring full database system alignment with public-sector regulatory obligations and health information privacy mandates (such as PHIPA/PHIPPA).

ITIL Operations: Practical experience running data operations under structured Incident, Change, and Configuration Management governance models.

Interpersonal & Analytical Strength
Analytical Problem Solving: Superior critical thinking and evaluative skills to decompose performance bottlenecks, execute impact analyses, and establish automatic tuning rules.

Stakeholder Articulation: Excellent written, verbal, and presentation communication skills, with polished ease when explaining complex database trade-offs to business partners and technology squads.

Deadline-Driven Focus: Highly organized, detail-oriented team player with a history of meeting strict deployment targets within fast-paced environments.

Summary
If you're interested in the Senior Database Administrator role based in Toronto, we encourage you to apply online at Only qualified candidates will be contacted for the next steps. We look forward to hearing from you!

Randstad Canada is committed to fostering a workforce reflective of all peoples of Canada. As a result, we are committed to developing and implementing strategies to increase the equity, diversity and inclusion within the workplace by examining our internal policies, practices, and systems throughout the entire lifecycle of our workforce, including its recruitment, retention and advancement for all employees. In addition to our deep commitment to respecting human rights, we are dedicated to positive actions to affect change to ensure everyone has full participation in the workforce free from any barriers, systemic or otherwise, especially equity-seeking groups who are usually underrepresented in Canada's workforce, including those who identify as women or non-binary/gender non-conforming; Indigenous or Aboriginal Peoples; persons with disabilities (visible or invisible) and; members of visible minorities, racialized groups and the LGBTQ2+ community.

Randstad Canada is committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible workplace for all its candidates and employees by supporting their accessibility and accommodation needs throughout the employment lifecycle. We ask that all job applications please identify any accommodation requirements by sending an email to View email address on randstad.com to ensure their ability to fully participate in the interview process.

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