Sql Server Performance Tuning Expert Jobs in Illinois

About Us
Our Database Engineering team is transforming how Balyasny Asset Management delivers database services through a standardized platform built on declarative, code-defined provisioning, automated lifecycle management, and self-healing operations across SQL Server, Snowflake, and Terraform-managed infrastructure. Declarative, state-based database management is at the core of everything we build.
Role Overview
We're seeking a Senior Database Platform Engineer based in New York City to help design, build, and operate our database platform. A deep commitment to declarative, state-based deployments is fundamental to this role. We treat database infrastructure and schema as code, with all changes version-controlled and automatically promoted through environments. The engineer will create scalable, automated solutions that minimize manual intervention while enforcing safety and consistency across SQL Server and Snowflake environments.
Key Responsibilities
Design and operate SQL Server and Snowflake workloads, developing automated provisioning and lifecycle management solutions.
Implement high-availability solutions and declarative management across SQL Server and Snowflake.
Own and drive declarative, state-based database deployment practices as a first-class engineering discipline. All schema changes must be version-controlled, auditable, repeatable, and automatically applied using Flyway, Liquibase, or Atlas.
Treat database schema as code: no manual changes, no drift.
Provision and manage database infrastructure using Terraform, ensuring structured, repeatable, and version-controlled deployments.
Develop GitOps workflows and observability pipelines for comprehensive monitoring using OpenTelemetry, Loki, Prometheus, and Grafana.
Create migration tools for transitioning from VMs and managed services to our platform.
Build self-service interfaces and implement security controls within database environments.
Required Skills & Experience
Deep expertise in SQL Server. Performance tuning, indexing strategies, Always On AG, replication, and security hardening.
Strong hands-on experience with Snowflake. Data modelling, Snowpipe, dynamic tables, RBAC, and cost optimisation.
Proficiency with Terraform for database infrastructure provisioning and lifecycle management.
Proven, hands-on experience with declarative and state-based database deployments. Production experience with Flyway, Liquibase, or Atlas.
Strong understanding of schema-as-code principles: versioned migrations, idempotent scripts, environment promotion, and drift detection.
Strong Powershell and/or Python skills for automation and problem-solving; Go experience is a plus.
Proficiency with CI/CD processes and GitOps workflows integrating database deployments into DevOps pipelines.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience with PostgreSQL. Administration, performance tuning, and replication; the team operates across multiple database technologies and cross-skilling is actively encouraged.
Familiarity with Redis. Operational experience with caching, pub/sub, and persistence patterns.
Exposure to Kubernetes. Pods, deployments, stateful sets, and operators; the team is expanding its container orchestration footprint and this will become increasingly relevant.
Build data lakehouse solutions (Apache Iceberg) and implement query federation capabilities (Trino).
Familiarity with Apache Airflow and dbt for orchestration and data transformation.
Experience with analytical databases like ClickHouse.
Competence with monitoring solutions: Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, and Loki.
Ability to leverage reporting tools such as PowerBI or Tableau for enhanced data insights.
What Sets You Apart
A genuine belief that all database changes should be declarative, versioned, and automated, and a track record of enforcing this in practice.
Platform-oriented thinking with a cloud-native engineering mindset.
Full-stack capabilities from database infrastructure to application interfaces.
Enthusiasm for transforming traditional database administration into modern, automated approaches.
Adaptability and eagerness to learn new technologies and methodologies.
We're looking for candidates who are passionate about building scalable, resilient database platforms and are excited about the challenge of transforming traditional database management into a modern, self-service model.