We’re looking for talented professionals to join us in bringing smart money management and payment solutions to everyone’s fingertips.
This position is classified as structured hybrid, with an expectation of a minimum of three (3) days per week working in the office and flexibility to work remotely on the remaining days. On-site expectations may evolve over time to support business needs, with clear communication provided in advance.
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JOB DESCRIPTION
Location Requirement
This position is open only to candidates who currently reside in one of the following approved locations:
- Remote / Hybrid – Must have flexibility to travel for 1-2 weeks to either Miami or Northern California
About Green Dot
- Financial technology company and bank holding company
- Green Dot Bank is regulated by the OCC and FDIC
- Runs prepaid, debit, banking-as-a-service (BaaS), and money-processing platforms
- Operates mission-critical, high-volume transactional systems
- Treats reliability, data integrity, and security as non-negotiable
Position Summary
- Technical authority on SQL Server internals, performance engineering, and scalability
- Hands-on, high-impact role supporting our highest-volume financial transaction databases
- Diagnoses and fixes hot spots, latch/lock contention, blocking, plan regressions, and I/O bottlenecks
- Designs durable fixes: partitioning, indexing standards, query redesign, and HA/DR architecture
- Works with application engineering, SRE, architecture, and security teams
- Mentors the internal DBA team and serves as the escalation point
- Driving outcomes: Owns results end to end, from diagnosis to measurable improvement in latency, stability, and scalability, with clear accountability and follow-through
Key Responsibilities
- Apply deep knowledge of SQL Server internals (storage engine, query optimizer, SQLOS, memory, transaction log, tempdb) to diagnose complex production issues
- Perform root-cause analysis using wait statistics, DMVs, Extended Events, Query Store, and PerfMon counters
- Have strong knowledge of Stored Procedure design and optimization skills. Should have ability to read code and provide feedback to optimize the code.
- Analyze execution plans at the operator level: cardinality estimation, memory grants, spills, parallelism, and row goals
- Advise on engine configuration: MAXDOP, cost threshold for parallelism, compatibility levels, database-scoped configurations, and trace flags
- Own end-to-end performance tuning for latency-sensitive OLTP workloads (authorization, ledger, payments, account services)
- Resolve parameter sniffing, plan regressions, implicit conversions, and non-SARGable predicates
- Use Query Store and Intelligent Query Processing features for baselining, plan forcing, and regression control
- Govern indexing and statistics strategy: clustered key design, covering and filtered indexes, columnstore, and maintenance
- Troubleshoot and resolve hot spots, including last-page insert contention (PAGELATCH_EX), tempdb contention, and spinlock contention
- Resolve blocking chains, deadlocks, lock escalation, and isolation-level issues, recommending RCSI or snapshot isolation where appropriate
- Write, refactor, and review complex high-performance T-SQL, including stored procedures, set-based logic, window functions, and dynamic SQL written to be safe from SQL injection
- Review developer and ORM-generated (e.g., Entity Framework) SQL, and publish coding standards and anti-pattern guidance
- Design batched large data changes (purges, backfills, archival) that are safe to run online
- Design and operate table and index partitioning for multi-billion-row financial tables, including sliding-window patterns (SWITCH, SPLIT, MERGE)
- Support data lifecycle, archival, compression, and retention that meet regulatory requirements
- Design, implement, and troubleshoot Always On Availability Groups (sync/async commit, readable secondaries, distributed AGs, WSFC quorum)
- Diagnose AG redo lag, log send queue growth, HADR_SYNC_COMMIT waits, and failover issues
- Design, operate, and troubleshoot transactional and peer-to-peer replication, including latency and data consistency issues
- Validate HA/DR against RTO/RPO targets, and lead DR tests and failover drills with audit-ready documentation
- Enforce least-privilege access and data protection controls (TDE, Always Encrypted, TLS, SQL Server Audit)
- Support audit readiness for PCI-DSS, SOX, GLBA, and FFIEC-aligned controls, and follow CAB change management
- Design proactive monitoring and alerting for performance, blocking, AG health, replication, jobs, and capacity
- Build idempotent automation with PowerShell (dbatools), T-SQL, and CI/CD pipelines
- Find opportunities for AI-assisted operations, anomaly detection, and self-healing remediation
- Lead or support P1/P2 incidents, and deliver RCA reports with corrective and preventive actions
- Establish performance baselines, SLOs, and capacity models, and quantify every change with before/after metrics
- Mentor DBAs and developers, and present findings to leadership in terms of risk, cost, and business impact
Required Qualifications
- 10+ years of hands-on SQL Server DBA or database engineering experience
- 5+ years in a senior or principal-level performance-focused role
- Expert knowledge of SQL Server 2016–2022 internals
- Proven tuning of large, high-concurrency OLTP systems (thousands of TPS, multi-TB databases)
- Experience in financial services, payments, or banking
- Demonstrated resolution of hot spot, latch, lock, and tempdb contention in production
- Advanced T-SQL development and execution plan analysis
- Hands-on design and operation of partitioning at scale
- Deep production experience with Always On AGs and SQL Server Replication
- Strong proficiency with Query Store, Extended Events, DMVs, and wait-stats methodology
- Working knowledge of Windows Server, WSFC, SAN/NVMe storage, and virtualization
- PowerShell scripting and automation (dbatools preferred)
- Experience working under PCI-DSS, SOX, or similar audit controls
- Strong written communication, including RCA reports and executive summaries
Preferred Qualifications
- Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure SQL Database, or SQL Server on Azure/AWS VMs
- Cloud performance and cost optimization experience
- In-Memory OLTP and columnstore for hybrid workloads
- SQL Server on Linux and containers
- Database DevOps: SSDT, Flyway, or Liquibase, plus CI/CD and automated testing
- Additional platforms such as PostgreSQL, Cosmos DB, or Snowflake
- Certifications such as DP-300 (Azure Database Administrator Associate) or MCSE/MCM Data Platform
- Community contributions (blogs, speaking, open-source tools)
Key Competencies
- Analytical rigor: Diagnoses with evidence (waits, plans, XE), not guesswork
- Production ownership: Stays calm under P1 pressure; contains the impact first, then fixes permanently
- Engineering judgment: Weighs reliability, performance, cost, and complexity trade-offs
- Communication: Explains technical findings in terms of business impact
- Knowledge transfer: Builds team capability and documents to audit-ready standards
**Ability to work in the U.S. without sponsorship**
**Ability to meet the location requirement outlined above**
POSITION TYPE
Contractor
PAY RANGE
The targeted full-time base salary for this position is $134,100 to $201,100 per year. The final compensation will be determined by a number of factors such as qualifications, expertise, and the candidate’s geographical location.
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We’re Here to Support You—Accommodations Upon Request
Green Dot is committed to providing an inclusive and accessible hiring experience for all candidates. If you require a reasonable accommodation during any part of the application or interview process, we encourage you to let us know. We will work with you to meet your needs in a way that respects your privacy and ensures equal opportunity. Our goal is to support every applicant in showcasing their talents and potential.
Work Authorization Requirement
At Green Dot Corporation, we value diversity and strive for fair and inclusive hiring practices. However, we are currently unable to offer visa sponsorship. All applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States at the time of application and throughout the duration of employment, without the need for current or future sponsorship.
Important Notice on Application Accuracy
We value integrity in our hiring process. Please ensure that all information provided in your resume and application is accurate and authentic. Submissions found to be fraudulent or misleading will result in disqualification from consideration, and any offers extended may be rescinded.
