SQL Server Lead – Contract

Location: Glasgow | Hybrid – 2–3 days onsite
Rate: Up to £410/day Inside IR35
Contract until 31 December 2026 (renewable) 


We’re looking for an experienced SQL Server Lead to join a major financial services environment, supporting the design, development and optimisation of data warehouse and data distribution platforms across security, risk, controls and records management.

Key Responsibilities
  • Lead end-to-end delivery of SQL Server components from technical design through to deployment and documentation.
  • Develop and optimise complex T-SQL, including stored procedures, functions, views and data models.
  • Own SQL Server performance tuning, including execution plans, indexing, partitioning, statistics and CPU/I/O optimisation.
  • Build resilient batch and near-real-time data processing solutions.
  • Implement testing, data quality checks and reconciliations for trusted reporting.
  • Support production services, incident/problem management and root-cause analysis.
  • Ensure database solutions meet security, access control, audit and records-management requirements.
  • Work closely with analysts, engineers, architects and risk/governance stakeholders.
  • Provide technical leadership through code reviews, engineering standards and mentoring.

Essential Skills
  • Expert-level T-SQL / SQL Server development.
  • Strong SQL Server performance engineering and troubleshooting experience.
  • Excellent understanding of relational database principles and data modelling.
  • Experience with database testing, automation and data quality controls.
  • Strong understanding of secure database development, access management and auditing.
  • Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
  • Strong problem-solving and ability to manage complex workloads.

Desirable
  • Git/GitLab, branching strategies and pull requests.
  • CI/CD and database release automation.
  • Nexus or similar artefact repositories.
  • PowerShell, Linux shell scripting and/or Python.
  • Data governance and records-management experience.
  • Java and/or Scala, particularly alongside Spark-based processing