The Company

This is fantastic opportunity for a technical database administrator who is looking for a new challenge in a supportive, diverse and friendly firm.

This is a permanent and full-time role, with a flexible hybrid working policy. This role will be based in either our Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Cambridge or London office.

Mills & Reeve is building its data and digital offering as we have a strong belief that innovative use of data and digital can significantly contribute to the success of the firm. In recognition of this, the firm is building a new data and digital team.

The Role

You will be joining a new, fast-growing data and digital team as Mills & Reeve is in the process of building out its data and digital capability. You’ll be welcomed into a team that wants your enthusiasm, insights and creativity to help us define our data capabilities.

You’ll work closely with the Data Architect and Data Engineer on proof of concepts to define the data environment, its policies, governance processes, and data quality management approach. You will also work on tactical projects, and strategic initiatives to develop solutions that offer better business intelligence.

In addition, you will have the opportunity to travel during working hours to other Mills & Reeve offices in Norwich, Leeds, Manchester, and Birmingham.

If you’re excited by the idea of being able to define and lead your work, by making a real impact, and of being essential to the growth of data & digital capabilities, this role might be a great opportunity for you.

The Candidate

You will be highly organised, detailed-oriented, and you will have excellent communication and interpersonal skills. You will use technical expertise to define our database structures, and to ensure our databases provides a highly available and consistent service to our business.

You will deliver operational readiness of our systems (security, health and performance), perform database migrations, and support project deployments or troubleshooting activities. Adapting to different technical environments across ‘on prem’, ‘In cloud’ and 3rd party tech environments will be easy for you, as will working under your own direction to meeting expectations.

You will be good at working in collaboration with people across the business, at sharing knowledge and at supporting a culture of discovery and improvement across the firm. You will produce new ideas and seek opportunities for continuous improvement.

The Team

This candidate will work within a team of 6 people, and report to the Director of Data & Digital. Our in-house Data & Digital Strategy team will consist of:

• Director of Data & Digital Strategy
• Database administrator (this role)
• Business Analyst
• Data Architect
• Data Engineer
• Technical Project Manager

This candidate will also be working closely with our IT team, participating in their team meetings and project updates.

Main responsibilities

• Daily management of SQL server and database environments from development environments to mission-critical production systems
• Install, design and maintain database system software and implement database security.
• Monitor and analyse database performance and ensure effective and efficient utilisation of database systems/processes.
• Maintain database dictionaries and support tools; develop and maintain accurate system documentation.
• Participate in the development and maintenance of strategic, architectural and tactical plans for the database and data warehouse environments; be conversant with, and cognisant of, the future direction of systems, how that direction impacts the company and how future and current database systems can be exploited for the company’s benefit.
• Apply database best practices and techniques to ensure deployment and implementation support efforts meet integration and performance expectations
• Provide technical leadership on database systems and solutions. Provide individual mentoring and training on databases and tools. Recommend, test, and evaluate new technologies, software tools, and required skill sets; recommend and implement improvements.
• Implement a Business Continuity solution for the database environment, including the installation and configuration of database software and replication processes.
• Independently analyse, solve and correct issues in real time, providing problem resolution end-to-end
• Maintain database infrastructure standards.
• Drive process improvements, taking data feeds from multiple sources, and managing the ETL process into the data warehouses.
• Ensure that all data contained is accurate, up-to-date, and complete.
• Configure and maintain database servers and processes, including monitoring of system health and performance, to ensure high levels of performance, availability and security
• Refine and automate regular processes, track issues, and document changes
• Assist developers with complex query tuning and production issue resolution
• Perform scheduled maintenance and support release deployment activities after hours
• Share domain and technical expertise, providing technical mentorship and cross-training to other peers and team members

Skill Specifications

• proven MS SQL Server and Database Administration experience required
• Experience with Performance Tuning and Optimization (PTO), using native monitoring and troubleshooting tools
• Experience with backups, restores and recovery models
• Knowledge of High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) options for SQL Server
• Experience working in cloud environments (Azure, OCI, GCP and/or AWS) would be advantageous
• Rigorous attention to detail
• Ability to multi-task while being productive
• Work independently as well as within your team and project members
• Strong presentation skills

In this role, the candidate will be empowered to use their skills to help the business realise opportunities to increase agility and deliver value.

Pre-employment screening

Please note that, in the event that we make an offer of employment, we will conduct pre-employment screening that includes checks relating to your professional and academic qualifications, references from previous employers, your eligibility to work in the UK and any disciplinary history recorded with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). You will also be required to complete a self-declaration to assess your character and suitability.

Disclosure and barring service check and security clearance

This post is also subject to a satisfactory response from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) (to check for any previous criminal convictions) and, given the nature of the work-type, you may also be required to undergo national security vetting to SC level – the latter can be undertaken following commencement of employment.

And finally

Mills & Reeve is committed to building a diverse workforce and fostering an inclusive environment in which all our people can thrive. We hire people from a wide variety of backgrounds because it makes our firm stronger, and we have a collaborative culture that celebrates different perspectives and values respect for one another, working together, and openness and integrity. Our approach to flexible working means that we work in a way that achieves the right balance for our people, our clients and for our business.

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