Victor Girling

SQL Server DBA

Talent

GlasgowMember since September 16, 2026

Microsoft SQL ServerSubject Matter Expert (SME) for SQL ServerMigration planning and implementationTSQL scripting and developmentVLDB administrationOLTP databasesSQL high availability and disaster recoveryClusteringAlwaysONPerformance tuning and troubleshootingExtended EventsTechnical Lead for Architectural designTransactional ReplicationPartitioningETLSSISSSRSADOGitHubRedgateSolarwindsSharepointWindows ServerFailover clusteringCluster AdministrationPowerShell

Hire this person

Send a job offer directly to this candidate

Microsoft SQL ServerSubject Matter Expert (SME) for SQL ServerMigration planning and implementationTSQL scripting and developmentVLDB administration

About

A seasoned and versatile SQL server professional

Experience

SQL Server DBA / HA – DR Consultant (Contractor) at Avnet Inc (2022-09 – 2026-05)

Working independently to deliver the migration and modernisation of 100+ services. Providing Subject Matter Expertise within Global Infrastructure Services.

Database Migration, including cross domain with upgrades ranging from 2005 to 2025. Where appropriate creating detailed documentation of new or existing systems in-scope and creating graphical migration 'battle plans' for stakeholders and providing clear, concise communication on the delivery of tasks.
Acting as a technical project manager preparing detailed plans, SOEs highlighting Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Dependencies, including complex data flow schematics.
Providing Application Database system support to developers and infrastructure teams, with testing, operations, and maintenance.
Assisting product owners and users when performing a hyper care role post migration, performance tuning and troubleshooting server and application issues using tools such as Extended Events.
Implementing SQL Security monitoring, policy and controls including TLS 1.3 Strict Encryption & Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) with Availability Groups, Managed Service Accounts, Application Roles, User Role based management, best-practice monitoring with CIS security benchmarks.
Designing, documenting and building solutions for mitigations for legacy account usage.
AlwaysON, including Contained AAG & Clustering implementation.
DR design including SAN replication implementation.
SSIS & TSQL Development, as part of migration including refactoring/redeveloping from DTS to SSIS 2019.
Implemented across the estate a refreshed database maintenance process for the backup, integrity and optimisation of mission-critical, data warehouses, highly available, ring fenced and business-critical databases.
Implementation and documentation of server build automation and cumulative update deployment using PowerShell and TSQL scripting.
Acting as an agent in a ServiceNow workflow, using ITIL practices for Incidents, Requests and Change.
Best Practice Assessment, using scripting tools to identify performance issues and security risks, with the preparation of reports and remediation plans.

Consultancy - Principal SQL DBA (Permanent) at Version One (2021-04 – 2022-08)

A team lead, consultant and developer working in multiple project streams within the cloud platform practice.

Assembled a new eight-person team SQL Server team within the cloud platform consultancy.
Consultant, SME for the Cloud Platform Practice that delivered solutions for various organisation types including financial and public sector, and wider organisation including Site Reliability delivering managed server support.
SQL Architecture Low Level / Detailed Design for SQL hosted within Azure and AWS.
Database migration from on-Premises to Public Cloud, including using Azure Blob Storage / Backup to URL.
Provided realistic estimates for delivery, as proposals in a pre-sales capacity and in the creation of tasks at a project planning phase.
Implementation of SQL consultancy standards for design (T-Shirt Models) and migration.
Preparing of proposals for Sales and Bidding Teams.
TSQL Development, refactoring and testing stored procedures.
TSQL and Server Performance tuning and optimisation using standard SQL toolset.

SQL Developer (Contractor) at DS Smith (2020-03 – 2021-03)

Application modernisation of the of paper mill system handling product management from production, forecasting, stock verification, forecasting and distribution.

TSQL Development to requirements within an agile project team, managing code base through TFS and Azure DevOps GIT Repository.
Planning and advising on approaches to resolve technical debt.
Optimisation, refactoring, and performance tuning complex stored procedures.

SQL Server DBA – Project (Contractor) at Lloyds Banking Group (2018-09 – 2020-03)

Working within Lloyds Banking Group on the Windows Server Migration Programme which is moving all legacy SQL instances from Windows Server 2003 to 2012.

Performing analysis, design and migration activities for moving various SQL versions (2000 to 2008 R2) to SQL Server 2014 both On-Premise, Off-Premise and Azure Stack.
Developing PoSH scripts to automate migration tasks in addition to TSQL scripting.
Building and implementing AlwaysON availability groups, TDE (Transparent Database Encryption), SSL/TLS In-flight Encryption.
Ensuring compliance to all regulatory standards and maintaining understanding of the current standards as applicable to the SQL Server estate.

Data Engineer (Contractor) at Piksel Inc (2018-06 – 2018-08)

Deployment and configuration to customer environments.
Managed Service support and Consultancy for various retail customers.
SQL On-Premise, Azure and AWS.

SQL Server DBA - Project (Contractor) at Royal Bank of Scotland (2017-07 – 2018-05)

A project and BAU resource for the RBS SQL estate of 2500+ thousand instances.

Supporting Developers with deployments and maintaining test environments.
Providing optimisation recommendations to development teams, troubleshooting production issues with database performance, SQL jobs, batch jobs and SSIS.
Documenting and reviewing Standard Operating Procedures and managing change management in ServiceNow.
Migrations to SQL Server 2016 from various versions including SQL 2000.
Implementing database security and build standards.
Installation and upgrades for SQL Server including clustering.
Acting as an agent in a ServiceNow workflow, using ITIL practices for Incidents, Requests and Change.
Ensuring compliance to all regulatory standards and maintaining understanding of the current standards as applicable to the SQL Server estate.

SQL Server DBA – SharePoint Mission Critical Support (Contractor) at Microsoft (2016-09 – 2017-05)

Supporting and troubleshooting the SQL Server tier of the SharePoint Online platform.

Troubleshooting and root cause analysis to SLA targets and participating in bridge calls.
Supporting 15,000+ SQL instances.
High transaction throughout 20,000+ trans/sec.
VLDB support.
Maintenance and troubleshooting of automated procedures using TSQL and Powershell.
Providing development teams with query optimisation and database design recommendations.

SQL Server DBA / Consultant (Contractor) at Oxford University Press (2015-06 – 2016-09)

SQL consolidation and migration to Cisco UCS environment.
Designed and implemented SQL 2012/2014 environment for an IT Transformation to new Cisco UCS/vSphere 6 Environment.
Designed, documented and implemented the AlwaysON and Windows Failover clusters.
Built servers to VMWare and SQL best practice.
Migrated database from various versions of SQL to the new environment.
BizTalk Migration. Designed and build of new BizTalk environment in secure VLAN.
Implementing Ola Hallengren Database Maintenance throughout the SQL estate.

Lead / Dev Ops DBA at dotMailer.com (2012-12 – 2015-02)

Product development, design and technical lead for SQL server on the dotMailer solution. Supporting the mission-critical application through the lifecycle of testing, deployment, operation, maintenance, and enhancement via the back log.