Senior Database Engineer

MS2 is a national leader in transportation data management and analysis and has the largest traffic count database in North America. More than 270 agencies in 31 US States, and 3 Canadian Provinces, including 28 state Departments of Transportation, are using MS2 software to manage their transportation data.

MS2 is located in the beautiful city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, the home of high-tech industries and the University of Michigan. Residents of the city enjoy beautiful parks, mature neighborhoods, amenities of the Huron River and easy access to downtown Detroit or to colorful “Pure Michigan” woods and waterways.

MS2 is a friendly, open, team working to support our clients' software needs. Staff members work on a variety of tasks and are given a high degree of responsibility. We offer an excellent environment for transportation professionals and Software Engineers with competitive compensation and benefit packages. We're a small team and you'll have an opportunity to make a big impact!

We are seeking a Senior Database Engineer to shape the data foundation of our transportation platform. You will partner with product and engineering teams to design, build, and maintain the SQL databases and data services that power MS2’s software used by road agencies across 31 states. The role emphasizes performance, reliability, and clear ownership of production data flows. You will solve problems independently and collaborate with an experienced, supportive team.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with engineers, project managers, business stakeholders, and QA to design and deliver reliable, scalable, and secure database solutions.
• Lead database design efforts, including schema design, data modeling, indexing strategy, and query optimization across transactional, ETL, and reporting workloads.
• Monitor, tune, and improve database performance, scalability, and security in production environments.
• Define, measure, and maintain service-level objectives (SLOs) for key data flows using metrics, logging, tracing, and alerting.
• Review and evolve existing database designs, ensuring safe and consistent schema changes, data migrations, and query updates.
• Execute and guide the full software development life cycle (SDLC), including requirements gathering, feasibility analysis, documentation, implementation, testing, deployment, and post-release evaluation.
• Develop technical documentation, data flow diagrams, and operational procedures to support maintainability and long-term system health.
• Troubleshoot, debug, and upgrade existing systems while proactively identifying opportunities to improve performance, reliability, and operational efficiency.
• Deploy database changes safely in high-uptime environments and partner with application teams to integrate data components into broader systems.
• Mentor engineers and provide database training and guidance to improve overall system design, performance, and data integrity practices.
• Establish and reinforce best practices for version control, deployment, observability, and data integrity validation.
• Conduct system analysis and recommend architectural or process improvements to strengthen platform reliability and scalability.
• Stay current with evolving database technologies, tooling, and industry standards, and apply relevant advancements to improve the platform.
• Demonstrate leadership through initiative, accountability, collaboration, and a focus on team and business outcomes.

Requirements

• 5+ years of progressive experience as a SQL Database Administrator or Database Engineer supporting production environments
• Proven track record designing, scaling, and maintaining mission-critical SQL database systems and data pipelines, including large-scale datasets
• Strong technical knowledge of MS SQL Server installation, configuration, and maintenance
• Strong T-SQL skills, including indexing, execution plans, statistics, partitioning, concurrency control, andperformance tuning
• Experience deploying and evolving databases safely in high-uptime environments
• Practical experience with observability, including metrics, logs, tracing, and alerting aligned to SLOs
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Demonstrated experience collaborating effectively in team environments

Preferred skills / abilities:

• Experience working within a Microsoft-based application stack, including C#/.NET
• Experience with AWS-hosted SQL Server, including backup, restore, and capacity planning.
• Exposure to job orchestration or data processing workflows (e.g., ETL scheduling, messaging, or queueing systems).
• Exposure to Powershell scripting.
• Experience with Git / GitHub workflows and pull-request-based collaboration.

Benefits

We offer a competitive salary and benefits package.

We promote a strong work/life balance at MS2. We encourage our employees to pursue their professional interests and take ownership of projects from start to finish. You’ll be working with big data and cloud-based solutions using the latest technologies as part of a fun and energetic team. It’s a great place to work.

Salary:

$95,000 - $145,000 a year, commensurate with skills and experience of the specific applicant

Benefits:

• Participation in the company's annual bonus program
• 401(k) with matching
• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible schedule
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Professional development assistance
• Referral program
• Disability insurance
• Vision insurance

We Want You to Be You at MS2.

At MS2 a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace is one where all employees, whatever their race, gender, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education, disability, religion, or veteran status, feel valued and respected. We are committed to a nondiscriminatory approach and provide equal opportunity for employment and advancement in all of our departments and programs. We respect and value diverse life experiences and heritages and ensure that all voices are valued and heard.

MS2 is committed to maintaining a welcoming environment with equitable treatment for all, and we strive to:

• Provide a working environment where all employees feel safe, comfortable, and valued.
• See diversity, inclusion, and equity as connected to our mission and critical to ensure the well-being of our staff and the agencies we serve.
• Examine and dismantle any inequities within our policies, systems, programs, and services, and continually update and report our progress to our employees.
• Explore potential underlying, unquestioned assumptions that interfere with inclusiveness.
• Encourage company-wide thinking about how systemic inequities impact our organization’s work, and how best to address that in a way that is consistent with our mission.
• Help to challenge assumptions about what it takes to be a strong leader at our organization, and who is well-positioned to provide leadership.
• Practice and encourage respectful and transparent communication in all interactions.
• Commit time and resources to expand more diverse leadership at all levels of our organization.
• Lead with respect and tolerance. We expect all employees to embrace this notion and to express it in workplace interactions and through everyday practices.

MS2 wants every employee to feel our commitment to showing respect for everyone, and we encourage open communication that enables each person to be their best self.

MS2 is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

Hybrid work

We require you to work in the office generally at least one day per week. This is not a fully remote position, but we may provide relocation assistance to successful candidates