Migration Expert (SQL Server to PostgreSQL)

Job Summary:
Seeking a highly experienced Migration Expert with at least 10 years of hands-on
experience in SQL Server T-SQL development and database migration to PostgreSQL. The ideal candidate must have deep knowledge of T-SQL internals and be proficient in IT Service Management (ITSM) concepts with advanced skills in JIRA (minimum 10 years). This role requires strategic migration planning, coding, and optimizing complex database procedures, with strong expertise in JIRA workflows and ITSM automation.
Tasks
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead end-to-end migration projects from SQL Server (T-SQL) to PostgreSQL, including schema conversion, stored procedures, functions, and data migration.
- Analyze and optimize T-SQL code, leveraging deep understanding of T-SQL internals to ensure efficient cross-platform compatibility.
- Develop and maintain migration tools, scripts, and utilities to automate and streamline migration processes.
- Strong expertise in the Atlassian workflow and documentation systems (Jira & Confluence, but also GitHub/GitLab), with hands-on experience supporting IT development workflows or executing database migrations.
- Document migration architecture, processes, challenges, and lessons learned.
- Mentor junior DBAs and developers on T-SQL internals, cross-platform compatibility, and performance tuning.
Requirements
Required Skills & Experience:
- Minimum 10 years’ experience working with Microsoft SQL Server, with expert-
level T-SQL knowledge and deep understanding of T-SQL internals (query optimizer, execution plans, indexing strategy).
- Proven track record of migrating large and complex databases from SQL Server to PostgreSQL.
- Strong experience with PostgreSQL features, PL/pgSQL, and performance tuning in PostgreSQL environments.
- Hands-on experience writing complex SQL scripts, stored procedures, functions, and triggers.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
SQL Server Expertise (for Migration & Auditing):
- Expert-level understanding of SQL Server internals, including query execution engine, transaction log architecture, buffer manager, and tempdb behavior.
- Proven experience performing schema and data mapping between SQL Server and PostgreSQL (handling data types, collation, constraints, identity/sequence translation, etc.).
- Deep understanding of T-SQL procedural logic and its translation to PL/pgSQL,
including handling of cursors, dynamic SQL, exception handling, and temporary tables.
- Strong knowledge of SQL Server performance tuning — indexing strategy, query plan optimization, statistics management, and partitioning.
- Experience with SQL Server Profiler, Extended Events, and Dynamic Management
- Views (DMVs) for performance analysis and auditing.
- Expertise in SQL Server auditing and compliance, including setup and interpretation of SQL Server Audit, Change Data Capture (CDC), Transaction Log Analysis, and row-level security.
- Experience identifying and resolving cross-platform migration issues such as collation mismatches, differences in transaction isolation levels, or behavior of stored procedure logic.
- Ability to script and automate administrative tasks using PowerShell or SQLCMD, particularly for schema extraction, data export/import, and validation before migration.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP) for database hosting and migration.
- Knowledge of scripting languages such as Python or Bash for automation.
- Familiarity with SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) or equivalent ETL frameworks for complex data migration pipelines will be an added advantage.