Windows & SQL Server In-place Upgrade Automation Engineer

Role : Windows & SQL Server In-place Upgrade Automation Engineer

Location: Remote (US)

Duration: Long Term

Note: We're looking for an experienced engineer to automate and support Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server upgrades across virtual machine and clustered environments.

Key Responsibilities:

- Automate Windows Server in-place upgrades

- Automate SQL Server in-place upgrades

- Support standalone SQL Server environments

- Support SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances (FCI)

- Support SQL Always On Availability Groups

- Perform rolling cluster upgrades with minimal downtime

- Build PowerShell automation for upgrade, validation, and rollback activities

- Integrate upgrade workflows with GitLab CI/CD and GitLab Runners

- Integrate automation with MCM for orchestration and workflow tracking

- Perform automated pre-upgrade health checks

- Validate OS and SQL version compatibility

- Coordinate and validate VM snapshots and backups

- Validate SQL database and system database backups

- Automate DBCC CHECKDB and SQL health checks

- Automate cluster failover and failback

- Validate SQL services, databases, SQL Agent jobs, listeners, and application connectivity

- Build post-upgrade validation and reporting

- Develop rollback and recovery automation

- Troubleshoot failed Windows, SQL, cluster, and pipeline executions

- Maintain automation code in Git

- Follow change-management and production deployment processes

Core Technical Skills

- Windows Server 2016 / 2019 / 2022 / 2025

- Microsoft SQL Server 2016 / 2017 / 2019 / 2022+

- PowerShell automation

- Git and GitLab

- GitLab CI/CD pipelines

- GitLab Runner configuration and troubleshooting

- MCM workflow/orchestration integration

- Windows Server Failover Clustering

- SQL Server Failover Cluster Instance (FCI)

- SQL Always On Availability Groups

- VMware / virtual machine environments

- SQL Server backup and recovery

- Windows and SQL upgrade automation

- REST API integration

- JSON / YAML

- Production change-management experience

Preferred Automation Flow

MCM GitLab Pipeline GitLab Runner PowerShell Automation Prechecks Snapshot/Backup Windows/SQL Upgrade Cluster/AG Validation Postchecks Status back to MCM

Preferred Experience

Experience building large-scale automated Windows and SQL upgrade solutions using PowerShell, GitLab Runner, GitLab CI/CD, MCM, VM snapshots, backup validation, rolling cluster upgrades, post-validation, rollback, and centralized reporting.