SELECT * FROM paul.experience;
Support Escalation Engineer - Azure Database for PostgreSQL/MySQL
Microsoft
February 2022 – Present
- Provide escalation support for Azure Database for PostgreSQL/MySQL/MariaDB (PaaS)
- Mentor engineers, improve internal guides, and author/edit public documentation
- Collaborate with product teams to validate hotfixes and test preview features
- Team Lead, review escalations and align team performance with organizational goals
Support Escalation Engineer - SQL Server
Microsoft
June 2020 – February 2022
- Lead critical SQL Server escalations and reduce downtime and time to resolution
- Partner with engineering to reproduce defects and deliver hotfixes
- Train peers on advanced SQL Server diagnostics using WinDbg
- Debug SQL Server (C++) and SQL Server Management Studios (C#), file bug fixes
Support Engineer - SQL Server
Microsoft
March 2017 – June 2020
- Support enterprise SQL Server environments on-prem, virtualized, and on Azure VMs (IaaS)
- Implement HA/DR solutions: AlwaysOn, clustering, replication, mirroring, log shipping
- Optimize queries, indexes, and memory management, to improve performance
- Troubleshoot concurrency, memory, and SQL OS issues; support specialized features like Service Broker and In-Memory OLTP, and FullText search
Database Administrator
Innovation Group
January 2020 - March 2020
- Led SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Group implementation project
- Managed QA/UAT/Dev/Prod patch testing and deployments using JIRA, ensuring smooth releases with minimal disruption
- Monitored and tuned SQL Server instances, proactively resolving blocking and deadlock issues to maintain 99.9% uptime
Support Engineer - SQL Server
Convergys (Microsoft)
September 2015 - January 2017
- Supported commercial customers as a Microsoft vendor; resolved complex SQL Server escalations under ITIL-based incident management and strict SLA timelines
Technical Service Representative | Project Lead
Alliant Systems
January 2013 – September 2015
- Led nationwide client implementations, upgrades, and training
- Developed custom T-SQL reports improving financial reporting
- Implemented backup/restore and maintenance tasks for SQL Servers
- Provide customer support related to using and fixing the software
- Partnered with developers on feature design based on client feedback