About the Role :

We are seeking a seasoned Database Architect to own the end-to-end data architecture strategy for our insurance and wealth management analytics platform. This is a strategic and hands-on role where you will define database design standards, lead technology selection decisions, drive the modernization roadmap across a heterogeneous multi-database environment, and ensure the data layer scales reliably to meet business growth. The role requires deep expertise across OLAP, OLTP, NoSQL, caching, and streaming layers, combined with strong architectural judgment to make the right trade-offs between performance, maintainability, cost, and reliability.

Key Responsibilities :

Architecture Strategy & Governance :

- Own the enterprise data architecture blueprint across all database systems including ClickHouse, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, and Redis.

- Define and enforce database design standards, naming conventions, schema governance, and data modeling guidelines across teams.

- Evaluate and recommend database technologies for new use cases such as build vs buy, OLTP vs OLAP, and relational vs document vs graph.

- Lead technology selection decisions with documented trade-off analysis including POCs, benchmarks, and cost modeling.

- Create and maintain the multi-year database modernization roadmap aligned to business and engineering strategy.

- Define data tiering strategy including hot/warm/cold storage, archival policies, and retention rules.

- Establish reference architectures and reusable patterns for data access, caching, and reporting layers.

Modernization & Version Roadmap :

- Lead the organization-wide database version upgrade roadmap prioritizing by EOL risk, business impact, and migration complexity.

- Define zero-downtime migration patterns including blue/green, logical replication, and dual-write strategies.

- Architect backward-compatible schema evolution strategies to decouple DB upgrades from app releases.

- Govern application team readiness including driver compatibility and ORM migration impact.

OLAP & Analytics Architecture (ClickHouse) :

- Own the ClickHouse data architecture including table engine selection, partitioning, sharding, and replication topology.

- Design materialized view strategies for pre-aggregated analytics.

- Define data ingestion pipelines into ClickHouse.

- Define query performance SLAs and enforce optimization standards for dashboard endpoints.

- Evaluate ClickHouse Cloud vs self-managed trade-offs for cost and operational overhead.

Relational Architecture (PostgreSQL & SQL Server) :

- Design PostgreSQL schema architecture across the platform.

- Define standards for PostgreSQL stored function design including naming conventions, parameter patterns, and versioning.

- Design multi-tenant data isolation for different user types.

- Define EF Core and raw ADO.NET coexistence patterns.

- Govern SQL Server schema for taskmanager and mid-office workflows.

- Architect cross-database query patterns.

NoSQL & Search Architecture :

- Define MongoDB schema design standards including document structure and aggregation pipeline patterns.

- Plan MongoDB 3.6 to 8.x migration architecture with minimal application impact.

- Design Elasticsearch index architecture including mapping strategies, index lifecycle management, and alias patterns.

- Define search relevance models and query DSL standards for client/product search features.

- Architect Redis usage patterns including session store, distributed cache, pub/sub, and rate limiting.

Data Pipeline & Integration Architecture :

- Define end-to-end data flow architecture.

- Design Apache Kafka topic architecture, partitioning strategy, and consumer group patterns.

- Govern Apache Airflow DAG design standards for DB-touching pipelines.

- Architect Talend ETL pipeline to database integration patterns.

- Define RabbitMQ message routing patterns for DB-triggering workflows.

- Own the data lineage map.

Cloud & Infrastructure Architecture :

- Design AWS RDS architecture including instance sizing, Multi-AZ, read replicas, and parameter groups.

- Define Amazon EKS deployment patterns for containerized database workloads.

- Architect backup, DR, and RTO/RPO strategies per database tier.

- Define infrastructure-as-code standards for database provisioning.

- Govern S3-based data archival and lake integration.

- Optimize cloud database costs.

Security & Compliance Architecture :

- Define data classification framework with appropriate controls per tier.

- Architect column-level encryption, row-level security, and data masking for sensitive fields.

- Design audit logging architecture across all DB systems.

- Define secrets management patterns.

- Govern RBAC model across all database engines.

- Ensure architecture meets regulatory compliance requirements.

Performance & Reliability Engineering :

- Define performance benchmarking standards.

- Architect observability stack for databases.

- Design connection pooling architecture.

- Define SLA targets per database tier.

- Lead capacity planning.

Team Leadership & Mentorship :

- Mentor and guide DBAs and Database Developers on architectural best practices.

- Conduct architecture reviews for new features and schema changes.

- Define RFC and ADR process for significant data design decisions.

- Collaborate with Application Architects, DevOps, and Engineering Leads to align data and application architecture.

- Drive knowledge sharing.

Required Skills :

- OLAP : ClickHouse (MergeTree engines, distributed tables, sharding, materialized views, HTTP interface).

- Relational : PostgreSQL 14+ (RDS), SQL Server 2019+ (advanced schema design, partitioning, replication).

- NoSQL : MongoDB (schema design, aggregation pipelines, sharding, replica sets).

- Search : Elasticsearch (index lifecycle, mapping, query DSL, cluster architecture).

- Caching : Redis (cluster, sentinel, eviction policies, persistence modes).

- Streaming : Apache Kafka (topic design, partitioning, consumer groups, retention).

- ETL/Pipeline : Apache Airflow, Talend (pipeline-to-DB architecture).

- Cloud : AWS RDS, EKS, S3, Secrets Manager (production-grade deployments).

- Application Layer : .NET, EF Core, ADO.NET, Npgsql.

- IaC : Terraform or AWS CDK for DB infrastructure.

- Security : RBAC, TLS, encryption at rest, audit logging, secrets rotation.

- Observability : Grafana, Prometheus, slow query analysis, alerting.

- Scripting : SQL (expert), Python, Bash.

Good to Have :

- Experience with ClickHouse Cloud or managed OLAP services.

- Knowledge of Apache Iceberg or Delta Lake for data lakehouse patterns.

- Familiarity with Tableau for BI tool integrations.

- Understanding of insurance or wealth management domain data.

- Experience with multi-region active-active database architectures.

- Knowledge of GraphQL or data federation patterns.

- Exposure to vector databases for AI/ML integration.

Qualifications :

- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or equivalent.

- 10- 15 years of progressive database experience, with at least 5 years in an architecture role.

- Demonstrated experience designing production-grade, high-availability multi-database systems.

- Proven track record of leading major database version migrations with zero business disruption.

- Strong ability to communicate complex architectural decisions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

- Experience working in regulated industries (BFSI, insurance, fintech) preferred.

- Relevant certifications a plus: AWS Solutions Architect, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, ClickHouse.

Immediate Priorities (First 90 Days) :

- Month 1 : Audit all database versions, document EOL risk register, map data flows end-to-end.

- Month 2 : Deliver PostgreSQL RDS 14 to 18 migration architecture plan; define MongoDB 3.6 to 8 migration strategy.

- Month 3 : Publish enterprise data architecture blueprint; establish ADR process; define DB design standards.