Database Architect (PostgreSQL & MongoDB) — Hatch
Hatch is hiring a hands-on Database Architect to lead data architecture across a distributed, multi-service platform. This role owns reliability, performance, and governance across transactional and analytical workloads, while partnering with application teams.
You will operate in an environment that includes Elixir/Phoenix and Go-based services, EKS-based deployments, Terraform-managed AWS infrastructure, and multi-database production patterns (primary/replica, partitioning, observability exporters, and HA/failover requirements).
What You'll Own
- Define and drive PostgreSQL architecture standards across services (schema strategy, indexing, partitioning, query patterns, migrations, and operational guardrails).
- Lead HA/DR strategy for Aurora PostgreSQL and RDS-backed clusters (multi-AZ, failover, backups, restore validation, RPO/RTO readiness).
- Improve read/write scalability patterns (primary/replica usage, query routing, consistency tradeoffs, and connection management via proxies/pools).
- Partner with application teams running Oban/Ecto-heavy workloads to prevent lock contention, queue-related DB saturation, and migration risk.
- Establish production observability standards for database health, query performance, capacity, and incident response.
- Help set governance for security and compliance controls (least privilege, IAM DB auth, auditability, encryption, and secrets handling).
- Mentor engineers and create repeatable database review processes for new services and major data changes.
Required Qualifications
- 8+ years running PostgreSQL in production environments at scale, including high-throughput, mission-critical systems.
- Deep PostgreSQL expertise: planner/index behavior, vacuum/autovacuum, replication, lock/concurrency tuning, partitioning, and performance diagnostics.
- Experience operating Postgres in cloud environments (Aurora/RDS preferred), including HA/DR and upgrade planning.
- Strong background in production incident management and measurable reliability/performance improvements.
- Experience with infrastructure-as-code and cloud platform collaboration (Terraform, Kubernetes/EKS, cloud networking/security constraints).
- Ability to drive standards across multiple engineering teams and codebases, not just tune isolated queries.
Preferred Qualifications
- MongoDB production experience (replica/sharding patterns, read preference/consistency tradeoffs, operational tuning) is a strong plus.
- Exposure to AI/ML-adjacent data patterns (vector/search extensions, assistant/LLM-backed product surfaces, model-facing data pipelines) is a plus.
- Experience supporting both product OLTP and reporting/analytics workloads.
- Familiarity with Elixir/Phoenix + Ecto and background job systems (e.g., Oban) in DB-intensive systems is beneficial.
First 6–12 Months Success
- Standardized Postgres architecture playbook adopted across key Hatch services.
- Developed strategy for reduced query latency and DB-related incidents with explicit SLO/SLA improvements.
- Validated backup/restore and failover procedures with documented runbooks and regular game-day execution.
- Safer migration + release process for schema/data changes across teams.
- Clear cross-database operating model for PostgreSQL + MongoDB responsibilities.
Closing
There are a variety of factors that go into determining a salary range, including but not limited to external market benchmark data, geographic location, and years of experience.
Based on the anticipated level of experience we are seeking, we expect the compensation range for this role to be between $158,000 and $216,000.
We will consider for employment qualified candidates with arrest and conviction records, consistent with applicable law (including, for example, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance for roles based in San Francisco, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for roles based in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, and the California Fair Chance Act for roles based in California).
Where required by law, a criminal background check will not be conducted until after a conditional offer of employment is made, and any evaluation of a candidate's criminal background check will be subject to an individualized assessment that takes into account the candidate's specific criminal records and the responsibilities and requirements of the particular role.
Hatch