Senior Manager of Database Platform

Horizon3; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Horizon3 seeks a Senior Engineering Lead for the Database Platform team, responsible for the data infrastructure underpinning NodeZero's pentest, findings, and reports. You will guide a team of ~8 engineers, owning SLOs and data integrity while shaping the data model and migration strategy.

Partner with Principal Engineer to drive technical direction, establish schema standards, and ensure scalable, secure, multi-region data architecture across production environments.

Qualifications

• Experience leading teams that design, scale, and operate relational databases at scale.
• Strong understanding of database performance, indexing, and query optimization.
• Familiarity with graph databases or time-series stores is a strong plus.
• Production-grade PostgreSQL at scale with multi-region configurations.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Database Platform team and own the design, operation, and reliability of the core data layer (PostgreSQL, Neo4j).
• Define technical direction, schema standards, and migration strategies for NodeZero’s data platform.
• Own SLOs for availability, latency, and data integrity; drive on-call maturity and runbooks.
• Collaborate with Data Ingestion, Security Research, and API Platform teams; translate needs into a prioritized engineering roadmap.

Skills

Leadership

Database architecture

Go

Python

SQL

Kubernetes

AWS

Tools

PostgreSQL

Neo4j

TimescaleDB

pg_bouncer/pgpool

Kubernetes

AWS RDS/Aurora

Job description

• You will lead the Database Platform team — the engineering team responsible for the data infrastructure that underpins every NodeZero pentest, finding, and report. NodeZero operates at scale: millions of discovered assets, tens of millions of vulnerability findings, and audit-critical data that our customers rely on to remediate risk
• The Database Platform team owns the design, operation, and reliability of our core data layer — currently PostgreSQL as the primary store and Neo4j for the asset graph, with time-series and analytical stores on the roadmap as NodeZero’s data volume and use cases grow
• You will lead a team of ~8 engineers including a Principal Engineer, and you will build this team from a strong foundation into a fully staffed, world-class data platform organization
• Team Building & Culture: Hire, mentor, and grow the Database Platform team to full capacity. Establish database engineering norms and a culture of ownership for engineers who share responsibility for the most critical data layer in our stack
• Data Architecture: Partner with the Principal Engineer to define the technical direction for NodeZero’s data platform — schema design standards, query patterns, migration strategies, and scalability principles
• Reliability & Operations: Own SLOs for database availability, query latency, and data integrity across production environments. Drive oncall maturity and runbook quality
• Data Modeling & Schema Governance: Establish schema review processes and data modeling standards. Ensure NodeZero’s data model evolves cleanly as new pentest capabilities ship
• Cross-team Partnership: Collaborate with Data Ingestion, Security Research, and API Platform teams to align on data contracts, API design, and pipeline dependencies
• Act as a Product Owner: Translate data platform needs from Security Research and Product into a clear, prioritized engineering roadmap

Benefits

• Growth Opportunities: Be part of a dynamic and growing team with numerous career advancement opportunities
• Innovation-Driven Culture: Work in a collaborative environment that encourages creativity and out-of-the-box thinking
• Inclusive and Diverse Team: We value diversity and promote an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive
• Flexible Work Environment: Enjoy the convenience and work-life balance that comes with remote work

Demonstrated experience leading teams that design, scale, and operate relational databases (PostgreSQL preferred) and hybrid data stores (graph, time-series, or document) in production at scaleDrives high-impact architecture decisions rigorously — requires design documents, runs structured reviews, builds consensus across platform teamsExperience building or significantly growing an engineering team — including hiring, onboarding, and establishing engineering norms tailored for data-intensive systemsStrong understanding of database performance: query optimization, indexing strategies, EXPLAIN analysis, and connection poolingFamiliarity with graph databases (Neo4j, AWS Neptune) or time-series stores (TimescaleDB, InfluxDB) is a strong plusKubernetes and containerized database operations — stateful workload managementExperience with AWS data services: RDS/Aurora, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, or equivalentExperience with multi-tenant data architectures: customer data isolation, row-level security, and data residency concernsProficient in Go, Python, or SQL (deep expertise)Experience defining schema migration strategies for high-velocity production environments with zero-downtime requirementsAble to partner effectively with a Principal Engineer and leverage their technical leadership without diminishing team ownershipProven ability to define and instill engineering culture: rigorous schema review, data integrity standards, operational runbooks, and oncall rotationProduction experience with PostgreSQL at scale: partitioning, logical replication, pg_bouncer/pgpool, read replicasBackground in cybersecurity data, threat intelligence feeds, or vulnerability databasesFamiliarity with analytical query patterns: BI tooling, OLAP workloads, or customer-facing analyticsExperience with data platform compliance: SOC 2, FedRAMP, or GDPR/CCPA data handling requirementsExperience operating databases in multi-region or active-active configurations