Senior DBA / Database Architect (North America)

About this role

About the Company
Lateral stands for technology excellence.
We’re a profitable, award-winning design and technology company with over 20 years of experience launching bold ventures and transforming businesses. A globally distributed team of 200+ experts united by a shared purpose: the continuous pursuit of quality.
Our clients come to us for results, quality and craft - and stay because we keep raising the bar.
We do things differently at Lateral
Our mission is simple: design and build great products.
What sets us apart isn’t just the talent of our team - it’s the way we work:
We Have A Bias For Action & Results.
We are doers - we spot the gaps, connect the dots, anticipate what’s around the corner and take action. We move fast, stay focused, and let the results - not the effort - speak for themselves.
We Work On Time, On Budget, On Quality
Discipline is our edge - a commitment we make to each other, to our clients, and to the standards we hold ourselves to.

We Care Deeply.
We care about our work and about each other. Care Is A Competitive Advantage.
Every detail matters. Every design, every line of code, every decision. Thoughtful by default.

We Do Things Right - Because It’s the Right Thing to Do
Right over easy. Integrity isn’t up for negotiation. We hold the bar high even when no one’s watching. We take pride in doing great work the right way - not the easy way.

We Keep Improving
The best teams keep improving and we’re never done learning.
We iterate. We reflect on what’s working and what’s not. Feedback fuels us, we receive it openly, and adapt quickly. Progress over perfection.

We’re Obsessed With Agility, Not The Agile Manifesto
We don’t chase dogma or rituals - we chase momentum. We adapt processes to fit problems, not the other way around.
We Take Ownership
Everyone leads something here. You will have room to run with ideas, and the trust to execute. That trust is built on how you show up: thinking things through, sweating the details, and following through.
What You’ll Do
As a Senior DBA & Database Architect at Lateral, you will:

• Design and optimize real-time databases and data systemsto meet evolving client, product, and business needs - with a focus on performance, quality, and scalability.

• Tune, productionize, and optimize data systems and machine learning models to enhance their effectiveness and efficiency.

• Take ownership of features end-to-end, from initial concept through deployment. You’ll often drive substantial product features as the key developer alongside an architect, backend developer or analyst.

• Mentor and support junior engineers, leading by example in design reviews and pair programming. You will offer constructive feedback that helps others grow, fostering a thoughtful, kind, and continuously learning team culture.

• Provide technical leadership in architecture and design discussions, advocating for simple, elegant solutions. You’ll challenge unnecessary complexity and focus on pragmatic results.

• Continuously refine systems balancing new development with technical debt management to keep solutions stable and adaptable.

• Champion best practices in quality, security, and operations, including CI/CD, monitoring, and privacy compliance

Example Projects You May Join:

• Build an AI-powered healthcare platform to help detect diseases earlier.

• Launch a new fintech product from the ground up.

• Scale a global SaaS commerce system with millions of products

Whatever the challenge, you’ll be building software that changes lives and moves industries forward.
How We Measure Success In This Role
In the first two weeks

• You make your first meaningful contribution to the project

• You communicate well async as well as in meetings

In the first 3 months:

• You understand the system architecture well and can work independently or in teams on medium-sized features.

• You design before you code (and produce design artifacts)

• You have shipped code in Production, clean, tested

• You communicate clearly, raising issues early and contributing to reviews.

• You deliver what you commit to.

After 3 months:

• You take ownership of larger features and improvements from start to finish.

• You help others by sharing knowledge, spotting problems early, and improving processes or tooling.

• You make decisions with both the data/codebase and business goals in mind.

We measure success through:

• Evaluating results (what you’ve shipped)

• Quality and reliability of your designs.

• Consistency in delivery.

• Feedback from peers and leads.

• Your ability to work independently and unblock others.

What We’re Looking For
We are seeking for team members who are both highly technical and deeply care about their craft and how the work gets done. You must bring:

• 7+ years experience in database engineering or administration

• Deep expertise in SQL, relational databases, data modeling, and transactional design

• Hands-on experience with ETL pipelines and data warehouses, optimizing data flows across systems

• Proven ability to design efficient schemas and tune queries for high-scale, high-volume environments

• A quality mindset: unit tests, integration tests, automation, defensive programming

• Excellent problem-solving and debugging skills with a hands-on, proactive attitude

• Ability to Design before you code—express decisions through clear diagrams, validate assumptions early, and think through edge cases and trade-offs.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English.

• A commitment to making a difference, continuous learning, and collaboration

Bonus points for:

• Proven leadership in data architecture across multiple projects or business domains

• Deep understanding of database internals and how data systems work under the hood

• Experience with large-scale systems or high-volume datasets, with a focus on performance and scalability

• Clear, structured communication and excellence in design documentation

Why You’ll Love…