Database architect

Location:
Centurion, Gauteng (provisional – to be confirmed)
Positions Available: 5

Salary:
Market-related
Employment Type: To be confirmed Job Overview

We are seeking experienced and technically proficient Database Architects to design, develop, optimise and govern enterprise database architectures within complex, high-availability IT environments.

The successful candidates will be responsible for defining database architecture strategies, designing scalable database solutions, developing logical and physical data models, and ensuring enterprise database platforms meet performance, security, reliability and business requirements.

This role requires strong expertise in enterprise database architecture, relational database management systems, SQL, data modelling, database performance optimisation, high availability, disaster recovery and cloud database technologies .

The ideal candidates will have proven experience designing and implementing complex database architectures across enterprise applications, transactional systems, data platforms and cloud or hybrid environments.

Candidates must demonstrate the ability to evaluate database technologies, establish architectural standards, design resilient database structures and provide technical leadership on database modernisation, integration and migration initiatives.

The role requires collaboration with enterprise architects, data architects, database administrators, application developers, infrastructure engineers, cybersecurity specialists and business stakeholders.

This is a specialist database architecture role requiring substantial hands‑on database design and solution architecture experience. Routine database administration, SQL development or reporting experience alone will not be sufficient.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Database Architecture and Strategy Design, develop and maintain enterprise database architectures. Define database architecture principles, standards and technical guidelines. Develop scalable, secure and resilient database solutions. Evaluate existing database environments and recommend improvements. Define database technology strategies and modernisation roadmaps. Select appropriate database platforms based on business and technical requirements. Ensure database architecture aligns with enterprise IT strategy. Design solutions for on-premises, cloud and hybrid environments. Review database solution designs and provide architectural approval recommendations. Maintain database architecture documentation and technical specifications.

Database Design and Data Modelling Develop conceptual, logical and physical database models. Design relational database schemas, tables, indexes, constraints and relationships. Apply appropriate normalisation and denormalisation techniques. Define data integrity, consistency and referential integrity controls. Design database structures for transactional and analytical workloads. Develop scalable data models supporting enterprise applications. Establish database naming conventions and design standards. Evaluate schema changes and their impact on existing systems. Collaborate with application and data architecture teams. Maintain accurate database design documentation.

Database Performance and Optimisation Design database architectures that support high performance and scalability. Evaluate SQL query performance and execution plans. Recommend indexing, partitioning and query optimisation strategies. Identify database bottlenecks and architectural constraints. Define database performance standards and monitoring requirements. Support capacity planning for growing enterprise workloads. Evaluate database configuration and resource utilisation. Recommend performance improvements for high-volume systems. Support database performance testing and benchmarking. Collaborate with DBAs and development teams to resolve complex performance issues.

High Availability, Resilience and Disaster Recovery Architect highly available database environments. Design database replication, clustering and failover solutions. Define database backup and recovery architecture requirements. Establish recovery time and recovery point objectives. Design database solutions that minimise single points of failure. Support disaster recovery planning and testing. Evaluate data replication and synchronisation technologies. Ensure database solutions support business continuity requirements. Define appropriate resilience and redundancy patterns. Review database recovery procedures and operational readiness.

Database Security and Compliance Design secure enterprise database architectures. Define database access control and authentication requirements. Incorporate encryption, auditing and monitoring controls. Support database vulnerability and security assessments. Ensure database designs align with organisational security policies. App