What You'll DoThe Principal Engineer for Database Platform is the technical anchor of NodeZero's data infrastructure. This is an individual contributor role with no direct reports - your influence is through technical leadership, architecture ownership, and raising the engineering bar across the team. You own the most consequential database architecture decisions, define the standards that govern how NodeZero stores, queries, and migrates data at scale, and ensure the data layer can support NodeZero's growth - more customers, larger environments, more pentest data - without requiring proportional operational effort. This is a deeply hands-on role: you will write code, author design documents, and set the technical direction that every engineer on the Database Platform team builds toward.
NodeZero's data layer is not simple. We store millions of discovered assets, graph-structured attack paths, time-series vulnerability data, and audit-critical pentest results - across a multi-tenant architecture where correctness and data isolation are non-negotiable. You will be the person who makes the hardest data architecture calls and ensures the team has the technical foundations to build reliably on.
- Technical Strategy: Define and drive the technical roadmap for the Database Platform in partnership with the Senior Engineering Manager and the broader Pentest Platform organization.
- Architecture Leadership: Own the most complex database architecture decisions - schema design, partitioning strategies, migration patterns, and scalability approaches. Produce design documents that become the shared technical model for the team.
- PostgreSQL Excellence: Be NodeZero's definitive expert on PostgreSQL at scale - query optimization, indexing, partitioning, replication, and connection pooling. Set the standards the team follows and catch the problems others miss.
- Graph & Multi-model Data: Architect and guide the evolution of NodeZero's graph-based asset model - the data structure that represents how discovered hosts, services, credentials, and vulnerabilities relate to each other across pentests.
- Schema Governance: Own schema design review processes. Ensure every migration is safe, reversible, and zero-downtime. Build the tooling and culture that treats schema changes with the same rigor as production code changes.
- Mentorship & Bar Raising: Mentor P5 and P4 engineers through code review, design review, and pairing. Be the person on the team that raises everyone else's ceiling.
- Cross-functional Influence: Partner with Data Ingestion, Asset Inventory, API Platform, and Security Research to define data contracts, query performance standards, and architectural guardrails that span the full data pipeline.
What You'll BringTechnical Depth
- Deep, production-proven PostgreSQL expertise: query planner internals, advanced indexing (partial, expression, GiST/GIN), partitioning strategies, logical replication, vacuuming at scale, and connection pool tuning.
- Experience architecting multi-tenant databases at scale: row-level security, tenant isolation, schema-per-tenant vs. shared-schema tradeoffs.
- Experience with schema migration at scale in production systems: zero-downtime migrations, backwards-compatible schema evolution, and migration tooling (Flyway, golang-migrate, or equivalent).
- Familiarity with graph data models and graph databases (Neo4j, AWS Neptune) or graph-like query patterns in relational systems (recursive CTEs, ltree, adjacency list).
- Proficient in Go or Python - able to write production application code, not just SQL.
Architecture & Design
- Demonstrated track record of defining database architecture at scale - from design doc to production - across multiple companies or teams.
- Strong opinions on data architecture tradeoffs: normalization vs. denormalization, consistency vs. availability, OLTP vs. OLAP workload separation, and schema-first vs. schema-last design.
- Able to reason about long-horizon schema design: what does this schema look like in two years, at 10× the current data volume, with three new feature teams writing to it?
- Able to communicate complex database decisions clearly in writing - for design docs, ADRs, and cross-team reviews - so engineers without deep DB expertise can understand and apply the reasoning.
Leadership Without Authority
- Proven ability to drive database standards across multiple teams without direct reporting authority - including teams that are not the Database Platform team.
- Experience establishing database engineering culture: schema review norms, migration safety standards, and query performance review processes.
- Track record of growing engineers through code review, pair programming, and architectural mentorship - especially engineers who are strong in application code but earlier in their database expertise.
Nice to Haves- Background in cybersecurity data: vulnerability databases, network scan schemas, or attack surface management data models.
- Experience with time-series databases (TimescaleDB, InfluxDB) in addition to relational.
- Familiarity with data platform compliance requirements: SOC 2 Type II, FedRAMP data handling, or GDPR/CCPA.
- Experience with analytical query patterns or BI/reporting workloads on operational data.
- Contributions to open-source database tooling or PostgreSQL ecosystem projects.
Travel RequiredWe are a fully remote company, and this job may require up to 5% of travel to be successful.
Compensation and ValuesAt Horizon3, we believe that our people are our greatest asset, and our compensation philosophy reflects this core value. We are committed to fostering an environment where all employees feel valued, respected, and rewarded for their contributions. Our compensation structure is designed to be fair, competitive, and transparent, ensuring that every team member is recognized and compensated equitably across roles, levels, and locations.
In accordance with various State's transparency regulations, we provide the following salary range information for this position:
- Base salary range: $255,000 - $290,000 annually. The exact salary will be determined based on the selected candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and relevant skills.
- Additional compensation: All full-time roles are eligible for an equity package in the form of stock options.
Perks of Horizon3- Inclusive Team: We value diversity and promote an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive.
- Growth Opportunities: Be part of a dynamic and growing team with numerous career development opportunities.
- Innovative Culture: Work in a collaborative environment that encourages creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.
- Hybrid & Remote Work: We embrace a mix of remote and hybrid work models depending on role and location, including our Chicago office, where some roles require regular in-office presence.
- Competitive Compensation: We offer competitive salary, equity and benefits. Our benefits include health, vision & dental insurance for you and your family, a flexible vacation policy, and generous parental leave.
Other DutiesPlease note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.
Application NoteIn any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.
