Database Architect

About Heirs Technologies Heirs Technologies is the technology subsidiary of Heirs Holdings, Africa's leading investment holding company. We build world-class digital products and platforms that serve millions of Africans across the continent and diaspora. About the Engagement We are building a next-generation digital banking platform for one of Africa's largest financial institutions — a product built to serve 15 million users at launch, scaling to hundreds of millions across the continent and diaspora. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape the data architecture of infrastructure that will define how Africa transacts, saves, and grows. The Role The Database Architect is the strategic owner of the platform's data architecture — the person who decides how data is structured, stored, replicated, and governed across a dual-cloud financial platform at continental scale. Working under the Enterprise Architect and providing technical leadership to the Database Engineers, you will define the data models, technology standards, and architectural patterns that every engineering team builds on. Where the Database Engineers own the build and operation, you own the blueprint — and the blueprint must be right. What You'll Do Data Architecture & Strategy — Define and own the platform's end-to-end data architecture — setting the structural principles, technology choices, and governance standards that govern how data is stored, accessed, and managed across all platform services and both cloud environments. Ensure the data architecture is designed for continental scale from day one, with no fundamental rework required as the platform grows from 15 million to hundreds of millions of users. Data Modelling & Standards — Establish and enforce enterprise-level data modelling standards across the platform — including canonical data models, naming conventions, domain ownership boundaries, and guidelines for when to use relational vs. distributed NoSQL paradigms. Review and approve data model proposals from product and engineering teams, ensuring every model is clean, consistent, and aligned with the platform's architectural direction. Cross-Cloud Data Architecture — Own the architectural design of the platform's cross-cloud data strategy — defining how data is replicated, synchronised, and kept consistent between AWS and Azure in real time. Design the active-active (or active-passive) database architecture across PostgreSQL and Apache Cassandra deployments on both clouds, specifying the replication topology, conflict resolution strategies, consistency guarantees, and failover behaviour. This is one of the most technically demanding architectural challenges on the platform and requires deep, hands-on expertise in distributed data systems. Technology Governance & Selection — Own the platform's approved database technology catalogue — including PostgreSQL, Apache Cassandra, Redis, and their respective managed cloud services across AWS…