Senior Data Architect

About The Role

Join our DEX team as the Senior Data Architect, owning the end-to-end data strategy for decentralized trading and on-chain settlement. You’ll define canonical models for orders/trades/settlement, architect high-throughput streaming and analytics systems, and ensure our data is secure, governed, and analytics-ready in near real time.

Preferred Stack: ClickHouse (OLAP/time-series), Kafka (streaming/event bus), Postgres & MySQL (OLTP).

What You’ll Do

• Own the data architecture & roadmap across OLTP (Postgres/MySQL), streaming (Kafka), and OLAP (ClickHouse); set reference architectures, SLAs/SLOs, and capacity plans.
• Model core domains (orders, quotes, trades, order books, liquidity, fees/rebates, custody, settlements/finality, compliance events) and maintain a versioned canonical schema + semantic layer.
• Build real-time pipelines: CDC from Postgres/MySQL (e.g., Debezium) → Kafka (with Schema Registry) → processing (Airflow/Fivetran/dbt) → ClickHouse; guarantee idempotency, replay, and backpressure controls.
• ClickHouse architecture: design MergeTree/ReplicatedMergeTree tables, partitioning (e.g., by symbol/date), primary/secondary indexes, materialized views/projections, tiered storage/TTL, and sharding for hot/cold data.
• On-chain integration: ingest Hyperledger Fabric block/chaincode events; map MSP identities and transactions to off-chain models with verifiable lineage.
• Performance & cost control: right-size clusters, optimize queries, tune compaction/merges, and enforce workload isolation (OLAP vs ELT vs ad-hoc).
• Data quality & reliability: institute data contracts, schema evolution policies, expectations/validations, lineage, and automated rollbacks.
• Security & governance by design: RBAC/ABAC, least privilege, encryption in transit/at rest, KMS-backed key management, tokenization/pseudonymization, DLP; auditable changes and retention schedules.
• Enable the business: deliver curated marts and real-time dashboards for product, quant, risk, compliance, and ops; standardize KPIs and SLIs.
• Apply AI for schema/SQL generation and data quality insights, but require human review against contracts, governance policies, and lineage checks to confirm accuracy.
• Mentor & collaborate: write RFCs/design docs, guide engineers, and partner with Wallet, Smart-Contract, SRE, and Compliance.

What You’ll Bring

• 8+ years in data engineering/architecture; 3+ years leading high-throughput data/platform architectures.
• Deep hands-on with ClickHouse (table engines, partitions, projections/materialized views, replication/sharding, TTL/tiering, query tuning).
• Production experience with Kafka (partitions, consumer groups, exactly-once/at-least-once tradeoffs, Schema Registry).
• Strong Postgres/MySQL fundamentals (transaction design, indexing, replication, partitioning) and CDC to Kafka.
• Proficiency in SQL and one or more of Python/TypeScript/Scala/Go; comfort with Fivetran and orchestration (Airflow/Prefect) and transformation frameworks (dbt).
• Practical security/governance: IAM, secrets, encryption/KMS, lineage/catalog, privacy-by-design (GDPR/CCPA awareness).
• Familiarity with blockchain data and/or Hyperledger Fabric events and identity mapping (MSP).
• Clear communicator, systems thinker, able to balance latency, correctness, and cost.

Nice to Have

• DEX/CEX domain knowledge (market microstructure, AMMs, market data protocols, surveillance).
• Feature store or real-time ML for fraud/risk/market-making.
• Observability stacks (DataDog) and incident readiness for data platforms.

Work Style & Time Zones

• Remote-first; meaningful overlap with US business hours expected, restrictions on some countries
• Occasional data on-call/incident participation with strong automation and runbooks.

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Gala is an equal-opportunity employer and adopts a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination.

We are committed to providing equal opportunities to all current and prospective employees regardless of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership.

We aspire to have a diverse workforce because, in our view, diversity enables better business outcomes. We also believe that a more inclusive workplace, where people of different backgrounds work together, ensures better outcomes for all staff. From application to interview, we place inclusion at the heart of all we do.

Remote-first, people-first.

We’re a distributed team built on trust, flexibility, and outcomes.

• Remote-first work. Thrive from wherever you do your best work in the U.S.
• Health coverage (U.S.). _100% employer-paid_ premiums for employee Medical, Dental, and Vision.
• Optional pet insurance.
• Unlimited PTO. Take the time you need to rest and recharge.
• Paid Parental Leave. Support for growing families.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Confidential counseling and resources.
• …and much more.

Benefits shown apply to U.S.-based, full-time employees and may vary by location and role. All offerings are governed by the applicable plan documents and company policies.

NEXT STEPS

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If you have the experience, passion, and drive to join our team, then please submit a resume by clicking the apply button below.

Our Recruiting Team and Hiring Managers carefully review all applications. If your qualifications align with the role, we’ll reach out to discuss next steps. Thank you for your interest in joining our team!

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Please note that we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for our positions. Applicants must have the legal right to work in the country indicated by the job description without the need for visa sponsorship.

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Gala does not accept unsolicited referrals or resumes from any source other than directly from candidates. We will not consider unsolicited referrals and/or resumes from vendors including, and without limitation, search firms, staffing agencies, fee-based referral services, and recruiting agencies. Gala will consider any candidate for whom an Agency has submitted an unsolicited resume to have been referred by the Agency free of any charges or fees. We kindly ask that external recruitment agencies or third-party vendors refrain from contacting any managers or senior leadership directly regarding job postings or potential candidate submissions.