Data Platform Lead -GCP

About the role

This role is not able to offer visa transfer or sponsorship now or in the future.

Responsibilities

• Define, document, and communicate enterprise data architecture standards, governance policies, security requirements, naming conventions, and framework guidelines across data platforms.
• Design scalable and resilient GCP data architectures that support growing business demands while maintaining performance, reliability, and operational efficiency.
• Establish data quality frameworks, backup and recovery strategies, and technical guardrails to ensure the integrity, availability, and security of critical data assets.
• Review data pipelines, storage solutions, and implementation approaches to ensure alignment with architectural standards, scalability goals, and cost optimization objectives.
• Partner with engineering and modeling teams to evaluate new technologies, address architectural challenges, identify bottlenecks, and recommend sustainable long-term solutions.

Requirements

• Extensive experience in Data Architecture and Data Warehouse Design, including enterprise data platforms, data lakes, and modern cloud-based analytics solutions.
• Strong hands-on experience as a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Architect, with expertise in designing and implementing scalable, secure, and high-performing data solutions on GCP.
• Proficiency with Looker, including semantic modeling, dashboard development, governed metrics, and enterprise reporting solutions.
• Experience supporting and enabling Machine Learning (ML) workloads, including data preparation, feature engineering, ML data pipelines, and architecture considerations for AI/ML initiatives.
• Experience establishing architecture standards, governance frameworks, security controls, and data management best practices.
• Proven ability to design scalable, cost-efficient, and high-performance data solutions for large and growing datasets.
• Experience translating business requirements into technical architecture and communicating recommendations to technical and executive stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of backup, disaster recovery, data quality, and operational resilience strategies.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• This will help you stand out: Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect and/or Professional Data Engineer certification.
• Experience with BigQuery, Dataflow, Dataproc, Vertex AI, and other GCP data and analytics services.
• Knowledge of data governance, metadata management, and enterprise data modeling practices.
• Experience evaluating emerging technologies through proof-of-concept initiatives.
• Strong leadership, stakeholder management, and mentoring capabilities.

Qualifications

• Salary and other compensation: The annual salary for this position is between $125,000 - $150,000 depending on experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.
• Benefits: Cognizant offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements: Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance, Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off, 401(k) plan and contributions, Long-term/Short-term Disability, Paid Parental Leave, Employee Stock Purchase Plan.