Principal Data Architect

What You'll Work On

• Define and maintain enterprise-wide data architecture standards, principles, roadmaps, and governance frameworks.
• Lead the design and implementation of scalable cloud-native data platforms leveraging Databricks, AWS, Azure, and related technologies.
• Architect and oversee batch, streaming, and real-time data pipelines supporting analytics, AI, machine learning, and operational use cases.
• Partner with business, product, analytics, AI, and engineering teams to translate strategic objectives into scalable data solutions.
• Design and optimize Lakehouse architectures, enterprise data lakes, data warehouses, and data integration frameworks.
• Enable self-service data and analytics capabilities that improve accessibility, trust, and usability of enterprise data assets.
• Support enterprise AI initiatives by ensuring high-quality, governed, and scalable data foundations.
• Establish best practices for data modeling, metadata management, data lineage, master data management, and data quality.
• Drive automation of data workflows, orchestration processes, monitoring, and operational support to enable near real-time data access.
• Ensure data security, privacy, compliance, and governance across all platforms and data domains.
• Collaborate with cybersecurity, legal, and compliance teams to implement appropriate controls for sensitive and regulated data.
• Guide cloud strategy across AWS and Azure environments, ensuring scalability, reliability, cost optimization, and operational excellence.
• Mentor and provide technical leadership to data engineers, architects, and cross-functional technology teams.
• Conduct architecture reviews and technology assessments, identifying opportunities for modernization and innovation.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends to advance Abbott’s data, analytics, and AI capabilities.
• Support enterprise initiatives involving healthcare, EMR/EHR, clinical, operational, and commercial data when applicable.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Systems, Engineering, Data Science, or a related technical discipline.
• 8+ years of experience in data architecture, solution architecture, data engineering, or related enterprise technology roles.
• 5+ years of experience designing and implementing enterprise-scale cloud data platforms.
• Deep hands-on experience with Databricks, including Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Databricks Workflows, Databricks SQL, Spark and PySpark, Lakehouse Architecture.
• Extensive experience designing and implementing ETL/ELT frameworks, data pipelines, and cloud-native integration solutions.
• Strong understanding of data architecture patterns, distributed systems, data modeling, and enterprise integration concepts.
• Experience implementing data governance, security, compliance, encryption, access controls, monitoring, and auditing frameworks.
• Strong proficiency in SQL and Python.
• Proven ability to develop architecture standards and influence enterprise technology direction.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and executive presentation skills.
• Proven ability to lead complex cross-functional initiatives and technical teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within healthcare, medical device, pharmaceutical, payer, provider, or healthcare technology organizations.
• Experience working with EMR/EHR platforms and healthcare data standards, including FHIR and HL7.
• Familiarity with clinical, claims, patient, provider, and operational healthcare datasets.
• Experience architecting solutions that support AI, machine learning, GenAI, and advanced analytics initiatives.
• Experience with streaming technologies such as Kafka, Spark Structured Streaming, or equivalent platforms.
• Experience implementing self-service analytics and data product strategies.
• Knowledge of MLOps, AI governance, and modern AI platform architectures.
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Databricks Certified Professional, or comparable certifications.
• Experience operating within regulated environments and supporting compliance requirements including HIPAA and other data privacy regulations.
• Experience working in a global, matrixed organization.