Senior Data Architect
About the role
We are seeking a Senior Data Architect to provide an independent third-party perspective on an ongoing enterprise Data Modernization program. The role focuses on architecture assurance, risk mitigation, and acceleration of platform adoption, ensuring alignment with enterprise-scale best practices and long-term strategic goals.
Responsibilities
Architecture Advisory Independent Review - Provide objective third-party evaluation of the current data platform architecture, design choices, and implementation approach. Review and validate lakehouse architecture including ingestion, transformation, storage, and consumption layers. Identify gaps, design risks, and antipatterns across the platform. Recommend alternative approaches and tradeoffs aligned to enterprise standards.
Data Modernization Strategy Alignment - Assess alignment to modern data platform paradigms, lakehouse, ELT, Medallion architecture. Validate architectural decisions around data ingestion patterns, batch/streaming, unstructured data integration, data modeling and transformation strategies, analytics, and AI/ML readiness of the platform. Ensure consistency with enterprise-scale governance, security, and performance requirements.
Risk Identification - Derisking - Proactively identify technical, architectural, and operational risks impacting delivery timelines and scalability. Conduct design reviews and provide mitigation strategies and decision frameworks. Flag dependencies, constraints, and potential long-term impacts of current design choices. Support leadership with architecture risk summaries and decision recommendations.
Multi-Vendor Stakeholder Engagement - Work independently with customer architects and SMEs, internal delivery teams, and third-party vendors. Facilitate architecture discussions, workshops, and governance reviews. Act as a neutral technical authority to resolve architectural conflicts and drive consensus.
Best Practices Governance - Define and enforce architecture standards, design patterns, and guardrails. Ensure adoption of Databricks and Spark best practices, data governance frameworks, including cataloging, access control, and auditing, performance optimization, and distributed systems. Provide guidance on DataOps, DevOps practices, and observability frameworks.
Acceleration Program Support - Identify opportunities to accelerate delivery and remove bottlenecks. Guide teams in prioritizing architectural decisions that unlock progress. Support roadmap refinement for phased platform evolution.
Requirements
Experience 14 years in data engineering, data architecture, or analytics platform engineering. Proven experience in enterprise data modernization or cloud migration programs. Strong background in Databricks-based lakehouse implementations at scale. Technical Skills: Deep expertise in Databricks platform architecture, AWS cloud, Apache Spark, PySpark, SQL, Delta Lake, and lakehouse design patterns. Strong understanding of data ingestion and ELT frameworks, data governance and cataloging approaches, performance optimization, and distributed systems. Advisory Leadership Skills: Ability to operate independently as a trusted advisor in a complex multivendor environment. Strong stakeholder management and executive communication skills. Proven capability to challenge existing designs constructively and drive consensus. Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset.
Qualifications
Nice to Have Experience: In insurance or regulated industries. Exposure to BI/analytics transformation tools. Prior experience in architecture governance boards or external advisory roles.
Skills
Experience 14 years in data engineering, data architecture, or analytics platform engineering.
Proven experience in enterprise data modernization or cloud migration programs.
Strong background in Databricks-based lakehouse implementations at scale.
Deep expertise in Databricks platform architecture, AWS cloud, Apache Spark, PySpark, SQL, Delta Lake, and lakehouse design patterns.
Strong understanding of data ingestion and ELT frameworks, data governance and cataloging approaches, performance optimization, and distributed systems.
Ability to operate independently as a trusted advisor in a complex multivendor environment.
Strong stakeholder management and executive communication skills.
Proven capability to challenge existing designs constructively and drive consensus.
Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset.
Benefits
Comprehensive Medical Plan
Short Term and Long-Term Disability Coverage
401(k) Plan with Company match
Life Insurance
Vacation Time, Sick Leave, Paid Holidays
Paid Paternity and Maternity Leave
Pay
Variable Compensation: This position includes a bonus or variable payout component based on individual and organizational performance. Actual compensation within the range will be dependent upon the individual's skills, experience, performance, and internal equity.
Schedule
Remote