Data Architect

Overview of the role:

A highly skilled and motivated IT Analytics Architect to join our Data Engineering & Analytics team. Reporting to the Senior Director of Data Engineering & Analytics, this role will play a critical part in the design and evolution of our enterprise data lake platform hosted on Microsoft Fabric. This role is responsible for defining scalable, secure, and high-performance data architectures, with a strong focus on integrating systems into a unified analytics ecosystem.

The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in modern data platforms with strong architectural vision, enabling advanced analytics, self-serve reporting, data science and AI capabilities across the organization.

How you will make contributions that matter:

• Enable enterprise-wide data access and trust by delivering a unified, well-architected data lake on MS OneLake that transforms fragmented data into a single, reliable source of truth.
  
• Accelerate business decision-making through scalable, high-performance data architectures that support near real-time analytics and self-service insights.
  
• Unlock value by designing robust integration patterns that bring previously siloed operational, SaaS, and external data into the analytics ecosystem.
  
• Drive cost efficiency and scalability by optimizing data pipelines, storage strategies, and platform usage within Microsoft Fabric.
  
• Strengthen data governance and compliance by partnering closely with the Analytics Governance and DevOps Specialist to ensure security, lineage, and quality controls are embedded in architecture design, ensuring data is both accessible and responsibly managed.
  

Key Responsibilities:

Architecture

• Lead and participate in formal architecture reviews for analytics and data solutions, ensuring alignment to enterprise architecture standards, security requirements, and governance models.
  
• Define, publish, and maintain analytics reference architectures, architectural guardrails, approved design patterns, and overall architecture of the enterprise data lake using Microsoft Fabric for structured and unstructured data.
  
• Define data models, storage strategies, and data lifecycle management frameworks.
  
• Establish standards for data ingestion, transformation, and consumption layers (e.g., Bronze, Silver, Gold architecture), working closely with Governance and DevOps Specialist, and Data Engineer team
  
• Promote reusable patterns, templates, and frameworks across teams.
  
• Review and approve architectural deviations and exceptions in partnership with Data Engineer team.
  
• Own architectural considerations across the full analytics lifecycle: ingestion, transformation, modeling, consumption, performance optimization, archival, and decommissioning.
  

Source System Integration

• Architect integration patterns for enterprise systems (e.g., Workday, MS Dataverse, Manhattan WMS, SaaS platforms, operational systems, external data providers).
  
• Design scalable ingestion frameworks for batch, streaming, and near real-time data pipelines.
  
• Define and implement API-based, event-driven, and file-based ingestion patterns.
  
• Ensure data quality, consistency, and traceability across all ingestion pipelines, following policies and procedures developed in partnership with Governance and DevOps Specialists and other Architects.
  

Platform & Technology Leadership

• Provide technical leadership on Microsoft Fabric capabilities including Data Factory, OneLake, Lakehouse, Warehousing, OneLake Catalog, Fabric IQ, Synonyms & Linguistics and Real-Time Analytics.
  
• Evaluate and recommend tools across Microsoft and non-Microsoft platforms (i.e. Databricks, AWS, etc..), frameworks, and best practices for modern data architecture.
  
• Ensure alignment with enterprise IT strategy, security standards, and governance policies.
  
• Support business Data Analysts to ensure strong design patterns are followed in self-serve report and dashboard development.
  

Performance & Scalability

• Optimize data pipelines and storage for performance, cost-efficiency, and scalability.
  
• Design architectures that support high-volume, high-velocity data processing.
  
• Guide and assist citizen developers to create scalable, high-performing semantic models.
  

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Partner with business stakeholders, data engineers, analysts, and data scientists to understand requirements and translate them into architectural solutions.
  
• Act as a trusted advisor for data-driven initiatives and digital transformation programs.
  

Governance

• Partner closely with the Analytics Governance & DevOps Specialist to ensure governance, security, privacy, and deployment controls are reflected in architectural standards and solution designs.
  

Cost & Capacity (FinOps)

• Balance performance, scalability, usability, and cost when defining architectural trade-offs.
  
• Design solutions aligned with capacity planning, FinOps principles, and cost optimization strategies.
  

Success Measures

Success in this role is measured by:

• Adoption of approved reference architectures and architectural standards across analytics initiatives.
  
• Improved solution scalability, performance, and operability as platform usage grows.
  
• Reduced rework and production issues through strong architectural guardrails and design reviews.
  
• Improved cost transparency and optimization through architecture decisions aligned to capacity and FinOps practices.
  
• Strong alignment between analytics solutions, governance requirements, and enterprise architecture strategy.
  

Required Skills & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.
  
• 6+ years of experience in data and analytics architecture, data engineering, and big data analytics platforms
  
• Proven experience designing enterprise-scale data lakes or Lakehouse architectures.
  
• Hands-on experience with Microsoft Fabric or closely related Azure data services.
  
• Strong expertise in data integration patterns (ETL/ELT, APIs, streaming, event-driven architecture).
  
• Knowledge of real-time analytics and streaming technologies.
  
• Experience integrating non-ERP enterprise systems with structured and unstructured data into data lake via cloud services.
  
• Proficiency in Medallion Architecture, Fabric Workloads, PySpark, SQL, KQL, DAX, Semantic Model Designs, and Power Query.
  
• Experience working in highly motivated cross-functional environments with both technical and business stakeholders.
  
• Experience with large scale modern data and analytics transformations within a CPG company, implementing new platforms and data lakes, defining new ways of working to drive business value and outcomes through data and analytics in a self-serve culture.
  
• Serve as a primary liaison facilitating effective communication and collaboration among Data Engineering, Business Intelligence, Security, Architecture teams, and various business units.
  
• (Preferred) Understanding of data requirements of Agentic AI and MLL
  
• (Preferred) Certifications in Azure (AZ-305) and Fabric (DP-700, DP-600)
  
• (Preferred) Familiarity with data governance tools and frameworks.
  
• (Preferred) Experience with DevOps/DataOps practices and CI/CD for data pipelines.
  
• Key Competencies
  
• Strategic thinking and architectural design expertise
  
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
  
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management
  
• Ability to balance innovation with practical implementation
  
• Leadership and mentorship capabilities