We are looking for a Solutions Architect to design, establish, and govern our enterprise data management capabilities, with a strong focus on the Microsoft Fabric platform. You will define the architecture, standards, and practices that turn data into a trusted, well-governed, and widely used asset, and you will work closely with business stakeholders, data engineers, analysts, and security teams to make it happen.
This is a hands-on architecture role. You will shape strategy and also guide implementation, from selecting and rolling out data management tooling to building reference architectures on Fabric that teams can adopt with confidence.
Key Responsibilities:
Architecture and Solution Design
- Design end-to-end data solutions on Microsoft Fabric, including OneLake, Lakehouse, Warehouse, Data Factory pipelines, Dataflows Gen2, Real-Time Intelligence, Notebooks, and Power BI.
- Define reference architectures, patterns, and standards (for example medallion architecture, domain-oriented data products, and ingestion and transformation patterns).
- Translate business requirements into scalable, secure, and cost-effective technical designs.
- Lead architecture reviews and provide technical guidance to delivery teams.
Data Management Practices and Tooling
- Establish and mature core data management disciplines: data governance, data quality, metadata management, master and reference data management, data lineage, data cataloging, and data lifecycle management.
- Evaluate, select, implement, and integrate data management tools (such as Microsoft Purview, Alation, Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog and comparable catalog, quality, and MDM solutions) into the Fabric ecosystem.
- Define data ownership and stewardship models, policies, and operating procedures, and drive adoption across business units.
- Implement data quality frameworks, monitoring, and remediation processes.
Governance, Security, and Compliance
- Design access control, sensitivity labeling, row- and column-level security, and data protection approaches aligned with regulatory requirements (e.g. GDPR, PIPEDA, HIPAA, SOC 2, as applicable).
- Partner with security, privacy, and compliance teams to embed governance into platform design.
- Establish Fabric workspace, capacity, and tenant governance, including environment strategy, CI/CD, and deployment pipelines.
Platform Strategy and Enablement
- Develop the roadmap for the Fabric platform and associated data management capabilities.
- Guide migration and modernization from legacy platforms (e.g. SQL Server, Synapse, Azure Data Factory, on-prem data warehouses) to Fabric.
- Define capacity planning, performance tuning, and cost management practices (FinOps).
- Create documentation, training, and best-practice guidance; mentor engineers and analysts.
Stakeholder Engagement
- Act as a trusted advisor to technical and business leaders, communicating architecture decisions clearly and making the case for data management investment.
- Collaborate with product owners, data engineers, data scientists, BI developers, and enterprise architects.
Required Qualifications:
- 7+ years of experience in data architecture, solutions architecture, or a closely related role, including significant time designing enterprise data platforms.
- Proven experience establishing data management tools and practices (governance, quality, metadata, lineage, MDM) in a real organization, not only advising on them.
- Hands-on experience with Microsoft Fabric (OneLake, Lakehouse, Warehouse, Data Factory, Power BI, Real-Time Intelligence) and the broader Azure data ecosystem.
- Strong knowledge of data modeling (dimensional, relational, lakehouse), ETL/ELT patterns, and modern data architecture approaches.
- Experience with Microsoft Purview, Alation, Informatica Data Catalog or equivalent governance and catalog tooling.
- Proficiency in SQL and familiarity with Python/PySpark, and with Git-based CI/CD for data solutions.
- Solid understanding of data security, privacy, and regulatory compliance.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex concepts to executives and engineers alike.
