Principal Data Architect

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in North Carolina, +3 more states.

📋 Description

• Engage with customers on a daily basis by facilitating architecture discussions, briefing VA stakeholders, and transforming needs into precise designs and decisions.

• Lead and mentor senior data engineers through design and code reviews, as well as hands-on troubleshooting.

• Establish architecture and standards for data ingestion, storage, modeling, and serving utilizing Azure Data Factory, Synapse Analytics, Databricks, and Delta Lake.

• Design the platform's transition to Azure Commercial, leveraging Databricks as the engineering platform and Unity Catalog for governance.

• Create metadata-driven frameworks that support thousands of tables across batch, incremental, CDC, and streaming patterns.

• Facilitate reporting and machine learning tasks through Synapse Dedicated Pool, Databricks SQL, Power BI, and model training pipelines.

• Ensure the protection of PHI and PII through access policies, data masking, and ATO support in accordance with HIPAA and federal security regulations.

• Draft architecture and technical approach sections for proposals.

⛳️ Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in data engineering and data architecture, beginning as a hands-on data engineer, with at least 5+ years in a lead or principal architect role.

• Demonstrated leadership of engineering teams, including mentoring senior engineers and establishing technical direction.

• A proven track record of customer-facing engagements: leading architecture discussions, briefing executives, and writing for both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Expertise in hands-on cloud data engineering and data warehousing on Azure, including Azure Data Factory, Synapse Analytics (with a focus on Synapse Dedicated Pool), Databricks, Delta Lake, and ADLS Gen2.

• Practical experience in Unity Catalog design: managing catalogs and grants, implementing attribute-based access control, row filters, column masks, and lineage tracking.

• Proficient in designing lakehouse (medallion) architectures, data warehouse models, and metadata-driven frameworks across thousands of tables.

• Strong skills in SQL and Python (PySpark).

• Familiarity with CDC, streaming, and incremental load patterns (e.g., Oracle GoldenGate, Azure Event Hubs, Apache Kafka).

• Experience in migrating large on-premises data warehouses to the cloud, including parallel runs and reconciliation processes.

• Proficient with Git, CI/CD, and infrastructure as code for data platforms (e.g., Terraform, Databricks Asset Bundles).

• Working knowledge of HIPAA, NIST 800-53, and FISMA requirements concerning PHI and PII.

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, or a related field.

• Must be a citizen of the United States.

• Must be able to obtain a public trust clearance.

• Must be eligible to work in the United States.

🏝️ Benefits

• Competitive salary.

• Generous annual leave and paid holidays.

• Comprehensive group health and dental plans.

• 401(k) plan with company matching.

• Life insurance and AD&D coverage.

• Ongoing training and professional development opportunities.