Solution Architect

Solution Architect

CampusWorks is redefining how higher education institutions use technology and functional managed services to drive transformation, financial sustainability, and student success. We serve as a true end-to-end partner to institutional leaders, delivering a fully integrated model that spans professional and managed services.

We are seeking a Solution Architect to own the technical design of a federated, multi-institution data platform built on the medallion lakehouse pattern using Azure Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, and Power BI. As the design authority for the platform, you will define the architecture that lets multiple higher education institutions share governed transformation logic and a managed production layer while retaining direct control of their own catalogs and environments.

This is a senior individual-contributor role for a hands-on architect who is equally comfortable in a Unity Catalog security model, a Databricks workspace, and an architecture review with institutional stakeholders. You will set the patterns and standards the engineering team builds to — partnering closely with data engineers, BI developers, DevOps, and governance leads — rather than managing people directly.

Responsibilities

Platform architecture & design

• Own the end-to-end architecture of a federated, multi-institution medallion lakehouse (Bronze / Silver / Gold) on Azure Databricks and Microsoft Fabric
• Define the federated, multi-tenant design that separates a centrally governed shared layer — shared transformation logic, a managed production catalog, and source-system security — from institution-administered catalogs and environments
• Establish reference architectures, design patterns, and technical standards that each institution's engineering work follows
• Make and document key architecture and platform trade-off decisions, with clear rationale for technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Design ingestion and integration from Workday (HCM, Finance, Student) and legacy SIS, LMS, CRM, and identity sources into the lakehouse

Governance & security architecture

• Design the Unity Catalog security and access model across institutions, preserving institutional data autonomy within a shared governance framework
• Define and protect the two-catalog boundary — the institution-administered production catalog versus the centrally managed production catalog — and keep that distinction explicit across all designs
• Partner with governance leads to translate governance, data-quality, and stewardship policy into enforceable platform controls

Delivery enablement

• Provide hands-on design authority and technical guidance to data engineers, BI developers, DevOps, and data-quality and governance staff
• Review solution designs and key pull requests for architectural conformance
• Produce and maintain architecture documentation, decision records, and diagrams
• Support estimation, sequencing, and risk identification alongside the project and delivery leads

The responsibilities listed above are representative of the role and may be adjusted to meet organizational priorities.

Qualifications & Requirements

• 7–10 years designing and delivering cloud data platforms, including hands-on architecture of production analytics environments
• Deep, hands-on expertise with Azure Databricks and Unity Catalog — lakehouse design, medallion architecture, and catalog and security modeling
• Strong command of modern data-engineering patterns: ELT/ETL, orchestration, and data modeling across Bronze / Silver / Gold layers
• Proven ability to design multi-source integration (ERP / SIS / LMS / CRM / identity) into a governed analytics platform
• Experience defining security, access, and governance models in a shared or multi-team environment
• Comfort operating as a senior individual contributor — setting standards and guiding engineers without direct-report authority
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including architecture documentation and stakeholder-facing design reviews
• Bachelor's degree in a technical field or equivalent practical experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience architecting federated or multi-tenant data platforms that serve multiple institutions or business units — central to this role
• Microsoft Fabric and Power BI experience, including semantic models and workspace design
• Azure Solutions Architect Expert and/or Databricks certification
• Infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD familiarity (Terraform, DevOps pipelines) as it relates to platform design
• Exposure to data-quality tooling such as Great Expectations
• Experience in higher education and/or with Workday as a source system

What You Can Expect from Us

At CampusWorks, we don't just help our clients succeed; we help our employees succeed. Competitive pay, robust benefits for full-time employees, and professional development opportunities are a few of the many reasons that CampusWorks is a great place to build your career.

Our employees enjoy:

• Meaningful work. Our employees often tell us that their work gives them a sense of purpose because it makes a difference in the lives of students and educators.
• A CEO who cares. Chairman and CEO Liz Murphy has made it her mission to create a culture that appreciates and takes good care of its people. As a result, being an employee of CampusWorks feels like being a member of a big family.
• A virtual and onsite workplace. In an effort to reduce our environmental footprint, CampusWorks became a virtual company in 2012. As such, our team members are located across the U.S. and Canada, where they work from their home offices and at client sites.
• Flexibility. We value work-life balance because we know that happy employees create happy customers. That's why CampusWorks offers both full-time and part-time 1099 consulting career opportunities to fit life's unique demands.
• A company that gives back. Every year CampusWorks proudly supports numerous charitable fundraising initiatives that align with our vision to make higher education accessible to everyone.

At CampusWorks, we value the unique backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives each CampusWorker (we call ourselves CampusWorkers) brings to our workplace each day. We believe everyone deserves a fair shot at success and appreciate the experiences each person brings beyond the traditional job requirements. If you are passionate about higher education and creating Happy Campuses, let's talk! If you're a close but not exact match with the description, we hope you'll still consider applying.

About CampusWorks

Founded in 1999, CampusWorks is dedicated to helping higher education overcome business and technological challenges that stand in the way of student success and completion. We work with community colleges, technical colleges, four-year public and private institutions, multi-college districts, and statewide higher education systems to tackle problems big and small. Our services are rooted in systems thinking and reach across the institution—from Student Services to Human Resources to Finance to Academics—to achieve transformative results.