Data Platform Architect

Job Description

Job Description

## Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced **Data Platform Architect** to lead the architecture, engineering, and evolution of a large-scale enterprise data platform supporting multiple business and technology teams.

This is a senior technical leadership position focused on building reusable, secure, cloud-based data products and shared platform services. The Data Platform Architect will establish architectural standards, engineering practices, automation frameworks, security controls, and scalable platform capabilities that enable teams to rapidly develop modern data, analytics, digital, and AI solutions.

The ideal candidate combines strong enterprise architecture expertise with hands-on platform engineering experience and has successfully built cloud data platforms from the ground up.

## Key Responsibilities

### Enterprise Data Platform Architecture

* Define the target architecture for a scalable enterprise data platform.

* Develop a multi-year platform architecture and modernization roadmap.

* Establish architecture patterns, technical standards, and reusable platform capabilities.

* Evaluate emerging technologies while maintaining architectural consistency and operational sustainability.

* Design enterprise data capabilities that can support multiple teams and organizations simultaneously.

* Promote API-first, product-based, and reusable approaches to enterprise information sharing.

### Cloud Platform Engineering

* Design and build the initial MVP and continuously mature the enterprise cloud data platform.

* Establish engineering standards, development practices, operational controls, and platform guardrails.

* Architect secure, scalable, multi-tenant environments supporting multiple organizations and workloads.

* Address data isolation, access control, security, and data co-mingling considerations within shared environments.

* Design highly available and scalable cloud infrastructure supporting data, analytics, and AI workloads.

* Implement cloud infrastructure using **Infrastructure as Code**, including Terraform or equivalent technologies.

### Data Platform & Shared Services

* Design reusable platform services rather than one-off implementations for individual teams.

* Develop standardized onboarding patterns for teams adopting enterprise data products and services.

* Build reusable data products and AI-ready infrastructure.

* Design modern data ingestion, storage, processing, transformation, integration, and consumption patterns.

* Partner with cloud, integration, application, analytics, and data engineering teams to deliver enterprise capabilities.

* Support platforms and technologies such as **Snowflake, Databricks, AWS, Azure, containers, APIs, and modern data services**.

### Security & DevSecOps

* Design and implement enterprise security controls for cloud-based data environments.

* Implement **Identity and Access Management (IAM), Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), encryption, logging, auditing, and monitoring** capabilities.

* Collaborate with cybersecurity, governance, risk, compliance, and cloud engineering teams.

* Integrate security controls directly into platform architecture and engineering workflows.

* Establish clear security ownership boundaries across enterprise technology teams.

* Implement and promote modern **DevSecOps** practices.

* Champion a **shift-left security** approach by incorporating security controls throughout the software and infrastructure development lifecycle.

* Automate infrastructure, security controls, deployments, and platform operations wherever possible.

## Technical Leadership

* Establish enterprise engineering and architecture best practices.

* Provide technical leadership across multidisciplinary engineering teams.

* Collaborate with architects, engineers, security teams, data teams, product teams, and executive technology leadership.

* Translate enterprise strategy into practical architecture and engineering solutions.

* Lead architecture decisions through influence and technical credibility rather than direct reporting authority.

* Mentor technical teams on modern data architecture, cloud engineering, DevSecOps, and platform engineering practices.

* Communicate complex technical concepts effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

## Required Qualifications

* Bachelor's degree in **Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, Systems Programming**, or a related discipline; equivalent relevant experience may also be considered.

* **10+ years of experience building large-scale cloud data platforms.**

* **7+ years of hands-on experience** in modern data architecture, platform engineering, and cloud infrastructure.

* **5+ years of experience** designing and implementing enterprise security controls for cloud data platforms.

* Strong experience with **IAM, RBAC, encryption, audit logging, security monitoring, and cloud security architecture**.

* Proven hands-on experience building and operating cloud infrastructure using **Terraform or equivalent Infrastructure-as-Code technologies**.

* Strong experience implementing modern **DevSecOps** practices.

* Experience integrating security and governance requirements into cloud data platforms.

* Strong enterprise data platform experience involving technologies such as:

* Snowflake

* Databricks

* AWS

* Microsoft Azure

* Terraform

* Containerized applications

* APIs and microservices

* Modern cloud data services

* CI/CD and DevSecOps tooling

## Preferred Experience

Candidates with experience building enterprise platforms from the ground up will be strongly preferred.

Additional desirable experience includes:

* Designing enterprise data platforms supporting multiple organizations, departments, or business units.

* Building reusable platform capabilities instead of application-specific solutions.

* Designing secure multi-tenant cloud environments.

* Supporting enterprise digital transformation or cloud modernization initiatives.

* Designing platforms capable of supporting advanced analytics and artificial intelligence workloads.

* Working closely with cybersecurity, CISO, governance, risk, and compliance teams.

* Developing standardized onboarding and deployment patterns.

* Designing cloud-native architectures using containers and automated infrastructure.

* Establishing architecture governance and engineering standards across large organizations.

## Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is an architect who is still technically hands-on and comfortable working at both the strategic and engineering levels.

You should be able to:

* Build enterprise platforms from the ground up.

* Think in terms of reusable patterns and shared capabilities.

* Balance long-term architectural strategy with immediate implementation requirements.

* Work effectively across multiple engineering and business teams.

* Influence technical decisions without relying on direct authority.

* Translate complex architecture concepts for executives and non-technical stakeholders.

* Establish engineering standards while remaining actively involved in technical execution.

* Create scalable platforms that support multiple teams rather than individual applications.

## Core Skills

**Required:**

* Enterprise Data Architecture

* Cloud Data Platforms

* Platform Engineering

* AWS and/or Azure

* Snowflake

* Databricks

* Terraform / Infrastructure as Code

* IAM

* RBAC

* Cloud Security

* DevSecOps

* CI/CD

* Containerized Applications

* Data Engineering Architecture

* Enterprise Integration

* API-First Architecture

* Multi-Tenant Cloud Architecture

* Security & Governance

* Technical Architecture Leadership

This is an excellent opportunity for a senior data architect who enjoys combining **enterprise architecture, cloud engineering, security, data platforms, and hands-on technical leadership** to build modern data capabilities at scale.