Senior Data Architect

Senior Data ArchitectLocation: Oakland, CA or Rancho Cordova, CA. (HYBRID) Position is contract-to-hire. Onsite required 2 days per week in either Oakland, CA or Rancho Cordova, CA.Work Schedule (Shift/Work Hours): - Hybrid - 2 days onsiteJob InformationJob Taxonomy: Expert Data ArchitectJob Title: Senior Data ArchitectJob Category: 01894Job DescriptionThe Senior Data Architect will design and implement scalable data solutions using the latest and advanced technology and toolsets. This role offers the right candidate the rare opportunity to leverage their extensive background to design and architect scalable, secure, and modern cloud-native data solutions. The role will also be responsible for working closely with business partners and IT leadership to understand the organization's business requirements and work with the broader IT team to enable/build new capabilities in our data platform that will support the current needs and scale to accommodate future growth.Responsibilities:Lead the design and architecture of end-to-end data solutions, translating business strategy and requirements into scalable, secure, high-performing architectures.Define target-state data architectures and blueprints, including data flows, integration patterns, storage strategies, data processing, and consumption layers.Establish and govern standard architecture patterns for data ingestion, transformation (ETL/ELT), integration, interoperability, and data sharing across platforms and domains.Architect scalable and resilient data pipelines and workflows, optimizing for performance, cost, reliability, and operational efficiency.Design cloud-native data architectures that leverage modern data platforms for elasticity, resilience, modularity, and scalability.Enable AI/ML capabilities through data architectures that support experimentation, feature engineering, model development, deployment, and production consumption.Incorporate data governance, security, privacy, and compliance by design, including access controls, data classification, masking, lineage, and regulatory requirements.Design for interoperability and seamless data exchange across applications, data domains, platforms, and external systems.Lead the evaluation and selection of data technologies and platforms in partnership with IT, Enterprise Architecture, and business stakeholders, ensuring alignment with enterprise capabilities and strategy.Collaborate with Enterprise Architecture, Infrastructure, Application Development, Data Engineering, and business teams to define technology roadmaps, capabilities, and solution strategies.Provide architectural oversight and governance for data solutions and cloud-native data platforms, ensuring adherence to enterprise standards and addressing risks, gaps, dependencies, and architectural trade-offs.Drive innovation through feasibility assessments, POCs, and pilots, evaluating emerging technologies and validating new architectural approaches.Provide architectural oversight for vendor and third-party data solutions, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture, security, integration, and data standards.Participate in architecture governance forums, contributing to design reviews, architecture decisions, approvals, and continuous improvement of enterprise data architecture.Mentor and guide data architects and engineers, promoting architecture best practices, design excellence, and continued capability development.Qualifications4+ years of experience in modern cloud data architecture or related fields, with a Bachelors degree in Computer Science or a related discipline.Deep understanding of modern data and analytics platforms and technologies, including Snowflake, Matillion, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, Tableau, and other industry-leading solutions.Proven experience designing and delivering enterprise data solutions, including data warehousing, data lakes, lakehouse architectures, data management, integration, and analytics platforms.Extensive experience architecting end-to-end, scalable data platforms using modern cloud technologies, preferably Microsoft Azure, with experience in cloud-native, hybrid, or multi-cloud architectures.Strong ability to translate business requirements into scalable data architectures and solutions, with excellent communication skills to articulate complex technical concepts to technical and non-technical stakeholders.Strong understanding of data architecture patterns and technology capabilities across ingestion, storage, processing, analytics, APIs, and microservices, with the ability to evaluate and select appropriate technologies.Experience collaborating with vendors and third-party partners to deliver solutions aligned with enterprise architecture, security, and data standards.Strong foundation in data governance, data quality, security, privacy, and regulatory compliance within enterprise data environments.Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence decisions, facilitate collaboration, and drive alignment across cross-functional teams.Experience architecting data platforms that enable advanced analytics, AI/ML, MCP, and Generative AI use cases, while maintaining appropriate governance, security, scalability, and performance.