Principal GCP Data Architect - USA

Sector: Information Technology & Software, IT ServicesReference: Antal/EMCPGRUSA/97627 Job Title: Principal GCP Data Architect - USA Industry: Information Technology & Services Location: Dallas, Texas, USA Salary: USD 160,000–220,000 per annum per annum + Benefits Work Authorization: US Citizen or Green Card required The Opportunity We are seeking an accomplished, hands-on Principal GCP Data Architect to lead the architecture, design and implementation of large-scale enterprise data ecosystems. This is a senior technical leadership position for an architect who combines deep Google Cloud Platform (GCP) expertise with a strong record of delivering complex cloud migrations and building modern, self-service data platforms. The successful candidate will be equally comfortable defining enterprise architecture and remaining close enough to the technology to guide implementation, engineering standards, governance, security and infrastructure automation. Key Responsibilities Define the long-term architecture and roadmap for enterprise data platforms on Google Cloud Platform, aligned with broader business and technology objectives. Architect modern, scalable self-service data platforms that enable distributed teams to access and use data while maintaining appropriate enterprise standards and controls. Lead complex, end-to-end enterprise migrations from AWS to GCP, including large-scale/PB-scale data environments. Establish architectural standards and patterns across data ingestion, processing, storage, analytics and AI/ML workloads. Design and implement robust data governance, privacy and security frameworks, including IAM, VPC Service Controls, encryption, data masking and automated governance using Dataplex. Drive adoption of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform or Pulumi, ensuring infrastructure is repeatable, scalable and version controlled. Provide architectural leadership across large, cross-functional engineering teams operating within Agile and DevOps environments. Partner with senior technology and data leadership, translating complex architectural decisions into business impact, investment priorities, ROI and technical risk. Establish engineering and architectural standards that support scalability, reliability, performance and security across the data ecosystem. Technical Expertise Candidates should demonstrate expert-level knowledge of the GCP data ecosystem, including: Data Storage & Warehousing BigQuery BigLake BigQuery Omni Google Cloud Storage Data Processing & Orchestration Dataflow / Apache Beam Dataproc / Spark / Hadoop Cloud Composer / Apache Airflow dbt Streaming & Messaging Pub/Sub Kafka / Confluent integration Analytics, AI & Machine Learning Looker Vertex AI BigQuery ML Cloud-Native Engineering GKE / Kubernetes Terraform and/or Pulumi CI/CD and DevOps practices Data Governance & Security Dataplex IAM VPC Service Controls Data masking and encryption Enterprise data governance frameworks Experience & Qualifications Extensive experience in Data Engineering, Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence and enterprise data architecture, ideally gained over approximately 18–20 years. At least 6 years of substantial hands-on GCP experience. Demonstrable experience architecting and delivering large, complex enterprise data platforms. Proven track record of leading at least two enterprise-scale cloud migrations, preferably involving PB-scale data environments. Strong experience with AWS-to-GCP migration programmes. Demonstrated ability to lead large, cross-functional engineering teams and influence technical delivery without losing hands-on architectural depth. Strong understanding of Agile, DevOps and modern cloud engineering practices. Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering or another relevant technical discipline. Certification An active Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer certification is required. Evidence of strong external or independent assessment of GCP/data architecture capability will be advantageous. Candidate Profile This opportunity will particularly suit a senior architect who has: Personally designed major enterprise GCP data architectures rather than operating solely in a management capacity. Built modern data platforms from the ground up. Led complex migrations involving very large data estates. Strong expertise across architecture, engineering, governance and security. The ability to move comfortably between detailed technical discussions and senior executive conversations. A strong record of turning enterprise data strategy into scalable, production-grade platforms. The position offers significant architectural ownership and the opportunity to shape a large-scale, modern cloud data environment.