Data Architect required for a greenfield Azure data platform build. There is no Legacy estate and no migration. The end client is a newly formed organisation whose service is expected to operate at national scale following incoming legislation, so the platform must be architected for very significant growth.

Azure is confirmed and the platform decision has been made: Databricks, with Microsoft Purview for governance. You will own the architecture from here, shaping how the Lakehouse is designed, governed and scaled.

We are looking for an architect who can hold their own with senior stakeholders and who has also built this kind of platform at a technical level. Ideally you come from a data engineering background, so you can talk up or down the stack as the conversation needs.

Responsibilities

• Own the target data architecture, from conceptual through logical to physical design
• Design the Databricks Lakehouse, including medallion layers, workspace and environment structure, and cost and performance patterns
• Define the governance, lineage and cataloguing approach using Unity Catalog and Microsoft Purview
• Produce data models and integration patterns built for national scale volumes
• Present and defend best practice to senior stakeholders and a client team building its own capability
• Work alongside the enterprise architects, integrations architect and data governance specialist
• Remain hands on where needed to unblock delivery

• Data architecture experience on a greenfield platform implementation, or two to three architect roles of more than a year each, at least one with Databricks exposure
• Credible with senior stakeholders, and able to move between executive level discussion and technical detail
• Hands on implementation experience, ideally from a data engineering or developer background
• Databricks at architecture level on Azure, including Delta Lake, Unity Catalog and Spark optimisation
• Lakehouse and medallion patterns, batch and streaming ingestion, event driven design
• Conceptual, logical and physical data modelling. Dimensional and data vault both useful
• Advanced SQL, Python or PySpark
• Declarative pipelines (Delta Live Tables or equivalent), Databricks Workflows, Auto Loader and Structured Streaming
• Microsoft Purview for data governance, cataloguing and lineage
• Azure Data Factory, Azure SQL, Data Lake Storage Gen2
• Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions, Databricks Asset Bundles, Terraform or Bicep
• Entra ID, Key Vault, private endpoints, RBAC
• UK GDPR and DPA 2018 in practice, including public personal data
• Consultancy, systems integrator or large corporate background with strong client facing skills

Desirable

• Databricks certification, for example Data Engineer Professional or Solutions Architect
• Microsoft certification, for example AZ-305
• Regulated or legislation driven programme experience
• Platforms that have scaled rapidly from launch
• TOGAF or similar

The start is within two weeks, so early applications are encouraged. Please apply with an up to date CV, along with availability and day rate. Suitable candidates will be contacted to discuss the role in confidence.

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