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# Principal Data Architect

- **Company:** Berkshire Hathaway
- **Location:** Boston, MA, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $200,000.0 - $240,000.0
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Unity 3d, Artificial Intelligence, Amazon Web Services, Business Analytics Applications, Data Analysis, Computing Platforms, Microsoft Azure, Cloud Computing, Continuous Integration, Data Architecture, Information Engineering, Software Design Patterns, Graph Database, Python (Programming Language), Machine Learning, Performance Tuning, Software Architecture, Search Technologies, SQL Databases, Data Streaming, Enterprise Software Applications, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, Large Language Models, Apache Spark, Generative AI, Agentic-AI, Data Lakes, Machine Learning Operations, Terraform, Data Pipelines, Databricks
- **Published:** October 25, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.thejobnetwork.com/job/2cc81616-f2bd-4a75-8ce3-c9df5c3376c6/principal-data-architect

## About the Role

* 15+ years in data engineering, data architecture, or software architecture, including 5+ years architecting on the Databricks Lakehouse Platform
 * Deep expertise in Apache Spark, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, and MLflow
 * Proven experience designing infrastructure for both traditional ML and Generative AI workloads (RAG, fine-tuning, vector search, agentic frameworks)
 * Strong proficiency in Python and SQL, infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform), and software design patterns
 * Hands-on architecture experience on AWS or Microsoft Azure
 * Demonstrated ability to influence senior technical and business stakeholders without direct authority, * Databricks Professional or Expert-level certification
 * Experience with advanced agentic architectures, DSPy, or graph databases
 * Background in insurance, financial services, fintech, or other regulated environments
 * Track record of optimizing cloud compute costs while improving pipeline throughput

## Description

BHSI is modernizing its data ecosystem, moving from a monolithic, reporting-centric infrastructure to a Lakehouse platform that supports insight-driven decisions and AI-enabled outcomes at the speed of business. We are seeking a Principal Data Architect to set the technical direction for that platform.

You will own the architecture of our Databricks-based Lakehouse across data engineering, analytics, and AI/ML, ensuring it is secure, performant, cost-efficient, and ready for Generative AI. This is a hands-on, senior individual-contributor role for a technologist and strategic thinker, not a people-management position. You will report to the Global Head of Data Analytics Solutions and partner with Enterprise Technology portfolio leaders and business stakeholders., * Platform Architecture & Strategy: Define and evolve the enterprise Lakehouse reference architecture on Databricks, supporting batch, streaming, and AI workloads at scale across AWS or Azure.

 * AI & Generative AI Enablement: Lead the design and rollout of Databricks AI capabilities, including vector search, model serving, and LLM orchestration, so teams can build, fine-tune, and deploy models securely against enterprise data.
 * Governance & Security by Design: Implement lineage, access controls, and auditing with Unity Catalog to meet regulatory requirements and ensure data quality across domains.
 * MLOps & Engineering Excellence: Establish CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code standards for data pipelines and ML models. Optimize Spark performance, cluster configuration, and compute spend.
 * Technical Leadership & Influence: Set architecture standards, run design reviews, and mentor engineers and data scientists. Translate business strategy into a phased technical roadmap and build alignment with engineering and business leaders.