Director – Data Architect (Microsoft Data & AI Practice)

What You'll Be Doing

This role involves providing architecture leadership across the Microsoft Data & AI practice, translating client business and technology priorities into scalable, secure, governed, and AI-ready data architectures using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Fabric, and Azure Databricks.

Client & Technology Leadership

• Serve as a trusted Data & AI architecture advisor to client business and technology stakeholders.
• Lead client discovery and architecture workshops, translating business needs into executable Microsoft Data & AI architectures and modernization roadmaps.
• Guide architecture decisions across Microsoft Fabric, Azure Databricks, or integrated Fabric + Databricks architectures based on client requirements.
• Communicate architecture alternatives, trade-offs, risks, costs, and recommendations to executive and technical audiences.
• Support presales activities including solution shaping, architecture development, technical presentations, estimation, proposals, and statements of work.
• Collaborate with Microsoft architects, account teams, and technology specialists on strategic opportunities.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to architects and engineering teams while maintaining sufficient hands-on depth to validate designs and guide implementation.

Data Architecture & Modernization

• Define target-state Data & AI architectures, solution architectures, standards, and reusable design patterns leveraging the Microsoft ecosystem.
• Lead architecture for data modernization, cloud migration, analytics, and AI initiatives.
• Architect modern lakehouse and data platform solutions using Microsoft Fabric, OneLake, Azure Databricks, ADLS, Delta Lake, and Power BI.
• Define and implement Medallion Architecture (Bronze, Silver, Gold) patterns for scalable ingestion, transformation, data quality, governance, and consumption.
• Design architectures spanning batch and streaming ingestion, data transformation, integration, storage, semantic models, APIs, analytics, and AI consumption.
• Establish strategies for data products, enterprise data models, semantic layers, metadata, lineage, data quality, and master/reference data.
• Develop architecture patterns that balance scalability, security, performance, cost, maintainability, and speed-to-value.
• Embed data governance, security, privacy, metadata, lineage, and data quality into architecture and solution designs.
• Define governance patterns leveraging Microsoft Purview, Fabric governance capabilities, or Databricks Unity Catalog.
• Promote governed and reusable enterprise data products rather than isolated project-specific datasets.

AI, Data Agents & Generative AI

• Architect AI-ready data platforms supporting Generative AI, Agentic AI, and enterprise AI applications.
• Design solutions leveraging Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Search, Microsoft Fabric Data Agents, LLMs, RAG, embeddings, vector search, and AI agents.
• Define patterns connecting governed enterprise data, semantic models, unstructured knowledge, AI models, and agents.
• Establish approaches for grounding, AI evaluation, observability, security, MLOps/LLMOps, and production readiness.
• Evaluate emerging Microsoft Data & AI capabilities and define practical enterprise adoption patterns.

What You'll Bring to the Role

• A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Information Systems, or a related discipline.
• 12+ years of technology experience, including significant experience in enterprise data platforms, cloud, analytics, and architecture.
• 5+ years of architecture or senior technical leadership experience delivering large-scale enterprise data solutions.
• Deep experience architecting Data & Analytics solutions on Microsoft Azure and defining target-state architectures and modernization roadmaps.
• Strong experience with Microsoft Fabric and/or Azure Databricks, including OneLake, lakehouse architecture, Delta Lake, data engineering, semantic models, and analytics.
• Strong understanding of Medallion Architecture, data products, semantic layers, batch/streaming architectures, APIs, and event-driven integration.
• Strong technical foundation in SQL, Python, Spark, distributed processing, data modeling, integration patterns, and APIs.
• Strong understanding of Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Search, Fabric Data Agents, Generative AI, RAG, vector search, and Agentic AI architectures.
• Experience designing architectures supporting enterprise analytics, Power BI, AI/ML, Generative AI, and conversational access to enterprise data.
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Purview, Unity Catalog, data governance, security, privacy, metadata, lineage, and data quality.
• Strong understanding of Azure security, including Entra ID, RBAC, managed identities, Key Vault, VNets, and Private Link/private endpoints.
• Demonstrated ability to translate business requirements into architecture decisions, solution designs, and implementation roadmaps.
• Experience with client discovery, presales solution architecture, estimation, technical presentations, and proposal development.
• Strong executive communication and presentation skills with the ability to engage client leaders, Microsoft stakeholders, architects, and engineering teams.
• Relevant Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Fabric, and/or Databricks certifications preferred.