Data Architect

Client is seeking a Data Architect to lead a 10‐week Enterprise Data Centralization assessment for a client operating in a highly distributed, system centric environment. The successful execution of the 10-week engagement will be 12-18 months of implementation phase. This role is architecture‐first and advisory in nature, focused on discovery, strategy, and roadmap definition. Platform implementation or data engineering execution will follow next post assessment phase.

The Data Architect will operate as the single accountable technical lead, partnering closely with business, technology, and data stakeholders to define a durable, platform agnostic data foundation that enables cross‐system analytics, reporting, and future AI readiness.

Key Responsibilities

Engagement Leadership & Discovery

• Lead the end‐to‐end 10‐week assessment as the primary technical authority
• Conduct structured discovery across operational, financial, and supporting systems (e.g., PCRS, Workday, SQL databases, spreadsheets, SharePoint portals)
• Identify and document current state data flows, integration patterns, ownership, and quality considerations
• Surface undocumented or lightly governed assets and assess architectural and governance implications

Domain & KPI‐Driven Analysis

• Partner with business stakeholders to identify priority domains and high‐value KPIs
• Apply a right‐to‐left (KPI‐to‐source) analysis to trace data needs back to systems and datasets
• Prioritize analysis depth based on business value, not exhaustive technical inventory

Target Architecture & Platform Evaluation

• Define future‐state enterprise data architecture options aligned to the client's Microsoft‐first environment
• Evaluate and compare platform patterns (e.g., Azure‐aligned lake/lakehouse, Microsoft Fabric, Snowflake) without committing to tooling
• Identify enterprise‐shared versus domain‐specific datasets and integration patterns

Governance, Quality, and Access Foundations

• Establish foundational data governance guardrails, including ownership, data quality expectations, and access considerations
• Provide guidance on privacy, data sensitivity, and risk considerations associated with centralized data access
• Document assumptions and confidence levels where full technical validation is not feasible

Roadmap & Staffing Recommendations

• Produce a phased, executable roadmap for data and analytics enablement (12–18 month horizon)
• Provide advisory recommendations on internal role sequencing (e.g., architect, engineer, analyst, scientist)
• Support executive and leadership readouts with clear, decision‐ready artifacts

Deliverables Ownership

The Data Architect is accountable for producing and presenting:

• Current‐state enterprise data landscape and system inventory
• Domain & KPI framework with source‐system traceability
• Conceptual target architecture (tool‐agnostic)
• Foundational governance and access guardrails
• Phased roadmap and staffing recommendations
• Executive‐level readouts and decision support materials

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in data architecture, data strategy, or enterprise information architecture roles
• Demonstrated experience leading assessment‐ and discovery‐led engagements (not just delivery or build)
• Strong understanding of modern data platform patterns (data lakes, lakehouses, warehouses) in cloud environments
• Experience working across multiple enterprise systems (ERP, operational platforms, databases, spreadsheets, collaboration tools)
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to executive and non‐technical stakeholders
• Proven ability to operate independently as a senior architect without reliance on large delivery teams
• Successfully led greenfield implementation of enterprise data platforms building a strong foundation for the enterprise.

Preferred Experience

• Microsoft‐centric enterprise environments (Azure, M365 ecosystem)
• Platform evaluation experience (e.g., Fabric vs. Databricks vs. Snowflake vs. other cloud data platforms)
• Data governance, quality, and access control strategy development
• Experience in highly regulated or data‐sensitive environments
• Background supporting analytics, reporting, or AI readiness initiatives (strategy only, not model development)

Success Profile

The successful candidate is:

• Comfortable operating as a solo senior architect
• Strong in ambiguity, discovery, and executive alignment
• Decisive, pragmatic, and business‐outcome oriented
• Trusted by both technical teams and leadership