Data Architect

Senior Data Architect – Azure / Databricks / Microsoft Fabric

Locations: London / Milton Keynes, UK

Work Mode: Hybrid – 2–3 days onsite per week

Contract Type: Contract

Experience: Senior-level; 12–14 years required for the Databricks position

Openings: 2

Job Description

We are looking for experienced Senior Data Architects with strong expertise in Microsoft Azure, Azure Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, enterprise data architecture, and modern data engineering solutions.

The successful candidates will be responsible for designing and delivering scalable, secure, and high-performance enterprise data platforms, including Data Lakes, Data Warehouses, Lakehouse architectures, and cloud-based analytics solutions.

Candidates with strong experience in either Azure Databricks or Microsoft Fabric are encouraged to apply.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and implement enterprise data architecture strategies, roadmaps, and target-state solutions.
• Design scalable Data Lake, Data Warehouse, and Lakehouse architectures on Azure-based platforms.
• Lead enterprise data integration, ETL/ELT, migration, and modernisation initiatives.
• Design and implement Medallion Architecture, Delta Lake, and modern data modelling solutions.
• Develop architectural blueprints, solution designs, technical standards, and best practices.
• Lead the design of data ingestion, transformation, orchestration, and analytics frameworks.
• Collaborate with engineering, cloud, security, governance, and business teams.
• Ensure scalability, reliability, performance, cost optimisation, and data security.
• Lead technical architecture discussions, design reviews, and stakeholder engagement.
• Support data governance, metadata management, access controls, and regulatory compliance.

Mandatory Skills & Experience

• Strong experience in Enterprise Data Architecture and Solution Design.
• Experience designing Data Lakes, Data Warehouses, and Lakehouse architectures.
• Strong knowledge of ETL/ELT, Data Integration, and Data Migration.
• Hands-on architectural experience with Azure Databricks and/or Microsoft Fabric.
• Strong understanding of Medallion Architecture and Data Modelling.
• Experience designing scalable enterprise data platforms.
• Strong stakeholder management and technical leadership skills.

Role-Specific Technical Skills

Opportunity 1 – Microsoft Fabric Data Architect (Milton Keynes)

• Microsoft Fabric architecture and solution design.
• Lakehouse, Warehouse, Real-Time Analytics, and Power BI.
• Medallion Architecture.
• Dimensional Modelling and Data Vault.
• Enterprise data integration and migration.

Opportunity 2 – Azure Databricks Data Architect (London)

• Azure Databricks, Delta Lake, and Unity Catalog.
• Azure Data Factory (ADF) and Azure Synapse Analytics.
• Azure Data Lake and Lakehouse architecture.
• Data engineering pipelines, orchestration, and cloud migration.
• Banking industry experience.

Desirable Skills

• Microsoft Purview and enterprise data governance.
• Azure OpenAI, Copilot, GenAI and RAG architectures.
• Data security, RBAC and GDPR.
• Azure Functions, Event Hub and streaming data architectures.
• Cloud optimisation, performance tuning and cost governance.

Additional Requirements

• Must be able to work onsite 2–3 days per week in the relevant location.
• Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Previous experience delivering large-scale data architecture or cloud transformation projects.