Data Lake Consultant

Data Lake Consultant / Architect (Azure Fabric) Contract Type: 12 Month contract - W2 Location: 100% Remote Compensation: $70-85hr Overview We are seeking an experienced Data Lake Consultant / Architect to evaluate, design, and support a modern data lake solution within the Azure ecosystem, with a strong preference for Microsoft Fabric. This consultant will play a key role in ensuring Power BI can efficiently consume data from the appropriate data lake sources and support analytics use cases. We are looking for a hands‑on data professional who has either built a data lake from the ground up or evaluated and optimized existing data lake architectures. Key Responsibilities • Assess and evaluate the current data lake architecture and make recommendations for improvements or modernization • Design and/or enhance a data lake solution using Microsoft Fabric and Azure services • Ensure data is properly structured, governed, and optimized for Power BI consumption • Collaborate with business and technical stakeholders to determine where data should reside and how it should be accessed • Support front-end analytics by ensuring Power BI reports are pulling from the correct data lake sources • Provide architectural guidance, best practices, and documentation around data ingestion, storage, and access • Partner with engineering and analytics teams to align data lake design with enterprise data strategy Required Qualifications • Strong experience as a Data Lake Consultant or Data Architect • Deep knowledge of the Azure ecosystem, including data services • Hands-on experience with Microsoft Fabric (preferred) • Experience working with Power BI, including understanding how reports source data from data lakes • Proven experience either: • Building a data lake from scratch, or • Evaluating and improving an existing data lake solution • Strong understanding of data modeling, ingestion patterns, and analytics enablement Nice to Have / Additional Experience • Experience with Databricks (acceptable alternative) • Experience with Snowflake (acceptable, but Azure-first mindset is preferred) • Familiarity with enterprise data architecture, governance, and best practices • Prior consulting experience in data architecture or analytics environments