Lead Data Architect

Lead Data Architect / Enterprise Data Architect Remote USA Experience: 12+ years | Type: Full-time About Vericence Vericence is a global IT services company partnering with leading enterprises across technology, healthcare, and financial services. We build high-performing data and engineering teams that power mission-critical platforms for some of the world's most recognized brands. The Role We're hiring a Lead / Enterprise Data Architect to anchor the data platform for one of our marquee enterprise clients. This is a hands-on senior architect role - not a pure governance seat. You'll own the architecture of cloud-native data pipelines, lakehouse design, and the modernization roadmap. You'll work directly with onshore engineering, product, and business stakeholders, and lead offshore delivery teams. What you'll do • Architect end-to-end data solutions on Azure — Data Lake, Lakehouse, Warehouse, and real-time pipelines • Design and govern Databricks-based data platforms: workspace structure, Unity Catalog, cluster strategy, performance tuning, cost optimization • Build scalable ingestion, transformation, and curation frameworks using PySpark / Python • Define data modeling standards (medallion architecture, dimensional, vault) and enforce them across the team • Lead CI/CD and DevOps practices for data — Azure DevOps, Git-based workflows, automated deployments, IaC (Terraform / ARM / Bicep) • Partner with stakeholders to translate business needs into reference architectures and delivery roadmaps • Mentor data engineers, conduct design reviews, and own technical decisions • Drive data quality, observability, lineage, and governance across the platform • Evaluate and recommend tools, services, and architectural patterns; lead POCs What you bring • 12+ years in data engineering / architecture, with at least 4–5 years in a lead or architect role • Deep hands-on expertise with Azure data services — ADLS Gen2, Azure Data Factory, Synapse, Azure SQL, Event Hubs, Azure Functions • Strong Databricks experience — Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Workflows, DLT, performance optimization • Strong Python / PySpark for production-grade pipelines • Solid SQL, data modeling, and warehousing fundamentals • Experience designing lakehouse / medallion architectures at enterprise scale • Working knowledge of CI/CD for data — Azure DevOps, Git branching strategies, automated testing for data pipelines • Cloud certifications preferred — Azure Data Engineer Associate, Databricks Certified Data Engineer / Architect • Excellent communication — comfortable presenting architecture to senior stakeholders and leading technical conversations • Onsite availability in Houston, TX Nice to have • Exposure to AWS data services (Glue, Redshift, S3, EMR) — multi-cloud is a plus • Experience with Informatica BDM / IDQ / PowerCenter for legacy modernization initiatives • Streaming / real-time experience (Kafka, Event Hubs, Structured Streaming) • Data governance tooling — Purview, Collibra, or equivalent • Experience leading offshore delivery teams