Principal Data Architect – Modern Data Platforms (Snowflake / Dbt / Python)

Title: Principal Data Architect – Modern Data Platforms (Snowflake / dbt / Python) Location: Dallas, Texas, United States Contract US Citizens only About the Role Rockwoods is hiring a senior-level Data Architect with deep hands-on experience designing and building modern cloud data platforms in real production environments. This is not a strategy-only or documentation-heavy architecture role. We are looking for someone who can own architecture decisions end-to-end while still being technically hands-on when needed someone who has actually built scalable platforms, solved performance problems, optimized costs, and handled messy enterprise data at scale. The ideal candidate understands both architecture and execution. You should be comfortable: • designing scalable data ecosystems • building production-grade pipelines • solving Snowflake performance challenges • enabling AI-ready data foundations • working directly with engineering teams to drive delivery What You’ll Work On • Own end-to-end architecture across modern cloud data platforms • Design and build scalable ingestion, transformation, and data modeling frameworks • Lead Snowflake architecture including performance tuning, storage optimization, workload scaling, and cost management • Build API and event-driven ingestion frameworks for real-time and batch processing • Design reliable orchestration and pipeline monitoring strategies • Establish enterprise-grade governance, security, access controls, and data quality frameworks • Support AI/ML and advanced analytics initiatives through AI-ready data architecture • Help define modern engineering standards, reusable frameworks, and platform best practices Strong Match If You Have • 8–12+ years of Data Engineering / Data Architecture experience • Strong hands-on expertise with Python, Snowflake, SQL, and dbt • Experience building modern cloud-native data platforms from the ground up • Deep experience with data modeling, transformation strategies, orchestration, and pipeline scalability • Strong understanding of Snowflake optimization, compute/storage strategy, and query performance tuning • Experience with API-driven and event-driven architectures • Experience handling large-scale enterprise data environments • Ability to move between architecture discussions and hands-on technical execution comfortably • Strong communication and problem-solving skills in fast-moving environments Big Plus • Experience supporting AI/ML or LLM-related data ecosystems • Experience with real-time streaming architectures • Financial services or regulated industry experience • Exposure to platform engineering or reusable data framework design • Experience with observability and data reliability tooling What This Role Is NOT This is NOT: • a support-only architect role • a governance-only role • a reporting/dashboard-focused position • a role for candidates with only POC/project exposure • an environment where architecture decisions stay on slides We are looking for architects who build. Why Engineers Like Working With Us • Modern cloud data initiatives • Strong technical ownership • Lean teams with direct impact • Fast-moving engineering environment • Minimal bureaucracy • Opportunity to influence platform direction and architecture standards • Leadership team that values execution and technical depth Important Please apply only if you have significant hands-on experience building and scaling production-grade modern data platforms. Candidates with primarily support, maintenance, or documentation-heavy backgrounds will likely not be a fit.