Senior Data Architect

Senior Data Architect (Contract) Engagement: Data Strategy & AI Enablement Location: Remote with access to client's secure environment (VDI-based) About the Engagement Meaningful AI is delivering a phased data strategy and AI enablement engagement for a client. The client has 30+ datasets in Databricks. We're building an AI-driven data platform — from data discovery through canonical modeling to an analytics-ready platform. Phase 1 is already underway, where we are focused on discovery: profiling datasets, documenting schemas, mapping entity relationships, and producing a strategic data roadmap. Phases 2-4 build on that foundation with a semantic layer, specific business integrations, and AI/ML capabilities. What You'll Do - Lead canonical data model design — entity-relationship models for core business domains - Oversee and interpret schema discovery across ~35 complex legacy Databricks datasets in a Medallion Architecture - Reverse-engineer existing data structures and infer relationships across systems - Establish standardized naming conventions, data definitions, and source-to-canonical mappings - Collaborate with the client's data team to understand data structures, calculated fields, and transformation logic - Design the semantic layer and data governance framework (Phase 2) - Provide architectural direction for digital origination data model (Phase 3) - Advisory input on ML-ready data products (Phase 4) What We're Looking For Required: - Strong data modeling and schema design experience (conceptual, logical, physical) - Experience with Databricks and/or Spark-based data platforms - Demonstrated ability to reverse-engineer undocumented schemas and infer entity relationships - Experience building canonical or enterprise data models in complex, multi-source environments - Semantic layer design experience (ideally with Power BI as the downstream consumer) - Comfortable working with business stakeholders to define data definitions and governance policies - Eager to learn AI tooling Strongly Preferred: - Financial services, lending, or banking data experience - Experience with Medallion Architecture (bronze/silver/gold patterns) - Familiarity with loan accounting systems or loan origination systems - Experience with modern AI tool sets Environment The client's environment is managed with strict security controls. Access is through VDI (Windows) RDP into a dedicated server Databricks. Internet access on work servers is limited. You must be comfortable working within these constraints.