Senior Data Architect

Staff Data Engineer / Data Architect (Contract) Contract Length: 18-month engagement (extension highly likely) Pay Rate: $110–$140/hour (W2 or C2C) NO THIRD PARTIES About the Project This is with a major Fortune 100 financial institution undergoing a large-scale data platform modernization and AI/ML enablement initiative. This is a multi-phase, 18-month program involving the rebuild of core data pipelines, migration into a modern lakehouse architecture, and development of a unified data platform to support credit risk, fraud, real-time decisioning, and enterprise analytics. We’re seeking a Staff-Level Data Architect to support this effort. If you’ve architected or led programs at enterprise scale especially in regulated environments this is a great opportunity. What You’ll Lead • Architecting and delivering large-scale data solutions on Azure, Databricks, and Snowflake • Designing and implementing Delta Lakehouse frameworks and governance models • Leading the development of dbt transformation layers and establishing enterprise standards • Building high-performance ELT/ETL pipelines with strong observability and cost controls • Collaborating with risk, credit, fraud, and analytics teams on data needs for ML/AI models • Supporting platform engineering teams with best practices, CI/CD for data, and automation • Providing architectural guidance to engineering pods across multiple workstreams Ideal Tech Stack Core • Python (scalable, production-grade) • Advanced SQL + optimization • dbt (core + cloud; experience defining architecture & standards) Cloud / Platform • Azure: Data Factory, Functions, Synapse, EventHub • Databricks: Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, MLflow • Snowflake: Snowpipe, Streams/Tasks, performance tuning Preferred Experience • Enterprise governance frameworks (Purview, Unity Catalog, Collibra) • Streaming (Kafka/EventHub) • Experience supporting real-time risk/fraud/credit decision systems • Familiarity with model enablement for DS/ML teams • Prior experience in large transformation programs (12+ months) Ideal Background You’ve operated in environments similar to: • Tier-1 banks • Fortune 100 financial institutions • Large consumer credit, fintech, or payments companies And you bring: • 7–12+ years in data engineering or architecture • Experience leading multi-team initiatives or platform migrations • Ability to be hands-on while also driving architectural decisions Pay Rate $110–$140/hour, depending on experience and specific workstream alignment.