Senior Data Architect (8-month FTC)

Senior Data Architect (8-month FTC)

Posted 1 day ago by Harnham - Data & Analytics Recruitment

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Negotiable
Undetermined
Undetermined
Manchester, Lancashire, UK
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Apache Spark Azure Databricks Business Intelligence Business Intelligence Architecture Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery Data Architecture Databricks Data Engineering Datamodel Data Modeling Data Transformation Distributed Computing Finance Git (Version Control System) Nice (Unix Utility) Query Performance Scalability Software as a Service (SaaS) SQL (Programming Language) Stakeholder Management Version Control

Summary: The Senior BI Data Architect will lead a large-scale data platform transformation within a global SaaS organization, focusing on the architecture of a governed Databricks Lakehouse. This hands-on role combines data engineering and business intelligence, requiring deep technical expertise to optimize data usage for decision-making. The position involves migrating from legacy systems and building scalable data solutions that enhance performance and analytics capabilities. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in data architecture and engineering, particularly with Databricks and SQL.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Design and implement a governed Databricks Lakehouse architecture (Unity Catalog, schemas, volumes)
  • Lead migration of complex Legacy SQL logic into modular, scalable pipelines
  • Build and optimise data transformation frameworks using Spark/Python/SQL pipelines
  • Act as the go-to expert for query performance optimisation (Spark execution plans, data skew, joins)
  • Design and implement dimensional data models (star/snowflake schemas)
  • Architect the semantic layer for BI (Omni or similar tools like Looker)
  • Build CI/CD pipelines to automate testing and deployment
  • Work with stakeholders across Product, Finance, and Commercial teams to deliver scalable solutions

Key Skills:

  • 8+ years in data engineering/data architecture
  • Deep experience with Databricks (Lakehouse, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog)
  • Expert SQL and distributed computing knowledge
  • Strong experience with data modelling (star/snowflake schemas)
  • Proven experience migrating Legacy data platforms
  • Ability to optimise performance across large datasets
  • Experience with modern BI semantic layers (eg Looker, Omni, Superset)
  • Experience with CI/CD and version control (Git)
  • Experience with dbt or similar transformation frameworks (nice to have)
  • Exposure to AI/BI or natural language querying tools (nice to have)
  • Experience in multi-tenant or Embedded analytics environments (nice to have)

Salary (Rate): £101000 yearly

City: Manchester

Country: UK

Working Arrangements: undetermined

IR35 Status: undetermined

Seniority Level: Senior

Industry: IT

Detailed Description From Employer:

I'm hiring a Senior BI Data Architect to join a global SaaS organisation and take ownership of a large-scale data platform transformation.

This is a hands-on architecture role sitting at the intersection of data engineering and BI - where your work will directly shape how the business uses data to make decisions.

The company

A global technology business operating in the data and insights/research space, serving major clients worldwide and processing hundreds of millions of data points annually.

They are investing heavily in modernising their data platform and analytics capabilities, with a strong focus on performance, scalability, and self-serve analytics.

The role

You'll take full ownership of the Databricks Lakehouse and BI architecture, leading the migration away from Legacy systems while building a clean, governed and scalable platform.

This is not just a design role - you'll be deep in the detail, refactoring SQL, building pipelines, and optimising performance.

What you'll be doing
  • Design and implement a governed Databricks Lakehouse architecture (Unity Catalog, schemas, volumes)
  • Lead migration of complex Legacy SQL logic into modular, scalable pipelines
  • Build and optimise data transformation frameworks using Spark/Python/SQL pipelines
  • Act as the go-to expert for query performance optimisation (Spark execution plans, data skew, joins)
  • Design and implement dimensional data models (star/snowflake schemas)
  • Architect the semantic layer for BI (Omni or similar tools like Looker)
  • Build CI/CD pipelines to automate testing and deployment
  • Work with stakeholders across Product, Finance, and Commercial teams to deliver scalable solutions
What you bring Must-haves
  • 8+ years in data engineering/data architecture
  • Deep experience with Databricks (Lakehouse, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog)
  • Expert SQL and distributed computing knowledge
  • Strong experience with data modelling (star/snowflake schemas)
  • Proven experience migrating Legacy data platforms
  • Ability to optimise performance across large datasets
  • Experience with modern BI semantic layers (eg Looker, Omni, Superset)
  • Experience with CI/CD and version control (Git)
Nice to have
  • Experience with dbt or similar transformation frameworks
  • Exposure to AI/BI or natural language querying tools
  • Experience in multi-tenant or Embedded analytics environments
Why this role
  • Own and shape a modern data platform at scale
  • High-impact project with visible business outcomes
  • Combination of architecture + hands-on engineering
  • Work on performance, scalability, and governance challenges
  • Flexible, remote-friendly working
What success looks like
  • A clean, governed Lakehouse architecture
  • Improved performance and reduced cost across the platform
  • Scalable, reusable data pipelines
  • A robust semantic layer enabling self-serve analytics across the business
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