Senior Data Architect – Data & AI

Company Overview:

Blue Orange Digital is a cloud-based data transformation and predictive analytics development firm with offices in NYC and Washington DC. From startups to Fortune 500s we help companies make sense of their business challenges by applying modern data analytics techniques visualizations and AI/ML. Founded by engineers we love passionate technologists and data analysts. Our startup DNA means everyone on the team makes a direct contribution to the growth of the company.

Position Overview:

We are seeking a Databricks Data Architect who can own Lakehouse design and governance and represent that vision in front of clients. Youll spend most of your time embedded with delivery squadsmodeling data tuning clusters and enforcing standardsbut youll also step into discovery workshops help scope solutions and support pre-sales conversations when deep architectural insight is needed.

Responsibilities:

Client Engagement & Solution Development

• Act as the primary technical liaison during key engagementstranslating business goals into architecture that both sides understand.
• Lead discovery workshops and roadmap sessions to surface requirements constraints and success metrics then map them to scalable Databricks patterns.
• Partner with account & sales teams to shape estimates reference architectures and bill-of-materials for proposals and SOWs.
• Provide architecture-level answers for RFPs/RFIs and join pitch calls when deep Databricks credibility is essential.
• Mentor client technical leads during early project phases to ensure knowledge transfer and long-term success.
  

Lakehouse Architecture & Design

• Design logical/physical models storage layers and streaming/CDC patterns with Delta Lake and Unity Catalog.
• Architect multi-cloud Databricks solutions (AWS Azure GCP) covering ETL/ELT structured streaming and governance zones.
  

Governance & Security

• Define catalog/permission models retention policies and lineage artifacts to meet HIPAA SOC 2 GDPR and similar frameworks.
• Implement row-/column-level security tokenization and end-to-end audit logging.
  

Performance & Cost Optimization

• Tune cluster sizing Photon/SQL Warehouse configs Z-Ordering and auto-compaction to hit SLA and cost targets.
• Instrument dashboards for query latency job runtimes and spend.
  

Implementation Leadership

• Lead design reviews pair with engineers on PySpark/Scala and sign off on pull-requests before production.
• Publish best-practice templates Terraform workspace bootstraps and CI/CD guidelines.
  

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Platform Ops Security Analytics and Product teams to translate requirements into production-ready data solutions.
• Host lunch-and-learns and brown-bag demos to level-up Databricks skill-sets across Blue Orange.

Requirements:

• 57 years building cloud data platforms; 3 years hands-on with Databricks.
• Deep expertise in Delta Lake ACID Unity Catalog and Spark performance tuning.
• Proven experience architecting Lakehouse or Cloud DW solutions on two or more major clouds.
• Strong SQL PySpark/Scala; working knowledge of dbt Airflow or similar orchestrators.
• Databricks Data Engineer Professional certification (or ability to earn in 90 days).
• Excellent communication skills for client workshops documentation and mentoring.
• Ability to engage with and communicate effectively with clients at all levels developing technical solutions that solve their challenges and/or advance their interests.
• Bachelors degree or higher in Computer Science Engineering Data Science or related field or equivalent experience.
• Ability to translate complex technical concepts into understandable terms; adept at engaging and influencing senior management and non-technical stakeholders.
• Exceptional communication presentation and interpersonal skills particularly adept at conveying complex technical concepts effectively to non-technical audiences with ease.
• Self-directed and motivated with a results-driven approach capable of achieving deliveries and outcomes independently with limited external direction.
• Bachelors degree or higher in Computer Science Engineering IT Data Science or a related field.
• Eager to learn and adapt in a rapidly evolving tech landscape.
• Ability and willingness to travel as required to meet clients and attend industry events.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience as a Databricks Champion within your organization.
• Experience migrating legacy Hadoop/Snowflake/Redshift to Lakehouse.
• Familiarity with MLflow Feature Store and Databricks Model Serving.
• DataOps/CI-CD for notebooks and IaC (Terraform Azure DevOps GitHub Actions).
• Domain depth in one of our focus verticals (FinTech Sports Analytics Manufacturing etc.).
• Experience with transactional data systems and stacks such as Java Spring Boot Kafka SQL Server Postgres MongoDB as well as microservices message queues actor-models event-driven architectures etc.
• Experience consulting in any of the following vertical industries:
  
  • Financial Services
  • Healthcare
  • Retail/CPG
  • Manufacturing
  • Travel & Hospitality
    
• Experience working with ERP systems such as SAP Oracle Netsuite Microsoft Dynamics JD Eduards Oracle Sage Workday etc.
• Engineering certifications in Databricks (beyond pro) Azure AWS GCP Snowflake and related tools.
• Experience serving as a consultory liaison between clients and our technical teams. Engage with senior-level stakeholders to understand their business challenges and articulate clear compelling technical solutions aligned with their strategic goals.
• Self-starter proven abilities leading complex client engagement deliveries often with ambiguity and little direction.
• Masters MBA or other advanced degree a plus.

Benefits:

• 401k Matching
• Unlimited PTO
• 100% remote role with an option for hybrid
• Healthcare Dental Vision and Life Insurance
• Paid parental/bereavement leave
• Home office stipend

Salary: 165000 - 185000 annual salary (USD $) DOE

Background checks may be required for certain positions/projects.

Blue Orange Digital is an equal opportunity employer.