Lead Data Architect Senior JP053946

Lead Data Architect (Azure Data Platform) Part-Time Contract
Ghent Belgium (On-site)
Duration: 4 months (11 May 2026 1 September 2026)
Workload: 1 day per week

We are looking for a Lead Data Architect to define design and guide the implementation of a modern enterprise-grade data platform. This role ensures alignment between business IT and data teams while delivering a scalable secure and future-proof architecture.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and design the overall Azure-based data platform architecture (compute storage networking security)
• Lead the implementation of modern data platform patterns and standards
• Establish and enforce DevOps practices (CI/CD pipelines environments monitoring alerting)
• Ensure security access control and compliance (IAM secrets management GDPR-by-design)
• Define and oversee automation of platform operations to improve reliability and reduce manual effort
• Ensure the platform is production-ready resilient and operationally robust
• Monitor platform performance reliability and cost efficiency
• Align architecture with DevOps DataOps and MLOps practices across analytics and AI workloads
• Act as key technical advisor between ICT governance and data teams

Required Experience

• Extensive experience designing and delivering cloud-based data platforms preferably on Azure
• Strong background in enterprise data architecture and modern data platform design
• Proven experience with CI/CD pipelines and platform automation
• Experience working within enterprise ICT governance security and compliance frameworks (GDPR IAM etc.)

Key Skills

• Strong expertise in Azure (networking storage compute security)
• Solid experience with Data Modeling ETL/ELT and Data Architecture principles
• Hands-on knowledge of Databricks SQL MySQL Power BI and Git
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform Bicep ARM) and CI/CD tools (Azure DevOps GitHub Actions)
• Strong understanding of DataOps concepts and modern data platform architecture
• Experience with IAM network segmentation private endpoints and secrets management
• Ability to define and align architectural roadmaps

Profile

• Strong architectural leadership mindset with hands-on capability when needed
• Strong focus on automation scalability and long-term platform stability
• Pragmatic problem solver with enterprise delivery experience
• Strong collaboration skills across technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Structured disciplined and documentation-driven approach
• Strong sense of accountability for platform quality and governance

Languages

• English: Full professional proficiency (required)
• Dutch: Nice to have