Principal Data Architect - Multi-Cloud (GCP & Azure)

We are seeking a Principal Data Architect to define and drive enterprise data architecture, modernization, and governance strategies across complex multi-cloud (Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure) and hybrid environments. This role will design scalable, secure, and high-performing data platforms while partnering with business and engineering leaders to translate strategic objectives into impactful data solutions.

A key focus of this role will be spearheading scalable, agent-driven data migration pipelines to transition legacy on-premises data assets to the cloud, setting the technical direction for engineering teams, and actively managing the customer's technical backlog and delivery roadmap.

Key Responsibilities

• Multi-Cloud Lakehouse Architecture: Lead the end-to-end architecture, design, and implementation of scalable Data Lakehouse solutions across Google Cloud Platform (BigQuery, GCS, BigLake, Dataplex) and Microsoft Azure (Azure Synapse Analytics, Microsoft Fabric, ADLS Gen2, Azure Databricks).

• On-Prem to Cloud Migration & Agentic Pipelines: Architect and deploy automated, scalable, agent-driven data pipelines (leveraging GenAI agents and metadata-driven frameworks) to orchestrate, validate, and accelerate complex migrations from on-premises legacy warehouses/databases (Oracle, Teradata, SQL Server) to GCP and Azure.

• Client Engagement & Advisory: Collaborate directly with customers to understand business goals, data challenges, and technical requirements; translate them into robust architectural blueprints, technical roadmaps, and actionable delivery plans.

• Customer Technical Backlog Management: Own and actively manage the customer technical backlog—translating business epics into technical user stories, prioritizing technical debt, defining sprint milestones, and aligning backlog items with business ROI.

• Modern Ingestion & Streaming: Design and implement data pipelines supporting both real-time and batch ingestion using modern orchestration (Cloud Composer, Azure Data Factory, Airflow) and streaming/messaging frameworks (Kafka, GCP Pub/Sub, Azure Event Hubs).

• Governance & Lineage: Establish and enforce best practices for unified data cataloging, metadata management, automated lineage, and data quality across multi-cloud and on-prem systems using Dataplex, Microsoft Purview, or open-source governance tools.

• Security & Compliance: Define and implement robust data security, identity management (IAM / Azure Entra ID), encryption, row/column-level access control, and regulatory compliance standards across clouds.

• Team Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Steer the overarching technical direction of engineering teams; establish architectural standards, mentor senior and mid-level engineers, conduct architecture review, and ensure engineering excellence.

• Hands-on Delivery & Prototyping: Balance strategic architecture discussions with hands-on solutioning, architectural spikes, Proof-of-Concepts (POCs), and performance tuning of complex multi-cloud distributed workloads.

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Partner with enterprise architects, delivery leads, DevOps engineers, and customer stakeholders to drive solution adoption, operational scalability, and long-term platform maintainability

Technical Experience & Tooling

Candidates should demonstrate hands-on architecture and design experience across the following domains:

• Cloud Platforms:  Deep expertise in both Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Microsoft Azure enterprise data ecosystems.

• Processing Engines: Apache Spark, PySpark, Databricks, Azure Synapse / Fabric Spark, GCP Dataproc.

• Modern Migration & AI Automation: Building automated, agentic, or metadata-driven data migration pipelines, automated schema conversion, and data validation agents for on-prem to cloud lift-and-shift/re-platforming.

• Messaging & Streaming: Apache Kafka, GCP Pub/Sub, Azure Event Hubs.

• Orchestration: Apache Airflow, Google Cloud Composer, Azure Data Factory (ADF).

• Analytical Storage & Warehouses:  GCP BigQuery, Azure Synapse, Microsoft Fabric, Delta Lake/Parquet.

• NoSQL / Cache Storage: MongoDB, Redis, Bigtable, Azure Cosmos DB.

• Containerization & Deployment: Kubernetes (GKE and AKS), Cloud Run, Azure Container Apps.

• API Frameworks: Python (FastAPI, Flask) for data service endpoints.

• Databases & Querying: Advanced SQL validation and extraction from legacy/RDBMS systems (SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL).

• CI/CD & Version Control: Git, GitHub, GitLab CI/CD, Azure DevOps, and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform).

Required Qualifications & Skills

• 15+ years of progressive experience in Software Engineering, Data Engineering, and Enterprise Data Platform architecture.

• 5+ years architecting, migrating, and deploying production data platforms across GCP and/or Azure, with proven multi-cloud integration patterns.

• Demonstrated track record leading on-premises/cloud to cloud modernization/migration initiatives, including data ingestion, transformation, automated data reconciliation, and cutover strategies.

• Experience designing or integrating autonomous, agent-driven, or LLM-augmented data workflows (e.g., automated schema mapping, code conversion, data quality validation agents).

• Proven hands-on experience designing and deploying Lakehouse platforms incorporating Medallion Architecture (Bronze/Silver/Gold) and Data Mesh / Data Product principles.

• Deep knowledge of multi-cloud data governance, access management, and cataloging (Dataplex, Microsoft Purview, Unity Catalog).

• Strong leadership capability in technical backlog management, agile scoping, sprint planning, and setting technical strategy for distributed teams.

• Exceptional stakeholder communication skills: capability to articulate architectural trade-offs to C-level executives as smoothly as reviewing code with engineers.

Preferred Qualifications (Optional / Good to Have)

• Multi-cloud certifications: Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer / Cloud Architect and/or Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate / Azure Solutions Architect Expert .

• Hands-on knowledge of Snowflake and Databricks 

• Familiarity with AWS data services (Amazon S3, Redshift, Glue, EMR).

• Experience with LangChain, LlamaIndex, or agentic framework integrations in data operations.

Education

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.