Director - Data Platforms & Architecture

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Director - Data Platforms & Architecture based in the United States.

This role provides organization-wide technical leadership across data platforms, cloud architecture, and large-scale modernization programs. You will lead multiple teams and managers while shaping architecture for complex Azure initiatives spanning applications, platforms, data, AI, and analytics. The position combines people leadership with deep technical ownership, including enterprise data platform strategy centered on Databricks and modern lakehouse architectures. You will translate business objectives into scalable cloud roadmaps, establish reusable architecture standards, and guide multi-team execution.

As a senior advisor, you will engage executives and technical leaders on modernization, platform strategy, AI adoption, and investment decisions. You will also mentor senior architects, strengthen engineering practices, and help turn successful delivery patterns into reusable capabilities. The role is fully remote in the U.S. within a virtual-first environment, with opportunities to influence both client outcomes and broader organizational strategy.

Accountabilities:

• Lead multiple delivery teams and managers, maintaining strong team health, performance, engagement, workload balance, and alignment with organizational priorities.
• Coach and develop team members through regular feedback, career planning, stretch assignments, certifications, mentorship, and opportunities for increased visibility and responsibility.
• Oversee staffing and resource allocation across teams while balancing client needs, utilization, professional development, and sustainable workloads.
• Establish interview, performance, promotion, and talent-development standards and support consistent application across the organization.
• Represent teams in leadership forums, communicate strategic priorities, and surface organizational risks, opportunities, and patterns that should influence practice strategy.
• Lead architecture and technical strategy for large Azure programs and portfolios, ensuring solutions meet business objectives for security, scalability, reliability, performance, resilience, compliance, observability, and cost.
• Define modernization blueprints, reference architectures, system designs, standards, and reusable patterns across applications, platforms, data, and AI.
• Translate business and product strategies into cloud architecture roadmaps and execution plans with measurable outcomes and clear ownership.
• Guide major architectural decisions, resolve high-impact technical trade-offs, and ensure cohesive end-to-end architectures across multiple teams and work streams.
• Define and own enterprise data platform strategy centered on Databricks or equivalent lakehouse architectures, covering ingestion, analytics, AI/ML, governance, security, workload isolation, streaming, batch processing, and data lifecycle management.
• Establish standards for Databricks, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog-aligned governance, multi-workspace and multi-region deployments, and integration with Azure-native services and complementary platforms such as Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric, and Power BI.
• Provide architectural oversight through design reviews, governance forums, and structured decision-making processes, while monitoring technical debt, architectural drift, quality, risks, and delivery dependencies.
• Promote modular design, automation, CI/CD, observability, testing, and strong non-functional requirements across delivery teams.
• Incorporate AI-assisted tools into discovery, architecture, development, testing, documentation, and analysis, helping teams adopt successful practices responsibly and consistently.
• Lead executive and senior stakeholder conversations around cloud modernization, data platforms, AI adoption, architecture strategy, and program roadmaps.
• Build trusted relationships with business and technology leaders, influencing priorities and investment decisions through clear communication of options, trade-offs, risks, and expected business value.
• Define discovery, architecture, and delivery frameworks that support predictable, incremental execution across multiple teams, time zones, and work streams.
• Align teams around shared outcomes, APIs, integration contracts, ownership boundaries, operating models, backlogs, and release plans.
• Mentor Senior Architects, Delivery Architects, and senior…