Data & AI Architect

Location: Grand Rapids (MI) |
Employment Type: Full Time - 40 hours per week |
Job Level: T4 |
Work Preference: Hybrid |
Job Code: 244581

We are seeking an experienced Data Architect to lead the design, implementation, and governance of enterprise-scale data platforms. The ideal candidate will define data architecture strategy, establish data standards, and collaborate with business stakeholders, data engineers, analytics teams, and solution architects to deliver scalable, secure, and high-performing data solutions across cloud and on-premises environments.

The role requires expertise in modern data platforms including Snowflake, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud, along with strong knowledge of data modeling, governance, data integration, and AI/ML enablement.

• Define and maintain enterprise data architecture principles, standards, and best practices.
• Design scalable, secure, and resilient data platforms supporting analytics, AI/ML, and operational workloads.
• Create conceptual, logical, and physical data models.
• Develop enterprise data roadmaps aligned with business strategy.

• Architect modern cloud-based data platforms using Snowflake, Databricks, Azure Synapse, Microsoft Fabric, AWS Redshift, and Google Big Query.
• Design Lakehouse, Data Warehouse, and Data Mesh architectures.
• Build scalable ingestion, transformation, and serving layers.

• Design batch, streaming, CDC, and API-based integration solutions.
• Architect ETL/ELT pipelines using dbt, Azure Data Factory, Apache Airflow, Informatica, Talend, and Fivetran.
• Establish reusable integration patterns and frameworks.

• Design star schema, snowflake schema, normalized, and dimensional models.
• Develop data marts for business domains.
• Optimize schemas for reporting and AI workloads.
• Define master data and reference data models.

• Establish enterprise data governance standards.
• Define metadata management strategies.
• Implement data lineage and catalog solutions.
• Define data quality frameworks and KPIs.
• Ensure compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, and other regulatory requirements.

• Optimize query performance and storage costs.
• Design partitioning, clustering, indexing, and caching strategies.
• Improve platform scalability and reliability.

• Design data foundations for Machine Learning and Generative AI.
• Build feature stores and semantic layers.
• Enable real-time analytics and predictive modeling.
• Collaborate with Data Scientists and ML Engineers to support production AI solutions.

• Work with business leaders to translate requirements into scalable data solutions.
• Partner with engineering teams to ensure architectural compliance.
• Provide technical leadership during solution design and implementation.
• Mentor architects, engineers, and developers.

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience in Data Engineering, Data Warehousing, or Data Architecture.
• 5+ years of experience designing enterprise cloud data platforms.
• Strong understanding of enterprise architecture principles.

• AWS

Data Platforms

• Snowflake
• Databricks
• Microsoft Fabric
• Big Query
• Redshift

Programming

• Python
• SQL
• Py Spark
• Scala (preferred)

Data Integration

• dbt
• Informatica
• Talend
• Kafka

Databases

• SQL Server
• Oracle
• MongoDB

Data Governance

• Microsoft Purview
• Collibra
• Alation
• Unity Catalog

Dev Ops

• Git
• Git Hub Actions
• CI/CD
• Terraform

• Enterprise-scale cloud migration projects.
• Data modernization initiatives.
• Data Lakehouse implementations.
• Insurance, Healthcare, Financial Services, Retail, or Manufacturing domains.
• Real-time streaming architectures.
• Multi-cloud environments.

• Strong communication and stakeholder management.
• Strategic thinking with a business-first mindset.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams.
• Experience leading architecture reviews and design governance.
• Strong mentoring and…