Consulting Senior Manager - Data Products Architect

Data & AI Consulting – Public Sector

Cognizant’s Data & AI Consulting practice partners with government agencies and public sector organizations to modernize data ecosystems, establish trusted data foundations, and accelerate digital transformation through cloud-based data platforms, analytics, and AI solutions. Our teams help clients move beyond fragmented data landscapes by creating scalable, governed, and reusable data capabilities that enable enterprise-wide decision-making.

This role offers an opportunity to shape one of the most significant public sector data modernization programs in the UK, establishing a modern data product ecosystem on a Databricks Lakehouse platform that promotes data democratization, self-service consumption, and enterprise-wide reuse.

As a Data Products Architect – Databricks
, you will lead the design and architecture of enterprise data products that enable trusted, reusable, and scalable data consumption across the organization. You will define the standards, governance frameworks, and architectural patterns that ensure data products are built once, managed consistently, and shared across multiple business domains.

Working closely with product owners, data engineers, platform architects, governance teams, and business stakeholders, you will help establish a modern data product operating model that supports self-service analytics, data sharing, and enterprise-wide innovation while maintaining strong governance and security standards.

• Lead the architecture and design of enterprise data products built on the Databricks Lakehouse platform
• Define and maintain standards, templates, and reference architectures that ensure data products are scalable, reusable, and interoperable
• Design data products that are discoverable, versioned, self-describing, and aligned with data mesh and product-centric principles
• Establish best practices for product design, schema management, metadata standards, lineage, and lifecycle governance
• Ensure data products are optimized for performance, scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency
• Promote consistency across product domains while enabling autonomy for data product teams

• Architect self-service data consumption capabilities that allow users to discover, access, and consume trusted data products independently
• Define data contracts, service-level agreements, and access management frameworks for published data products
• Collaborate with platform teams to ensure the Databricks environment supports scalable self-service consumption patterns
• Champion the adoption of Unity Catalog as the enterprise governance and discovery layer
• Design patterns that support data sharing, product consumption, and cross-domain interoperability
• Enable business and technical teams to leverage governed data assets through a consistent consumer experience

• Ensure all data products comply with enterprise governance standards and public sector regulatory requirements
• Define and implement data classification, access controls, auditability, and security controls across data products
• Collaborate with Cyber Security, Risk, and Data Governance teams to embed security-by-design principles into product delivery
• Ensure compliance with GDPR, Government Security Classifications, and other applicable regulatory frameworks
• Establish governance processes that promote trust, quality, traceability, and effective stewardship of shared data assets

• Serve as a senior technical authority for data product architecture across the program
• Define architectural best practices for Delta Lake design, metadata management, product lifecycle governance, and data quality controls
• Provide architecture assurance and design reviews for data products developed by internal and third-party teams
• Guide architects, engineers, and analysts on the effective use of Databricks platform capabilities
• Evaluate emerging technologies, architectural approaches, and Databricks features to continuously improve the data product ecosystem
• Establish reusable patterns and accelerators that support faster and more consistent delivery

• Partner with senior client stakeholders to understand business priorities and shape the enterprise data product strategy
• Translate complex technical concepts into clear business-focused recommendations and architecture artefacts
• Facilitate…