Data Architect; Enterprise Data

Position: Data Architect (Enterprise Data)
Location: New Orleans

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Job Summary /Purpose

Delta Utilities is seeking a Data Architect to stand up a modern, cloud‑first IT landscape that will serve 580,000 natural gas customers across Louisiana and Mississippi. This Data Architect will design and maintain an enterprise data architecture. The solution will optimize our Oracle Utilities cloud suite (ERP, CCS, WACS, HCM, OFS) while integrating additional enterprise and external data sources. In this role, the Data Architect will develop scalable, secure data solutions aligned with our guiding pillars of reliability, performance, cost optimization, security, and operational efficiency.

Strong technical capabilities combined with communication skills are critical to align business, security, and operational goals.

Accountabilities And Essential Functions Data Architecture Strategy & Design

• Develop and maintain the enterprise data architecture and roadmap, aligning data solutions with business objectives and Guiding Pillars.
• Define and document data architecture standards (data models, integration patterns, naming conventions), ensuring all designs are requirements‑driven and traceable to business needs.
• Evaluate emerging data technologies and recommend improvements to keep the data platform modern and efficient.

Data Integration & Pipeline Development

• Design and build data integration pipelines connecting the Oracle Utilities suite to the enterprise data platform.
• Ensure data pipelines are reliable and fault‑tolerant, with automated error handling and recovery processes.
• Optimize ingestion and transformation processes (e.g., Azure Data Factory, Microsoft Fabric) for low latency and high throughput.
• Integrate additional enterprise and external data sources to ensure seamless data flow across platforms.

Data Governance & Security

• Implement robust data governance using Microsoft Purview to catalog data assets, manage metadata, and track lineage.
• Enforce zero‑trust and least‑privilege principles, ensuring sensitive data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
• Establish data quality standards and validation processes to maintain a single source of truth and ensure compliance with regulations.

Performance & Reliability

• Engineer data architecture for high performance and reliability, design data stores and queries to handle current and future peak loads.
• Incorporate redundancy and failover mechanisms to eliminate single points of failure; test disaster‑recovery scenarios regularly.
• Monitor data platform performance and fine‑tune configurations to meet or exceed SLA targets.

Cost Optimization & Operational Efficiency

• Optimize data storage and processing costs by right‑sizing cloud resources and selecting cost‑effective services.
• Track usage and spending trends as part of a cloud cost management practice to ensure cost‑efficiency.
• Automate data pipeline deployments and routine operations using infrastructure‑as‑code and CI/CD for data infrastructure.
• Keep documentation, diagrams, and runbooks up to date; conduct regular reviews to simplify designs and improve efficiency.

Collaboration & Best Practices

• Collaborate with application architects, business analysts, and data engineers to design end‑to‑end solutions.
• Contribute to architecture review boards and peer reviews, ensuring data solutions meet enterprise standards and align with Delta Utilities’ Guiding Pillars.
• Champion core engineering practices: the Keep It Super Simple principle, requirements‑driven architecture, peer review, and a culture of questioning assumptions.
• Mentor junior team members and promote continuous improvement of architecture, processes, and tools.

Minimum Requirements Minimum education required of the position

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field preferred

Minimum Experience Required Of The Position

• 7+ years in data architecture, data engineering, or related roles designing and implementing enterprise data solutions; utilities, energy, or asset‑intensive industry experience strongly preferred

Minimum Knowledge,

Skills And Abilities

Preferred Of The Position

• Having experience with Microsoft Pure View
• Expertise with Oracle…