Architect, Technology I
About The Position
The Architect, Technology I owns the architecture of AbbVie’s enterprise cloud data platform and leads developers while working with limited supervision. The role directs a large offshore team across multiple time zones, establishing technical direction, standards, and roadmaps to ensure consistent delivery at scale. The architect applies advanced technical knowledge to complex assignments, independently leads technical components of larger initiatives, and supports business growth and technology integration in a regulated environment. The position defines and evolves data platform architecture, including Lakehouse, data mesh and data fabric patterns, event-driven designs, and batch and real-time processing. It establishes practices for data contracts, quality, observability, lineage, and metadata, and designs platforms for scalability, reliability, performance, disaster recovery, security, and cost optimization. The architect collaborates with development, infrastructure, and security teams, supports governance and audit preparation, maintains architecture documentation, and identifies automation and process improvements. The role delivers reliable outputs for assigned and moderately complex projects, ensures acceptance criteria and compliance requirements are met, documents methods and assumptions, and keeps project leads, stakeholders, and leadership informed of progress and issues. Travel is required approximately 5% of the time.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree and 7 years of experience, or Master’s degree and 6 years of experience, or PhD and 2 years of experience.
- Significant hands-on experience building and operationalizing enterprise-scale cloud big data platforms.
- Strong knowledge of modern data engineering architectures, including cloud-native data platforms, Lakehouse architecture, data mesh and data fabric concepts, event-driven architectures, and batch and real-time data processing.
- Familiarity with open table formats and interoperable data ecosystems such as Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, or Apache Hudi.
- Experience building reliable data pipelines, data products, and reusable platform services.
- Knowledge of data quality, observability, lineage, metadata management, and data governance.
- Experience defining and implementing data contracts covering schemas, semantics, quality expectations, ownership, and access policies.
- Understanding of data security, privacy, identity and access management, encryption, regulatory requirements, and responsible data use.
- Experience designing for scalability, reliability, performance, disaster recovery, and cost optimization.
- Familiarity with modern data development and orchestration tools such as dbt, Airflow, Dagster, Prefect, or comparable technologies.
- Experience with serverless architectures including Kubernetes, AWS EKS, and AWS Fargate.
- Ability to mentor engineers and influence technical direction across teams.
- Demonstrated ability to mentor technical staff, lead cross-functional teams, and drive initiatives to completion.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
- Ability to operate with high autonomy and minimal supervision, proactively manage stakeholder expectations, and keep leadership informed through clear, concise verbal and written communication.
Nice To Haves
- Exposure to or experience with Cloudera Data Platform or another legacy big-data environment.
- Experience in the pharmaceutical industry or another highly regulated environment.
- Experience working with international development teams across multiple time zones.
- Exposure to graph databases and GraphQL.
Responsibilities
- Perform technical and analytical tasks using established methods and tools; adapt approaches for less-routine problems, document methods and results, and escalate novel or ambiguous issues with suggested next steps.
- Lead and mentor developers and direct a large offshore team by setting priorities, coordinating handoffs across time zones, and maintaining quality and architecture standards.
- Review design artifacts and enforce standards through peer reviews, architecture principles, and documented compliance evidence.
- Support governance and compliance tracking by maintaining architecture repositories, updating standards documentation, and coordinating audit preparations.
- Collaborate with development, infrastructure, and security teams by providing architecture guidance, reviewing technical designs, and validating integration points.
- Define and evolve data platform architecture, including Lakehouse, data mesh and data fabric patterns, event-driven designs, and batch and real-time processing.
- Establish data contracts, data quality, observability, lineage, and metadata practices for reusable data products and platform services.
- Design for scalability, reliability, performance, disaster recovery, security, and cost optimization.
- Identify automation and process improvements by evaluating tooling options, implementing validation scripts, and streamlining documentation workflows.
- Maintain architecture documentation and guidelines by updating models, capturing design decisions, and keeping materials accessible to project teams.
- Deliver reliable outputs for assigned and moderately complex projects, meet acceptance criteria and compliance requirements, document methods, validations, and assumptions, and communicate progress and issues to project leads, stakeholders, and leadership.
Benefits
- Paid time off, including vacation, holidays, and sick time.
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance for eligible employees.
- 401(k) for eligible employees.
- Eligibility to participate in long-term incentive programs.
Stand Out From the Crowd
Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.
What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
