Data Architect, Senior

Booz Allen Hamilton•Albuquerque, NM

1d•$86,800 - $198,000•Remote

About The Position

As organizations increasingly depend on cloud platforms, analytics, and AI/ML to drive mission outcomes, the integrity of the data foundation underneath them has never mattered more. We are looking for a Data Architect to own the design, governance, and continued evolution of the enterprise data architecture that powers analytics, reporting, and operational insight across our organization and for our DoD clients. As a Data Architect, you'll be the go-to expert for data modeling, governance, and architecture across stakeholders, making sure every data asset we build is well-modeled, documented, discoverable, and trustworthy. You set the standards, and you help the team hold to them from design through deployment. This is a hands-on technical role. Our architecture, pipelines, and tooling are built on modern Python frameworks. You'll be designing schemas, optimizing queries, and making data modeling decisions that the rest of the team builds on every day. The role also carries meaningful project leadership and client-facing responsibility. You'll play a key part in new client intake, engaging directly with prospective and new customers to understand their data landscape, asking the right questions, and applying critical thinking to model their environment and shape data solutions that fit their mission. You'll also lead client data maturity assessments from start to finish: scoping the engagement against the statement of work, evaluating client data systems, modeling their current-state architecture, and delivering actionable recommendations and roadmaps on schedule. You'll work in a fast-paced, agile environment where deliverables are requirements-driven and schedule-bound, partnering closely with team leads, engineers, analysts, and stakeholders to maintain high quality and timeliness of deliverables.

Requirements

5+ years of experience in data architecture, data engineering, or analytics engineering, including ownership of enterprise or program-level data models
Experience with SQL and database, including data modeling, such as dimensional modeling, normalization, or schema design, query optimization, and working with relational databases and cloud data platforms
Experience with Python data frameworks for data processing, transformation, and automation
Experience designing and governing data architectures in AWS-based environments
Experience in assisting with establishing and enforcing data governance practices, data quality frameworks, metadata management, data cataloging, lineage, and access policies
Experience with ETL and ELT processes and modern data pipeline architectures
Experience with project management, including planning and delivering schedule-bound technical engagements or assessments against a statement of work or charter
Ability to use critical thinking and solution-design to take an unfamiliar customer data environment, model it, and shape a practical architecture and roadmap
Ability to obtain a Secret clearance
Bachelor's degree

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting DoD test & evaluation (T&E) programs or similar requirements-driven delivery environments
Experience with AWS data services such as S3, Glue, Redshift, Athena, or Lake Formation
Experience conducting data maturity, readiness, or current-state architecture assessments for external clients
Experience with data governance and catalog tooling, including data catalogs, lineage tools, or metadata management platforms
Experience with data warehouse or lakehouse architectures and orchestration or transformation frameworks such as Airflow or dbt
Experience mentoring engineers or analysts on data modeling and governance practices
Knowledge of AI/ML workflows and the data architecture patterns that support them
Possession of strong client-facing communication skills, to engage new customers, present findings and recommendations to senior technical and non-technical stakeholders, and coordinate across internal teams
Top Secret clearance

Responsibilities

Own the enterprise data model, ensuring all production data assets are properly modeled, documented, and governed, with complete schemas and lineage.
Design and enforce data governance standards, including assisting with naming conventions, quality controls, access policies, and metadata management, and hold the deployment gate so new assets meet standards before reaching production.
Define and maintain the data catalog so every team knows what data exists, where it lives, and how to use it.
Lead data quality monitoring, including owning the rules, thresholds, and remediation process, and driving issues to resolution within defined service levels.
Support new client intake by engaging with prospective and new customers to understand their data environment, coordinating with squad leads and analysts on what's feasible, and applying critical thinking to model and design data solutions tailored to each customer's needs.
Lead client-facing data maturity assessments end to end, including plan and manage the engagement timeline, evaluate client data systems, score maturity, and deliver recommendations and actionable roadmaps.
Communicate clearly in both directions, including presenting architecture findings and recommendations to clients, and coordinating across the team so engineers and analysts have what they need to execute.
Support cross-functional mission teams by validating data model decisions, reviewing architecture choices, and ensuring governance compliance.
Design and build data solutions using Python and SQL.
Evaluate and recommend data tools, storage strategies, and architectural patterns as the team scales, delivering recommendations with cost or benefit analysis.
Participate in quarterly technical debt reviews and security and compliance audits, helping ensure architecture health and DoD compliance requirements are met.