Data Architect

EXL • Pittsburgh, PA

3d

About The Position

We are seeking an experienced Data Architect to lead the design and implementation of next-generation data platforms leveraging object storage and Apache Iceberg. The role is responsible for architecting and executing large-scale data migrations from traditional relational and analytical databases into modern lakehouse environments built on object storage and Iceberg catalogs.

The Data Architect will design enterprise data architectures and migration strategies, develop scalable ingestion frameworks, and establish practices for data security, metadata management, retention, and regulatory compliance. The role also involves collaborating with application teams, data engineers, DBAs, and platform teams to modernize legacy workloads; optimizing Bronze, Silver, and Gold data models; improving data access and query performance across compute engines; and converting ETL workloads into modern data engineering frameworks.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field.
• At least 5 years of experience in Data Architecture, Data Engineering, or Data Platform modernization.
• At least 2 years of hands-on experience implementing Apache Iceberg in enterprise environments.
• Demonstrated experience migrating large-scale datasets from traditional databases and data warehouses into object storage and lakehouse architectures.
• Strong understanding of object storage technologies, including S3-compatible platforms and Pure Storage.
• Experience implementing and managing Iceberg catalogs.
• Expertise in data modeling, partitioning strategies, schema evolution, metadata management, and performance optimization.
• Experience designing and implementing enterprise ETL architectures.
• Strong understanding of data governance, security, lineage, and compliance requirements.
• Understanding of or experience with PostgreSQL.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of enterprise data platforms using object storage and Apache Iceberg.
• Develop migration strategies and execution plans to move data from relational databases, data warehouses, and Hadoop ecosystems into Iceberg-based architectures.
• Design scalable ingestion frameworks for batch, streaming, and near-real-time data loads into object storage.
• Address Iceberg catalog structures, namespaces, partitioning strategies, schema evolution, and data lifecycle management.
• Establish best practices for security, metadata management, retention, and regulatory compliance.
• Collaborate with application teams, data engineers, DBAs, and platform teams to assess migration readiness and modernize legacy workloads.
• Optimize data models for Bronze, Silver, and Gold layers in a lakehouse architecture.
• Evaluate and implement solutions for data access, query performance, and interoperability across compute engines such as Spark, Trino, Databricks, Snowflake, and Teradata.
• Guide the conversion of ETL workloads and legacy data integration processes into modern data engineering frameworks.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior