Data Architect

Lowenstein Sandler • Roseland, NJ

22h • $150,000 - $160,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Data Architect will be responsible for designing, implementing, and managing a robust enterprise data architecture for the firm, with a particular focus on building and optimizing a data lakehouse using Microsoft Fabric with Delta Lake and Parquet file formats, organized and governed through the Medallion Architecture (Bronze, Silver, and Gold layers). This platform will serve as the foundation for both analytics and machine learning initiatives, providing seamless integration with Power BI for business intelligence while maintaining compatibility with advanced AI/ML platforms for future workloads. Leveraging all related Microsoft Fabric tools and Microsoft Purview for data governance, the Data Architect will ensure high performance, interoperability, and availability of data across the firm.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Management, or related field.
• Minimum of 3 years of experience in data architecture and engineering.
• Proven expertise with Microsoft Azure Data Services and Microsoft Fabric, including full utilization of F64 SKU capacity features and integrated toolsets.
• Hands-on experience developing and optimizing Delta Lake-based data lakehouses with Parquet storage.
• Strong working knowledge of Medallion Architecture (Bronze, Silver, Gold layers) for data transformation, standardization, and analytics enablement.
• Deep understanding of Delta Lake's ACID transaction capabilities, time travel features, and schema evolution for maintaining data quality and auditability.
• Experience with Parquet file format optimization for analytical workloads and columnar storage.
• Experience with Microsoft Purview for data governance, cataloging, data lineage, and compliance management.
• Strong experience with data lake design, data warehousing, and distributed data processing.
• Proficiency in SQL, Python, and data transformation frameworks.
• Minimum of 2-3 years of experience developing and optimizing Power BI reports, dashboards, and data models.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with data warehouse tools and lakehouse platforms beyond Microsoft (e.g., Databricks, Snowflake, Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery) is a plus.
• Familiarity with legal technology applications such as Aderant and Intapp a plus.

Responsibilities

• Data Architecture & Strategy: Lead the design and implementation of a modern data architecture to support the firm’s business and legal operations.
• Architect, develop, and maintain a secure, scalable, and high-performance data lakehouse built on Medallion Architecture principles, leveraging the Delta Lake format for ACID transactions, time travel, and schema evolution.
• Implement the Bronze (raw ingestion), Silver (validated and standardized), and Gold (curated analytics-ready) data layers to support the lifecycle of data transformation and refinement.
• Design data storage strategies using Parquet file format optimized for analytical workloads and columnar data processing.
• Define strategies to ensure seamless integration with Power BI for analytics and reporting while maintaining Delta Lake compatibility to support advanced machine learning and AI use cases on compatible platforms.
• Establish data modeling standards, practices, and governance for structured and unstructured data.
• Define strategies for metadata management, master data management, and data quality frameworks.
• Data Engineering & Integration: Utilize Microsoft Fabric tools (e.g., Data Factory, Synapse Data Engineering, Power BI, Data Activator, and related services) to orchestrate data pipelines and integrations.
• Develop and maintain ETL/ELT processes for ingestion, transformation, and distribution of data across systems.
• Engineer data movement and transformation logic aligned with Medallion layer principles, ensuring traceability and lineage from raw to curated datasets.
• Ensure interoperability between on-premises systems, cloud platforms, and external data sources.
• Implement and optimize Delta Lake-based storage using Parquet file format for unified analytics and machine learning pipelines, enabling ACID transactions and time travel capabilities for historical data queries.
• Data Governance, Security & Compliance: Implement and manage Microsoft Purview for comprehensive data governance, cataloging, classification, and lineage tracking across the enterprise.
• Collaborate with Information Security to enforce compliance with data privacy, security, and regulatory requirements.
• Implement role-based access controls, encryption standards, and monitoring to protect sensitive client and firm data.
• Collaboration & Support: Partner with business stakeholders, attorneys, and service professionals to understand data needs and translate them into scalable solutions.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to database developers, analysts, and engineers.
• Serve as a subject matter expert on Microsoft Azure Fabric, Delta Lake, Parquet file format, Medallion Architecture, and Microsoft Purview data services.

Benefits

• Our benefits package includes coverage options for medical, dental, vision, prescription drug, life insurance, disability, FSAs, 401K, and paid time off.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees