Data Platform Architect (Director)

Huron • Chicago, IL

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About The Position

Huron helps its clients drive growth, enhance performance and sustain leadership in the markets they serve. We collaborate with education organizations to develop strategies and implement solutions that enable the transformative change our clients need to own their future. Together, we empower clients to drive innovation, create sustainable funding streams and deliver better student outcomes. Today, leaders of higher education institutions and academic medical centers are spending too much time reacting to market forces, rather than focusing on the essential priorities that help students, faculty and staff thrive. The most productive path forward requires an intentional approach and innovative thinking, whereby stakeholders across the entire institution rally around a shared vision and embrace the hard work of effecting change. You’ll help our clients to achieve organizational effectiveness, improve student outcomes, implement new technologies and align resources and investments to ensure long-term sustainability. Join our team as the expert you are now and create your future. As a Software Architect you will be involved in the full lifecycle of application development include creating, coding, debugging, optimizing and maintaining both front end and backend components as well as providing solutions to data integration problems. Our Lead Engineers have extensive experience in building PHP applications, PHP Frameworks, JavaScript, Javascript Frameworks, MySQL, SQL Server and related technologies along with strong systems knowledge. The ideal candidate will have experience with Agile methodologies such as Scrum with a strong focus on automation. Excellent communication skills, attention to detail, strong technical and problem-solving skills are essential aspects of this role. In addition to your technical role, you will be responsible for mentoring other developers in the form of code reviews and setting up/enforcing development standards. Responsibilities of a Lead Software Engineer include the following: • Apply Software Engineering competencies to design and develop software products • Solve complex technical problems with help from Senior and Lead Engineers • Interact with key stakeholders from the Product Management, Implementation and Support teams • Develop in-depth knowledge of business processes facilitated by our software products • Create and execute a complete set of unit test cases • Interact and pair program with other Software engineers on the team to build high quality products • Troubleshoot deployment and resolve environmental issues in a timely manner across multiple projects • Work closely with the off-shore development team to ensure quality standards are being met You will be part of a dynamic team focused not only on the needs of the client, but also on offering you opportunities that align with your interests. We want to support you as you pursue your professional development objectives. We pride ourselves on our inclusive company culture and the quality of talent within our organization. The variety of backgrounds on our teams are what make our solutions successful and pushes our employees to be creative and innovative in their approach. You will work with an incredibly bright, diverse, and talented group of people. We hold ourselves to the highest standards of professionalism in order to meet the high expectations of both our clients and ourselves. At Huron you will make a positive difference and achieve your potential. DATA PLATFORM ARCHITECT The Data Platform Architect’s overarching role is translating business and product requirements into scalable platform and technology solutions. This role focuses on designing, building, and operating cloud-native data platforms and platform services rather than point solutions or single data tools. You will define platform standards, principles, and reference architectures that engineering teams use to build and operate platform capabilities. This includes software-defined platform services, APIs, authentication and authorization patterns, data access layers, and the underlying infrastructure required to scale and operate them reliably. The Data Platform Architect must demonstrate strong software engineering and distributed systems knowledge, with experience designing microservice-based platforms and self-managed cloud infrastructure. You will apply data mesh principles to enable domain-oriented data ownership, self-service platform capabilities, and federated governance. You must be able to communicate platform design strategies clearly, lead architectural decisions across teams, and ensure implementations meet scalability, reliability, and security requirements. A strong computer science foundation and the ability to learn and evolve with new technologies is required.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in platform, software, or data architecture roles.
• BA or BS required, preferably in Computer Science, Engineering, or a technology-based discipline.
• Hands-on architect comfortable working closely with engineers to translate requirements into production-ready platform solutions.
• Strong software engineering skillset with experience in distributed systems and microservices.
• Experience designing and scaling self-managed platforms and shared services in cloud environments.
• Strong understanding of API design, authentication, authorization, and secure service-to-service communication.
• Ability to design for scalability, fault tolerance, and operational excellence.
• Familiarity with data platform concepts and data mesh principles.
• Experience working with modern data and processing platforms, including Snowflake and Apache Iceberg.
• SQL and Python experience.
• Infrastructure-as-code experience using tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation.
• Strong computer science fundamentals.
• Familiarity with AWS cloud ecosystems.
• Experience with containerized and serverless architectures.
• Knowledge of observability, monitoring, and operational best practices.
• Familiarity with traditional application and platform design patterns.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience working in Agile environments and with cross-functional or global teams.
• Strong interpersonal and organizational skills.
• Ability to manage time effectively and operate as a technical leader.
• Motivated self-starter with the ability to learn quickly, make informed architectural decisions, and provide technical leadership.

Responsibilities

• Apply platform and system design principles to architect a scalable, cloud-native data platform supporting multiple domains and use cases.
• Design and evolve platform services implemented as microservices, exposing capabilities through well-defined, API-first interfaces.
• Define reference architecture patterns for platform services, APIs, authentication, authorization, and data access.
• Architect self-managed platform infrastructure in AWS, including provisioning, scaling, reliability, and operational patterns.
• Translate business and strategic requirements into high-level platform designs including services, APIs, data access layers, and processing workflows.
• Define patterns for integrating data and processing platforms, including Snowflake and Apache Iceberg, into the broader platform architecture.
• Enable data mesh adoption through self-service platform capabilities, domain-oriented ownership, and standardized integration patterns.
• Design patterns for connecting authentication services to platform components such as APIs, semantic layers, and data access services.
• Create and maintain platform documentation including architecture diagrams, design standards, and reference implementations.
• Educate and lead engineering teams in implementing platform services according to architectural standards.
• Collaborate with stakeholders across Product, Engineering, Data Governance, Security, IT, and Client Services to align platform strategy and execution.
• Evaluate and optimize platform scalability, performance, cost efficiency, and operational resilience.

Benefits

• Huron Consulting Group offers a competitive compensation and benefits package including medical, dental, and vision coverage to employees and dependents; a 401(k) plan with a generous employer match; an employee stock purchase plan; a generous Paid Time Off policy; and paid parental leave and adoption assistance.
• Our Wellness Program supports employee total well-being by providing free annual health screenings and coaching, bank at work, and on-site workshops, as well as ongoing programs recognizing major events in the lives of our employees throughout the year.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees