Data Platform Architect

Sun Communities•Southfield, MI

13h

About The Position

The Data Platform Architect is responsible for designing and guiding the architecture of Sun’s enterprise data platform, including the data lake, enterprise data warehouse, and surrounding data ecosystem. This role ensures that data is ingested, modeled, stored and delivered in ways that are scalable, secure, reliable, artificial intelligence (AI) ready and aligned with organizational needs. Partnering closely with data engineering, analytics, governance, and application teams, the Data Platform Architect establishes platform patterns, designs canonical and analytical models, and ensures the data platform provides a strong foundation for analytics, business intelligence, data products, and emerging AI workloads. This role influences platform direction, reduces technical debt, prevents fragmentation, and supports consistent, high‑quality data across the enterprise. This position is architecture‑focused rather than hands‑on engineering, with an emphasis on platform design, patterns, alignment, and stewardship.

Requirements

High School Diploma or GED (Required)
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Engineering, or related field (Required)
8 years in proven experience in data engineering, data architecture, or analytics engineering (Required)
5 years in hands‑on exposure to modern cloud data platforms (Required)
Must have a valid driver's license
Strong expertise in data modeling (conceptual, logical, physical) and understanding of how models support analytics and AI workloads (Required)
Demonstrated proficiency with modern cloud data environments such as Databricks, Snowflake, Azure Synapse/Fabric, BigQuery, Redshift (Required)
Experience defining architecture standards, reusable patterns, and enterprise data platform guardrails (Required)
Deep understanding of integration patterns (batch, streaming, change data capture) and metadata‑driven design (Required)
Experience supporting or enabling machine learning or AI platforms
Ability to influence cross‑functional stakeholders without direct authority
Strong communication skills and the ability to convey complex architectural concepts to both technical and non‑technical audiences
Experience working within a federated or domain‑oriented data architecture model (e.g., data mesh principles)

Responsibilities

Define and maintain the architecture of Sun’s enterprise data platform, including the data lake, enterprise data warehouse, lakehouse components, and downstream analytical use cases.
Establish and promote scalable data platform patterns, such as ingestion architecture (batch, streaming), processing frameworks, and domain‑oriented design.
Design canonical and analytical data models that support enterprise reporting, analytics, and AI workloads.
Review and guide platform data models (conceptual, logical, physical) to ensure alignment, reusability, and consistency across domains.
Set and enforce platform architecture standards and guardrails, balancing innovation with security, quality, and long-term maintainability.
Partner with data engineering, analytics, and product teams to design data structures optimized for business intelligence, analytics, machine learning, and data-driven features.
Work closely with governance, security, legal, and compliance teams to ensure architecture incorporates data quality, metadata, access controls, and responsible AI principles.
Evaluate and recommend data platform technologies, providing guidance on performance, scalability, cost, and alignment with long‑term architecture.
Monitor emerging trends in cloud data architectures, lakehouse technologies, semantic modeling, and AI platform services to inform long‑term roadmap direction.
Other job duties and special projects as assigned.

Benefits

Comprehensive Medical and Prescription coverage with 4 plan options so you can choose the plan that best meets the needs of you and your family
Comprehensive Dental and Vision Plans
On-Site Fitness Center
Voluntary Health and Dependent Care Reimbursement Accounts
Life, Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance and Dependent Life
Short and Long-Term Disability Coverage
401(k) Plan with Sun matching contribution
Employee Assistance Program
Identity Theft Insurance
Legal Assistance Plan
Pet Insurance
Tuition Reimbursement program providing financial support to team members who further their formal education
Vacation
RV Site Discounts for team members when visiting SunRV Resorts across the nation
Team Member Perks & Discounts program with hundreds of discounts on things like travel, merchandise, mobile phone service, and more
Up to six weeks of paid parental leave for the birth of a child, adoption, or placement of a child
Paid Time Off including ten holidays, vacation, personal, sick time, bereavement and pay for jury duty