Lead Data Architect

Pismo • Austin, TX

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

Founded by experienced entrepreneurs and engineers in 2016, Pismo is a technology company that provides a comprehensive processing platform for banking, card issuing and financial market infrastructure and helps customers innovate and build the next generation of banking and payment solutions. Pismo joined Visa in 2024. Leveraging Visa’s solutions, our core platform, and an expanding suite of capabilities, Pismo addresses the technological challenges that large banks, marketplaces, and fintech companies face in migrating from legacy systems to more advanced technology in the market. Pismo’s cloud-based platform empowers firms to build and launch financial products rapidly, scaling as they grow to have a broader audience while keeping high security and availability standards. Pismo’s 500+ employees are located in more than 10 countries around the world.
Key Responsibilities:
Design and govern real-time and event‑driven data architectures leveraging Apache Kafka and Azure streaming services (e.g., Azure Event Hubs with Kafka compatibility, Azure Stream Analytics). Define and maintain end‑to‑end data architecture patterns across real‑time, near‑real‑time, and batch processing paradigms. Develop and maintain reference architectures, data flow diagrams, and technical standards to guide platform and delivery teams. Partner closely with Data Engineering, Platform, and Enterprise Architecture teams to deliver solutions that are scalable, secure, well‑governed, and compliant. Lead proofs of concept (PoCs) and technology evaluations, providing clear architectural recommendations and trade‑off analyses. This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in office will be confirmed by your hiring manager.

Requirements

• 10+ years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or at least 7 years of work experience with an Advanced degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 4 years of work experience with a PhD, OR 13+ years of relevant work experience.
• 8+ years’ experience as a Data Architect or Senior Data Engineer, operating in complex enterprise environments.
• Deep expertise in streaming architectures, including managed or commercial distributions (e.g., Kafka‑compatible Azure Event Hubs or Confluent on Azure).
• Strong hands‑on experience with Azure data and analytics platforms, such as: Azure Data Lake, Storage Gen2 / Azure Blob Storage, Azure Event Hubs, Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Functions, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) or Azure Container Apps.
• Proven experience designing and delivering both streaming and batch data solutions at enterprise scale.

Nice To Haves

• 12 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or 8-10 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 6+ years of work experience with a PhD.
• Experience with Databricks, AWS and Apache Airflow (or equivalent orchestration and transformation tools) - nice to have.
• Prior experience in Banking or financial services, particularly in architecture roles within regulated environments.

Responsibilities

• Design and govern real-time and event‑driven data architectures leveraging Apache Kafka and Azure streaming services (e.g., Azure Event Hubs with Kafka compatibility, Azure Stream Analytics).
• Define and maintain end‑to‑end data architecture patterns across real‑time, near‑real‑time, and batch processing paradigms.
• Develop and maintain reference architectures, data flow diagrams, and technical standards to guide platform and delivery teams.
• Partner closely with Data Engineering, Platform, and Enterprise Architecture teams to deliver solutions that are scalable, secure, well‑governed, and compliant.
• Lead proofs of concept (PoCs) and technology evaluations, providing clear architectural recommendations and trade‑off analyses.

What This Job Offers

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