Principal Data Architect

Abbott • Pleasanton, CA

14h • Onsite

About The Position

Abbott is seeking a highly skilled and strategic Lead Data & Solutions Architect to support the development, management, and modernization of the enterprise data ecosystem that powers our next-generation business capabilities. This role will lead the design and implementation of scalable cloud-based data platforms, architecture standards, governance frameworks, and data products that enable enterprise-wide AI, analytics, and data-driven decision making. The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in Databricks, AWS, Azure, modern data architectures, and data engineering practices with strong business acumen and leadership capabilities. Healthcare and EMR/EHR experience is highly desirable as Abbott continues to expand the use of clinical, operational, and commercial data assets to accelerate innovation and business outcomes.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Systems, Engineering, Data Science, or a related technical discipline.
• 8+ years of experience in data architecture, solution architecture, data engineering, or related enterprise technology roles.
• 5+ years of experience designing and implementing enterprise-scale cloud data platforms.
• Deep hands-on experience with Databricks, including: Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Databricks Workflows, Databricks SQL, Spark and PySpark, Lakehouse Architecture
• Strong expertise with AWS services such as S3, Glue, IAM, Redshift, Lambda, Kinesis, and Lake Formation.
• Strong expertise with Microsoft Azure services such as Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS), Azure Data Factory, Synapse, Azure Key Vault, and Microsoft Purview.
• Extensive experience designing and implementing ETL/ELT frameworks, data pipelines, and cloud-native integration solutions.
• Strong understanding of data architecture patterns, distributed systems, data modeling, and enterprise integration concepts.
• Experience implementing data governance, security, compliance, encryption, access controls, monitoring, and auditing frameworks.
• Strong proficiency in SQL and Python.
• Proven ability to develop architecture standards and influence enterprise technology direction.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and executive presentation skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex cross-functional initiatives and technical teams.

Nice To Haves

• Experience within healthcare, medical device, pharmaceutical, payer, provider, or healthcare technology organizations.
• Experience working with EMR/EHR platforms and healthcare data standards, including FHIR and HL7.
• Familiarity with clinical, claims, patient, provider, and operational healthcare datasets.
• Experience architecting solutions that support AI, machine learning, GenAI, and advanced analytics initiatives.
• Experience with streaming technologies such as Kafka, Spark Structured Streaming, or equivalent platforms.
• Experience implementing self-service analytics and data product strategies.
• Knowledge of MLOps, AI governance, and modern AI platform architectures.
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Databricks Certified Professional, or comparable certifications.
• Experience operating within regulated environments and supporting compliance requirements including HIPAA and other data privacy regulations.
• Experience working in a global, matrixed organization.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain enterprise-wide data architecture standards, principles, roadmaps, and governance frameworks.
• Lead the design and implementation of scalable cloud-native data platforms leveraging Databricks, AWS, Azure, and related technologies.
• Architect and oversee batch, streaming, and real-time data pipelines supporting analytics, AI, machine learning, and operational use cases.
• Partner with business, product, analytics, AI, and engineering teams to translate strategic objectives into scalable data solutions.
• Design and optimize Lakehouse architectures, enterprise data lakes, data warehouses, and data integration frameworks.
• Enable self-service data and analytics capabilities that improve accessibility, trust, and usability of enterprise data assets.
• Support enterprise AI initiatives by ensuring high-quality, governed, and scalable data foundations.
• Establish best practices for data modeling, metadata management, data lineage, master data management, and data quality.
• Drive automation of data workflows, orchestration processes, monitoring, and operational support to enable near real-time data access.
• Ensure data security, privacy, compliance, governance across all platforms and data domains.
• Collaborate with cybersecurity, legal, and compliance teams to implement appropriate controls for sensitive and regulated data.
• Guide cloud strategy across AWS and Azure environments, ensuring scalability, reliability, cost optimization, and operational excellence.
• Mentor and provide technical leadership to data engineers, architects, and cross-functional technology teams.
• Conduct architecture reviews and technology assessments, identifying opportunities for modernization and innovation.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends to advance Abbott’s data, analytics, and AI capabilities.
• Support enterprise initiatives involving healthcare, EMR/EHR, clinical, operational, and commercial data when applicable.

Benefits

• Career development with an international company where you can grow the career you dream of.
• Employees can qualify for free medical coverage in our Health Investment Plan (HIP) PPO medical plan in the next calendar year.
• An excellent retirement savings plan with a high employer contribution.
• Tuition reimbursement, the Freedom 2 Save student debt program, and FreeU education benefit - an affordable and convenient path to getting a bachelor’s degree.
• A company recognized as a great place to work in dozens of countries worldwide and named one of the most admired companies in the world by Fortune.
• A company that is recognized as one of the best big companies to work for as well as the best place to work for diversity, working mothers, female executives, and scientists.

What This Job Offers

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