Senior Cloud Data Architect - Databricks Lakehouse

Peraton•,

5d•$135,000 - $216,000•Remote

About The Position

Peraton's Department of the Interior (DOI), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have identified a critical gap in the federal government's ability to conduct comprehensive Endangered Species Act (ESA) research. While FWS operates an authoritative web-based platform for managing data for terrestrial and freshwater species, it does not currently include NMFS marine and anadromous species data forcing agencies to rely on separate, manual processes. This program closes that gap by integrating marine and anadromous species data into the existing FWS platform, creating a single, unified experience for all ESA-listed species. Peraton is seeking a Senior Cloud Data Architect SME with expertise in Databricks and cloud data lakehouse architectures to lead the data engineering foundation for a federal data migration program. You will design and oversee the implementation of ETL pipelines, schema harmonization, and data quality frameworks within a FedRAMP-compliant hybrid AWS cloud environment.

Requirements

Bachelors degree and 12 years professional experience or a Masters degree and 10 years professional experience or an Associates degree and 14 years professional experience; or a high school diploma/equivalent and 16 years’ professional experience.
U.S. Citizenship required; must have the ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance
Extensive years of experience in cloud data architecture with expertise in Databricks and Delta Lake/Delta Live Tables
Demonstrated experience designing data lakehouse architectures for large-scale data migration programs
Experience with schema harmonization, ETL pipeline design, and data quality frameworks
Strong knowledge of FedRAMP, FISMA, and federal cloud compliance requirements
Experience with metadata management and authoritative source registry design

Nice To Haves

Databricks Certified Data Engineer or equivalent certification
AWS Certified Solutions Architect or AWS Certified Data Engineer certification
Experience with federal environmental or geospatial data systems
Familiarity with spatial data integration and GIS data pipelines
Active Public Trust Clearance

Responsibilities

Lead the design and implementation of the cloud data lakehouse architecture for federal species data ingestion, ensuring compatibility with existing infrastructure and platform constraints
Design the Delta Live Tables ETL pipeline architecture, defining pipeline topology, data flow patterns, transformation stages, and error-handling frameworks
Lead schema harmonization activities, conducting gap analysis between source schemas and the target data model and producing field-level mapping documentation
Define metadata standards for all ingested datasets including naming conventions, data types, null handling, and authoritative source attribution
Design the Metadata and Authoritative Source Registry structure and population methodology
Oversee ETL pipeline development and deployment, ensuring all pipelines are version-controlled and peer-reviewed
Design data quality validation frameworks within ETL pipelines, defining completeness, accuracy, consistency, and spatial integrity quality criteria
Produce the Data Model Harmonization Report, documenting gap analysis findings between source schemas and the target data model, field-level mapping decisions, and metadata standard definitions for government review and approval
Lead the operational handoff of ETL pipeline architecture, producing documentation for routine data refresh, pipeline monitoring, and maintenance procedures
Provide cloud data architecture guidance for FedRAMP-compliant production deployment