Senior Data Architect

Performance Contracting Group • Lenexa, KS

2d

About The Position

Performance Contracting Group (PCG) is seeking a Data Architect to own the design and evolution of our enterprise data architecture across a hybrid estate: a Microsoft Fabric analytics platform built on a medallion (Bronze / Silver / Gold) pattern, and a substantial on-premises SQL Server footprint that continues to run core transactional workloads. You will define how data moves from source systems — including Dynamics 365 F&O, on-prem SQL Server, APIs, and flat files — into OneLake, how it is modeled into governed star schemas, and how it reaches the business through certified Power BI semantic models. This is a senior individual-contributor role. You will set the patterns and standards that data engineers, analysts, and FP&A modelers build against, and partner with Software Architecture, Infrastructure, and Security to keep those patterns aligned to enterprise standards.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Management, or a related field.
• 5+ years designing and delivering enterprise data solutions, including 2+ years in a data architecture or lead data engineering capacity.
• Demonstrated experience architecting a modern cloud analytics platform — Microsoft Fabric strongly preferred; Synapse, Databricks, or equivalent lakehouse experience considered.
• Deep hands-on SQL Server experience: T-SQL, database design, indexing, partitioning, and performance tuning on-premises.
• Proven expertise in dimensional modeling and star schema design, medallion architecture, and ETL/ELT pipeline design.
• Experience integrating on-premises sources with cloud platforms, including gateways, CDC, and incremental load patterns.
• Working proficiency with Power BI semantic modeling, DAX, and row-level security; PySpark or Python for large-scale transformation; Git and Azure DevOps for data assets.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for executive audiences.

Nice To Haves

• Microsoft certification such as Fabric Analytics Engineer, Fabric Data Engineer, or Azure Solutions Architect Expert.
• Experience with Dynamics 365 F&O data structures and integration patterns, and with Microsoft Purview.
• Experience supporting FP&A or financial reporting, including GL, cost center, and allocation data models.
• Prior participation in architecture governance bodies (ARB, ITSAC) and enterprise standardization efforts.
• Experience in construction, specialty contracting, or a comparable project-based industry.
• Local to the Kansas City metro area. Role is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

Responsibilities

• Own the target-state data architecture spanning Fabric and on-premises SQL Server, including the roadmap for which workloads migrate, remain on-prem, or run hybrid.
• Establish and enforce the medallion standard — append-only Bronze ingestion with source and batch metadata, conformed Silver entities, business-ready Gold star schemas in the Fabric Warehouse.
• Design logical and physical data models and maintain the enterprise data model, business glossary, and data dictionary.
• Produce reference architectures and decision records; review significant designs before build and represent data architecture to stakeholders.
• Architect SQL Server–to–Fabric integration, selecting among mirroring, Data Factory pipelines, Dataflows Gen2, OneLake shortcuts, and on-prem gateways based on latency, volume, and cost.
• Define CDC, incremental-load, and watermarking strategies that keep Fabric current without destabilizing transactional systems.
• Partner with the SQL Server DBA / Data Engineer on HA/DR, retention, and archival design — including D365 and legacy data archival — and set on-prem design, indexing, and partitioning standards.
• Design tenant and workspace topology, capacity allocation, and the Dev → Test → Prod promotion path across the IT platform layer, FP&A semantic layer, and business-facing reporting workspaces.
• Maintain clear ownership boundaries: IT owns ingestion through Gold, FP&A owns business logic and KPI definitions, the business consumes curated Power BI Apps.
• Set Direct Lake as the connectivity standard over Import and DirectQuery, and define the exceptions where alternatives are warranted.
• Establish capacity monitoring, cost management, and Azure DevOps Git source-control standards for pipelines, notebooks, semantic models, and SQL objects.
• Define the layered security model — restricted Bronze, controlled Silver, broadly governed Gold — with row-level security enforced in semantic models.
• Operationalize Microsoft Purview for cataloging, lineage, and classification across Fabric and on-prem sources, in partnership with Data Governance.
• Establish data quality standards and reconciliation controls that prove Gold-layer outputs tie back to source systems; support the promoted-versus-certified dataset model.
• Design the data foundation for AI and agent workloads, including structured and unstructured access patterns for Copilot Studio and RAG scenarios.
• Apply AI-adjacent database capabilities — vector types, semantic search, in-database embeddings — where they create measurable value.
• Mentor data engineers, analysts, and FP&A modelers on architecture practice and modeling discipline, and translate business objectives into durable rather than project-specific design.

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Senior