Sr. Data Architect

Accuity

3d•Remote

About The Position

The Senior Data Architect is Accuity's senior technical authority for translating enterprise data strategy into domain architectures, reusable data product patterns, logical data models, governance controls, and delivery roadmaps. This senior individual-contributor role provides technical leadership across Accuity's evolving data environment and reports to the Vice President, Data Architecture. The role independently leads complex architecture and modeling decisions across domains within delegated authority, partnering with business owners, Data Architects, Data Operations, engineering and Azure teams, security and governance teams, and external providers. The position provides data product leadership through requirements discovery, roadmaps, recommended priorities, and acceptance criteria. Delivery sequencing is agreed with the Senior Manager, Data Operations, who retains staffing, delivery commitments, and operational coordination. Business data owners retain authority over business definitions, access approval, appropriate use, quality thresholds, and final business acceptance. The Senior Data Architect leads cross-domain architecture, shared models, and reusable design standards, while Data Operations retains detailed engineering design, implementation, testing, documentation, and production support across Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Enterprise strategy, investment, and final escalation remain with the Vice President, Data Architecture. The role also guides architecture and modernization across Azure Databricks, Delta Lake, medallion architecture, and Unity Catalog; develops data governance and product design standards; oversees architectural work from managed service providers and other external partners; and mentors architects and engineers. It is a fully remote position with less than 10% travel. The role is exempt and has no direct people-leader responsibility.

Requirements

At least 8 years of progressive experience in data architecture, data warehousing, business intelligence, analytics engineering, or enterprise data delivery.
At least 3 years leading data architecture, senior data design, or comparable technical initiatives with independent decision-making responsibility.
Deep experience with conceptual, logical, dimensional, and analytical data modeling, including grain, keys, relationships, reusable entities, and historical behavior.
Experience translating business outcomes into domain architectures, data-product requirements, acceptance criteria, and delivery roadmaps.
Experience resolving data definitions, dependencies, and design conflicts across multiple business domains.
Demonstrated production architecture and modernization experience with Azure Databricks, Delta Lake, medallion architecture, and Unity Catalog, including decisions affecting multiple domains.
Experience with data governance, metadata, lineage, quality, access controls, privacy, retention, and lifecycle management.
Experience influencing senior business and technology stakeholders and facilitating decisions among groups with competing priorities.
Strong SQL and practical implementation-review skills to validate models and diagnose discrepancies.
Experience establishing API and data-contract standards, evaluating integration tradeoffs, and guiding engineering delivery.
Experience reviewing work delivered by consultants, managed service providers, or other external technology partners.
Physical ability to interact with people and technology while sitting or standing, communicate via phone and email, and sit for extended periods, with or without reasonable accommodations; physical effort and exposure to risk are limited to those of an office role.
Effective remote-work communication, documentation, and visibility into work.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, data management, engineering, or a related field.
Relevant Azure, Databricks, architecture, data management, or data governance certification.
Experience in a regulated or security-sensitive environment; healthcare experience is preferred.
Equivalent professional experience, technical training, or a combination of education and relevant experience may be considered in place of the preferred degree.

Responsibilities

Translate the enterprise data strategy into domain architectures, standards, roadmaps, and implementable designs.
Own data architecture across assigned business domains and data products, including boundaries, dependencies, integration patterns, and consumption approaches.
Develop reusable architecture standards and integration patterns, resolve cross-domain design conflicts within delegated authority, and align shared definitions with business owners.
Maintain architecture diagrams, shared models, standards, data contracts, decision records, exceptions, and technical-debt documentation; escalate strategic, investment, and material-risk decisions to the Vice President, Data Architecture.
Identify consumers, use cases, and expected business outcomes for assigned data products.
Establish cross-domain product roadmaps, recommend modernization priorities, negotiate sequencing and dependencies with Data Operations, and escalate unresolved priorities.
Lead discovery and decision sessions with business stakeholders, data owners, analysts, engineers, and external partners.
Define data-product requirements and acceptance criteria for quality, freshness, availability, reconciliation, retention, recovery, and performance; evaluate cost and supportability tradeoffs.
Coordinate business acceptance and recommend when legacy data solutions and duplicated capabilities can be retired.
Lead conceptual and logical modeling across domains and establish reusable dimensional and analytical design patterns and conformed entities.
Define and document business grain, keys, relationships, facts, dimensions, and historical behavior; review detailed engineering models when shared definitions, dependencies, or significant risks are affected.
Establish API, persisted dataset, file exchange, and integration patterns that balance freshness, consistency, source availability, replay, auditability, security, and cost; resolve significant exceptions within delegated authority.
Guide Bronze, Silver, and Gold designs, ensuring the Silver layer provides standardized, validated, reconciled, documented, and reusable data.
Define dataset and interface data contracts, including meaning, structure, freshness, intended use, ownership, versioning, compatibility, and consumer change notification.
Partner with Data Engineers on model validation while they independently design detailed physical and dimensional models within approved architecture standards.
Prevent legacy database structures, duplicated logic, and unnecessary complexity from being copied into the new platform without clear justification.
Lead Unity Catalog architecture standards for catalogs, schemas, naming, ownership, lineage, classification, and access patterns under Data Architecture leadership direction; engineers implement approved controls.
Ensure important data products have named business owners, documented definitions, quality expectations, classifications, and lifecycle controls.
Partner with security, governance, and business data owners to establish access, privacy, retention, and data-protection requirements.
Promote group-based ownership and access rather than ownership by individual employees or vendors.
Support business glossaries, metadata standards, lineage requirements, data contracts, and periodic governance reviews; embed governance into product design and delivery.
Work with the Senior Data Engineer and Data Engineers throughout design and delivery, making timely decisions and resolving architectural questions.
Lead risk-based architecture and model reviews for shared capabilities and significant changes; delegate routine decisions and resolve architecture exceptions within approved authority.
Use SQL analysis, implementation reviews, and targeted prototypes with engineers to validate that designs are practical, performant, supportable, and effective in Azure Databricks.
Guide migration architecture and sequencing across domains, including consolidation, dependencies, and retirement criteria; review readiness and engineering evidence for reconciliation, cutover, rollback, and recovery.
Partner with the Senior Azure Platform Engineer on Azure application and data services, APIs, health data and FHIR services, integrations, identity, connectivity, security, recovery, and platform dependencies.
Translate architectural standards into clear requirements and acceptance criteria for managed service providers and other external partners.
Review and approve MSP architecture, logical models, and data product designs within delegated authority, and verify conformance with Accuity standards.
Identify unnecessary complexity, vendor dependency, architectural lock-in, and solutions that internal teams cannot operate effectively.
Review architectural acceptance evidence and confirm knowledge transfer with engineering owners, who validate code, testing, runbooks, and operational readiness before accepting external deliverables.
Mentor Data Architects and engineers in domain architecture, shared modeling, governance, integration design, and decision-making, building capability for independent ownership.
Mentor employees who may progress into architecture or senior engineering positions, and help SQL Server and SSIS professionals transition to modern data engineering, lakehouse, and product-oriented practices.
Establish repeatable reviews, templates, examples, and reference designs to improve internal architecture and modeling maturity.
Serve as a senior technical advisor to the Vice President, Data Architecture and represent the VP in appropriate architecture and delivery discussions.
Collaborate with business leaders, Engineering, Data Science and AI, Platform Management, Enterprise IT, Security, and Governance on shared data capabilities and dependencies.
Support the VP while recognizing that enterprise strategy, investment decisions, organizational direction, and final escalation remain with the VP.
Facilitate and document business decisions while recognizing business data owners' accountability for definitions, access approval, appropriate use, quality thresholds, and acceptance.
Partner with Data Operations on assigned data assets across Bronze, Silver, and Gold, and with the Senior Data Engineer on complex engineering, reusable implementation patterns, and data API development.
Partner with the Senior Azure Platform Engineer, agreeing on a named engineering and operational owner for each API or service, including support and escalation boundaries.
Perform additional responsibilities as needed to support data architecture, technology delivery, and organizational goals.