Senior Data Architect – Data & AI

Company Overview:

Blue Orange Digital is a cloud-based data transformation and predictive analytics development firm with offices in NYC and Washington, DC. From startups to Fortune 500’s, we help companies make sense of their business challenges by applying modern data analytics techniques, visualizations, and AI/ML. Founded by engineers, we love passionate technologists and data analysts. Our startup DNA means everyone on the team makes a direct contribution to the growth of the company.

Position Overview:

We are seeking a Databricks Data Architect who can own Lakehouse design and governance and represent that vision in front of clients. You’ll spend most of your time embedded with delivery squads—modeling data, tuning clusters, and enforcing standards—but you’ll also step into discovery workshops, help scope solutions, and support pre-sales conversations when deep architectural insight is needed.

Responsibilities:

Client Engagement & Solution Development

• Act as the primary technical liaison during key engagements—translating business goals into architecture that both sides understand.

• Lead discovery workshops and roadmap sessions to surface requirements, constraints, and success metrics, then map them to scalable Databricks patterns.

• Partner with account & sales teams to shape estimates, reference architectures, and bill-of-materials for proposals and SOWs.

• Provide architecture-level answers for RFPs/RFIs and join pitch calls when deep Databricks credibility is essential.

• Mentor client technical leads during early project phases to ensure knowledge transfer and long-term success.

Lakehouse Architecture & Design

• Design logical/physical models, storage layers, and streaming/CDC patterns with Delta Lake and Unity Catalog.

• Architect multi-cloud Databricks solutions (AWS, Azure, GCP) covering ETL/ELT, structured streaming, and governance zones.

Governance & Security

• Define catalog/permission models, retention policies, and lineage artifacts to meet HIPAA, SOC 2, GDPR, and similar frameworks.

• Implement row-/column-level security, tokenization, and end-to-end audit logging.

Performance & Cost Optimization

• Tune cluster sizing, Photon/SQL Warehouse configs, Z-Ordering, and auto-compaction to hit SLA and cost targets.

• Instrument dashboards for query latency, job runtimes, and spend.

Implementation Leadership

• Lead design reviews, pair with engineers on PySpark/Scala, and sign off on pull requests before production.

• Publish best-practice templates, Terraform workspace bootstraps, and CI/CD guidelines.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Platform Ops, Security, Analytics, and Product teams to translate requirements into production-ready data solutions.

• Host lunch-and-learns and brown-bag demos to level-up Databricks skill sets across Blue Orange.

Requirements:

• 5–7 years building cloud data platforms; 3+ years hands-on with Databricks.

• Deep expertise in Delta Lake ACID, Unity Catalog, and Spark performance tuning.

• Proven experience architecting Lakehouse or Cloud DW solutions on two or more major clouds.

• Strong SQL + PySpark/Scala; working knowledge of dbt, Airflow, or similar orchestrators.

• Databricks Data Engineer Professional certification (or ability to earn in 90 days).

• Excellent communication skills for client workshops, documentation, and mentoring.

• Ability to engage with and communicate effectively with clients at all levels developing technical solutions that solve their challenges and/or advance their interests.

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or related field, or equivalent experience.

• Ability to translate complex technical concepts into understandable terms; adept at engaging and influencing senior management and non-technical stakeholders.

• Exceptional communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills, particularly adept at conveying complex technical concepts effectively to non-technical audiences with ease.

• Self-directed and motivated with a results-driven approach, capable of achieving deliveries and outcomes independently with limited external direction.

• Eager to learn and adapt in a rapidly evolving tech landscape.

• Ability and willingness to travel as required to meet clients and attend industry events.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience as a Databricks Champion within your organization.

• Experience migrating legacy Hadoop/Snowflake/Redshift to Lakehouse.

• Familiarity with MLflow, Feature Store, and Databricks Model Serving.

• DataOps/CI-CD for notebooks and IaC (Terraform, Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions).

• Domain depth in one of our focus verticals (FinTech, Sports Analytics, Manufacturing, etc.).

• Experience with transactional data systems and stacks, such as Java, Spring Boot, Kafka, SQL Server, Postgres, MongoDB, as well as microservices, message queues, actor-models, event-driven architectures, etc.

• Experience consulting in any of the following vertical industries:

  • Financial Services

  • Healthcare

  • Retail/CPG

  • Manufacturing

  • Travel & Hospitality

• Experience working with ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle Netsuite, Microsoft Dynamics, JD Edwards, Oracle, Sage, Workday, etc.

• Engineering certifications in Databricks (beyond pro), Azure, AWS, GCP, Snowflake, and related tools.

• Experience serving as a consultory liaison between clients and our technical teams. Engage with senior-level stakeholders to understand their business challenges and articulate clear, compelling technical solutions aligned with their strategic goals.

• Self-starter, proven abilities leading complex client engagement deliveries, often with ambiguity and little direction.

• Masters, MBA, or other advanced degree a plus.

Benefits:

• 401k Matching
• Unlimited PTO
• 100% remote role with an option for hybrid
• Healthcare, Dental, Vision, and Life Insurance
• Paid parental/bereavement leave
• Home office stipend

Salary: 165,000 - 185,000 annual salary (USD $)

Background checks may be required for certain positions/projects.

Blue Orange Digital is an equal opportunity employer.