Senior Data Architect (Azure & Databricks) - Global Professional Services

About the Role

We're looking for a highly skilled Senior Data Architect to join a customer-facing engagement supporting a top-tier global professional services organization (audit, consulting, tax, and advisory — Fortune 500 client base). This is a hands-on architecture role: you'll take ownership of designing and evolving Azure-based data platforms, with a strong focus on real architecture decisions — not just implementation.

This role requires genuine architecture ownership, not a Data Engineer background. You'll be expected to quickly assess an existing (and only partially documented) data environment, identify weaknesses, and translate findings into clear, implementation-ready architecture that engineering teams can act on — with useful recommendations expected within the first two weeks.

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and optimize scalable data architectures leveraging Azure and Databricks
• Take ownership of both tactical (short-term) fixes and long-term target architecture, progressing both in parallel
• Work hands-on with Azure Cosmos DB as part of the platform's data layer
• Design and implement data pipelines, models, and warehousing structures across structured and genuinely unstructured data (documents, PDFs, free text, scanned content, images, emails, etc.)
• Evaluate when technologies such as Azure SQL, Synapse, ADF, or Databricks/Lakehouse are actually the right fit — and when they're not — based on scale, cost, and business requirements rather than preference
• Define and enforce data governance, data modeling, and management standards
• Produce detailed architecture documentation, diagrams, and technical recommendations for engineering teams
• Collaborate closely with engineering, analytics, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into technical designs
• Troubleshoot platform issues to ensure reliable, high-performing solutions
• Provide technical guidance to junior team members

Must-Have Requirements

• Azure Cosmos DB — hands-on, project-based experience is mandatory. Be ready to describe specific projects, context, and duration of your Cosmos DB work
• Strong, recent (not years-old) hands-on Azure data-platform experience — minimum 4 years total experience, with Azure experience being your most current work
• Strong Databricks experience, including hands-on exposure to Lakehouse architecture
• Genuine architecture ownership — you must have designed and owned the overall data platform architecture, not only implemented pipelines. Data Engineer profiles will not be considered for this role.
• Experience taking over an existing, problematic, or poorly documented data platform and improving it (not only greenfield builds)
• Proven experience with genuinely unstructured data (documents, PDFs, scanned content, images, free text, emails)
• Strong data modeling knowledge (fact tables, dimensional/star schemas, performance/scalability optimization)
• Experience with batch and incremental processing/refresh
• Proficiency in Python, SQL, and ETL/ELT
• Familiarity with Azure Synapse, Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake, data governance, and security/access control
• Note: Azure DevOps usage alone is not considered strong Azure cloud experience

Location & Language

• Preferred: Serbia, Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia
• Also considered: EU countries, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Moldova
• Not eligible: candidates currently located in Ukraine, Russia, or Belarus (citizenship is not a factor — only current location matters; relocated Ukrainian/CIS candidates based in the EU or elsewhere are welcome)
• English: strong level, C1 preferred
• Comfortable working in the CET time zone

Rate

35–45 USD/hour (B2B, all-in), based on seniority and fit. This is a long-term (12-month), full-time, full-remote engagement.

CV Requirements

Your CV must clearly reflect hands-on, project-level detail for the technologies and experience above — general skill lists without concrete project context will not be considered. In particular, please make sure your CV (or application) includes:

• Specific Cosmos DB project(s): context, duration, and scope
• Concrete example(s) of taking over a problematic/legacy platform and improving it
• Concrete example(s) involving unstructured/file-based data
• A brief outline of what you would deliver in Week 1 and Week 2 on a new, incompletely documented platform
• An example where you recommended against using a specific technology (e.g., Databricks/Synapse) because it wasn't the right fit