Senior Data Architect – Cloud Data Architecture & Governance

📍 Hybrid in Warsaw (3 days/week onsite required) | 💼 Full-time | B2B contract up to $8,000/month

About the Role

Our client is a US-based leader in AI-powered enterprise operations, delivering digital solutions and consulting services that transform high-growth businesses and private equity-backed platforms. With over a decade of deep domain expertise in private capital markets, the company operates an integrated ecosystem spanning PaaS, SaaS, and a Solutions & Consulting Suite.

We are seeking a Senior Data Architect to join the company's growing Warsaw engineering centre. In this role you will own enterprise data architecture from strategy through execution — designing cloud-native data platforms, establishing governance standards, and enabling AI/ML-ready data infrastructure that powers business intelligence across the portfolio.

This is a hybrid position — you will be expected to work from the Warsaw office at least 3 days per week.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain enterprise data architecture strategies, standards, and blueprints supporting operational, analytical, and AI/ML workloads

• Architect cloud-native data solutions on AWS (Redshift, RDS, Glue, Lake Formation) or equivalent platforms, ensuring scalability, security, and cost efficiency

• Define and enforce data modeling standards: dimensional modeling, denormalized schemas, OLTP/OLAP design patterns, and AI-friendly ontologies

• Architect and oversee data transformation layers using DBT, delivering modular, tested, and well-documented models across the analytics stack

• Lead design of data integration and orchestration patterns with Prefect and Airflow — batch ETL, real-time streaming, event-driven, and API-based data exchange

• Define and implement data validation, quality control, and automated testing frameworks across pipelines and warehouses

• Establish data quality SLAs, monitoring, and alerting standards; design automated reconciliation processes to catch issues before downstream impact

• Build and maintain data governance frameworks: data quality, lineage, cataloging, classification, and access control

• Collaborate with Data Engineers, Software Engineers, Product, and Analytics teams to translate business requirements into scalable designs

• Evaluate and recommend data technologies and tools; own technical decision-making for data infrastructure within assigned domains

• Design data partitioning, indexing, and optimization strategies for high-performance queries and big data workloads

• Ensure architectures support AI/ML consumption — feature stores, embedding pipelines, and model training datasets

• Perform architecture and code reviews to uphold data standards, optimal execution patterns, and long-term maintainability

• Mentor data engineers on best practices in modeling, architecture patterns, and cloud data design

• Assist with CI/CD processes and automated release management for data infrastructure deployments

Key Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in data architecture, data engineering, or related technical roles

• 5+ years designing and implementing cloud-based data architectures (AWS, GCP, or Azure)

• 5+ years writing complex SQL queries across RDBMSes

• 5+ years developing and deploying ETL/ELT pipelines using Airflow, Prefect, or similar tools

• Strong experience with DBT for data transformation, testing, and documentation

• Experience with data warehouse design: OLTP, OLAP, star schemas, snowflake schemas, dimensions, and facts

• Experience with data modeling tools and methodologies (conceptual, logical, physical models)

• Hands-on experience with cloud-based data warehouses such as Redshift, Snowflake, or BigQuery

• Experience implementing data validation frameworks, quality control processes, and automated testing for data pipelines

• Familiarity with how data architectures serve AI/ML workloads, including feature stores and vector-based retrieval patterns

• Strong understanding of data governance, data quality frameworks, and metadata management

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent — preferred
  

Nice to Have

Python / Pandas / PySpark · Docker · Kubernetes · CI/CD Automation · AWS Lambdas / Step Functions · Data Partitioning · Databricks · Vector Databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector) · Data Mesh / Data Fabric · Graph Databases / Knowledge Graph Design · Cloud Certifications

What's Offered

• B2B contract with monthly compensation up to $8,000

• Strategic, high-ownership role in a fast-growing global fintech

• Direct influence over data infrastructure decisions and team direction

• Mentorship opportunities and clear career progression

• Collaborative, open, and ambitious team culture

• Hybrid model — minimum 3 days/week in the Warsaw office