Data Principle Architect

Job Description: Data Principal Architect

The Role

This is an expert/principal-tier consulting position not a hands-off strategy role, but a hands-on leader who sits between the C-suite (CIO, CDO, CMO) and engineering teams. You'll assess a client's existing IT/data landscape, design the future-state data architecture, and personally guide execution of large, high-risk transformations (legacy migrations, platform modernizations). Think: technical architect + trusted advisor + pre-sales technical lead, likely at a strategy/tech consultancy or a vendor's professional services arm, with a strong European (Sweden/EU) compliance angle.

What You'd Actually Be Doing

* Designing enterprise data topologies choosing and implementing Data Mesh (decentralized, domain-owned) vs. Data Fabric (centralized, metadata-driven virtualization) architectures, or a hybrid, based on client context
* Leading legacy-to-cloud migrations moving clients off Hadoop clusters/mainframes/legacy ERPs onto Databricks/Snowflake on Azure, using phased rollouts (assess → dual-run → cutover → optimize) rather than risky "big bang" switchovers
* Building governance & metadata infrastructure data catalogs, lineage tracking, business glossaries (via Unity Catalog, Collibra, or Alation), with federated access control
* Owning compliance-by-design GDPR anonymization, right-to-be-forgotten workflows, data residency/sovereignty within the EU, and increasingly, data quality/governance for the EU AI Act
* Pre-sales and stakeholder translation scoping engagements, diagnosing whether a client has a skills gap vs. a build need, and translating technical tradeoffs (latency, storage cost) into business language for executives
* Staying hands-on writing/reviewing dbt models and SQL, working in proper Git/CI/CD workflows, not just producing PowerPoints

What They're Looking For (Must-Haves)

* Deep, provable experience with Data Mesh and/or Data Fabric architecture design
* Microsoft Azure expertise (this is the primary cloud target)
* Strong hands-on background in Databricks and Snowflake (Delta Lake, warehousing, query optimization)
* dbt + advanced SQL
* Experience with data governance/catalog tooling (Unity Catalog, Collibra, Alation) and lineage
* Solid Git/SDLC discipline - this rules out candidates who've only worked in ad hoc, undocumented environments
* GDPR/data residency/RBAC literacy - critical given the Nordic/EU client base
* Executive communication skills and a genuine "doer-leader" profile (still writes code, not purely strategic)

Nice-to-Haves

Python/Scala/Java/Go, AWS or GCP exposure, Terraform, streaming (Kafka/Event Hubs/Flink), Docker/Kubernetes, and FinOps/cloud cost optimization.