Lead Data Architect

### Lead Data Architect **Location:** Remote, US based **Position type:** Full Time Employee **Compensation:** $190.000 (base + bonus) **Job Summary** [Data Meaning](https://himalayas.app/companies/data-meaning) is a front-runner in Business Intelligence and Data Analytics consulting, renowned for our high-quality consulting services throughout the US and beyond. Our expertise lies in delivering tailored solutions in Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, and Project Management. We have a diverse, global team of consultants, all working remotely, embodying a collaborative, inclusive, and innovation-driven work culture. As part of our growth and upcoming initiatives, we are proactively searching for Lead Data Architects to support future data platform modernization initiatives across our client portfolio. ### Position Summary The Lead Data Architect will lead the architecture assessment, transition planning, and modernization of the client’s data platform. This role will be responsible for designing the future-state architecture, defining best practices for ELT pipelines, and guiding the migration of existing SQL-based transformations into a scalable **dbt** framework within a **Snowflake** environment. The position will work closely with the client’s engineering teams and internal [Data Meaning](https://himalayas.app/companies/data-meaning) consultants, leading knowledge transfer sessions, architecture walkthroughs, and platform transition initiatives to ensure long-term scalability, reliability, and governance of the data platform. ### Key Responsibilities: * Lead architecture assessment and documentation of the current data platform (Snowflake, Airflow, AWS) * Design the future-state data platform architecture following modern ELT and dbt best practices * Define standards for: data modeling, pipeline architecture, transformation frameworks, governance and data quality * Lead the migration of transformation logic into dbt models * Define architectural patterns for: staging layers, intermediate layers, data marts * Implement automated testing frameworks within dbt * Lead discovery sessions and technical workshops with the client’s data engineering teams * Document architecture, pipelines, and operational processes * Conduct architecture walkthrough sessions during knowledge transfer phases * Define standards for CI/CD, monitoring frameworks, and data quality validation * Establish schema management and governance best practices * Optimize Snowflake compute usage and platform performance * Design scalable orchestration strategies for Airflow pipelines * Improve platform reliability, monitoring, and operational observability **Required Skills & Qualifications:** * Advanced / fluent English * 10+ years of experience in Data Engineering or Data Architecture * Strong experience designing and implementing modern data platforms * Expert-level experience with Snowflake * Strong experience implementing dbt transformation frameworks * Advanced SQL modeling and performance optimization * Strong experience with Apache Airflow orchestration * Strong Python programming skills * Experience designing: ELT pipelines, Data warehouse architectures, Transformation frameworks, Large-scale data pipelines * Experience working in cloud environments (AWS preferred) ### Nice to Have * Snowflake certification * Experience leading data platform migrations or modernization initiatives * Experience implementing Medallion architecture patterns * Experience defining data governance frameworks * Experience working with distributed or global engineering teams Originally posted on [Himalayas](https://himalayas.app)