Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire (Hybrid – 3 days onsite, mandatory)
Employment Type: Permanent | Fixed-Term Contract | Contract (Inside IR35)
Start Date: Immediate

We are seeking a highly experienced Principal Data Consultant / Architect to lead the design, governance, and evolution of enterprise-scale data platforms and analytics solutions. This strategic leadership role will shape data architecture standards, influence platform strategy, and ensure scalable, secure, and business-aligned solutions across the organisation.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design and evolution of enterprise data platforms and architecture, ensuring solutions are scalable, secure, resilient, and aligned to business objectives.
• Define architectural standards, design patterns, and best practices across data ingestion, transformation, storage, and consumption layers.
• Provide technical leadership for Azure-based data platforms, including Databricks, Data Factory, Data Lake, and analytics solutions.
• Collaborate with Product Managers, Engineers, Analysts, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into robust technical solutions.
• Own solution architecture reviews and ensure engineering teams adhere to architectural principles and standards.
• Define and govern data models, integration patterns, data quality frameworks, and metadata management practices.
• Lead architecture discussions for new capabilities, platform enhancements, and modernization initiatives.
• Drive adoption of modern data architecture principles, including Lakehouse, Data Mesh, and domain-oriented data products where appropriate.
• Ensure solutions meet requirements for performance, scalability, security, governance, and operational supportability.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend improvements to the data platform ecosystem.
• Provide mentoring and technical guidance to Data Architects, Lead Data Engineers, and Engineering teams.
• Contribute to architectural roadmaps and long-term platform strategy.

Skillset

• Extensive experience designing and delivering enterprise-scale Data & Analytics solutions.
• Strong expertise in Microsoft Azure services including Azure Databricks, Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS Gen2), Azure SQL, and related data services.
• Deep understanding of modern data architectures including Data Lakes, Data Warehousing, Lakehouse Architecture, and Medallion Design Patterns.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of Databricks, Spark/PySpark, SQL, and data engineering best practices.
• Expertise in data modelling techniques including dimensional modelling, Data Vault, and canonical data models.
• Strong understanding of data integration, ETL/ELT frameworks, API integration, and event-driven architectures.
• Experience implementing data governance, security, lineage, metadata management, and data quality frameworks.
• Familiarity with CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, GitHub, Azure DevOps, and DataOps practices.
• Experience establishing architecture standards, design governance, and technical review processes.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and business audiences.
• Experience working within Agile delivery models and leading technical teams across multiple workstreams.
• Experience in large-scale data transformation and cloud modernization programmes within retail, eCommerce, supply chain, or customer analytics environments is desirable

Interested? Apply today for a confidential discussion with our Talent Acquisition team.

#UST

Azure Data Factory, Data Engineering, Microsoft Azure, Python