Data Architect

Client of Salt; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 350,000 - 520,000; Full time

Job summary

Client of Salt partners with a leading Abu Dhabi banking organisation to hire a Data Architect for its new AI Lab. The role focuses on designing scalable Azure data platforms, data lakehouse, and data warehouses to enable AI analytics and data-driven products.

You will work with Data Engineers, Data Scientists and product teams to define governance, security, metadata lineage and support GenAI and RAG workloads while ensuring regulatory compliance and resilience.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience across Data Architecture, Data Engineering or Enterprise Data Platforms.
• Strong track record designing large-scale enterprise data architectures.
• Deep practical experience with Azure data technologies and cloud-native architecture.
• Strong understanding of data lakehouse, data warehouse, data mesh and modern data platform patterns.
• Experience with large-scale data integration, ETL/ELT, batch and streaming architectures.
• Strong knowledge of data modelling, governance, lineage, quality and security.
• Experience designing data platforms to support AI/ML and GenAI workloads.
• Strong understanding of cloud architecture, APIs, microservices and distributed systems.
• Experience within banking, financial services, fintech or another highly regulated environment would be highly advantageous.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work with both senior stakeholders and highly technical engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the enterprise data architecture supporting AI analytics and data products.
• Design scalable secure and high-performance Azure data platforms and architectures.
• Develop modern data lake, lakehouse and data warehouse architectures.
• Define data ingestion, integration, transformation, storage and consumption patterns.
• Collaborate with Data Engineers, Data Scientists, AI Engineers, Software Engineers and Product teams to support production AI use cases.
• Establish standards for data modelling, data governance, data quality, metadata lineage and security.
• Design architectures supporting both structured and unstructured data including GenAI and RAG data needs.
• Provide architectural direction across real-time, batch and streaming data workloads.
• Assess emerging Azure and data technologies and determine suitability for enterprise adoption.
• Ensure architecture meets banking requirements around security, privacy, regulatory compliance, resilience and scalability.
• Help establish technical foundations and standards for the AI Lab Azure Technology Stack.

Skills

Data Architecture

Azure

Data Lakehouse

Data Warehouse

GenAI

Data Governance

Data Security

Streaming Data

ETL/ELT

APIs & Microservices

Tools

Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2

Azure Data Factory

Azure Synapse Analytics

Microsoft Fabric

Azure Databricks

Job description

My client is looking for a Data Architect to join a newly established AI Lab within a leading banking organisation This is a key role responsible for designing the data architecture platforms and foundations that will enable the bank to scale AI analytics and data-driven products

Key Responsibilities

• Define and own the enterprise data architecture supporting AI analytics and data products
• Design scalable secure and high-performance Azure data platforms and architectures
• Develop modern data lake lakehouse and data warehouse architectures
• Define data ingestion integration transformation storage and consumption patterns across the organisation
• Work closely with Data Engineers Data Scientists AI Engineers Software Engineers and Product teams to ensure data platforms support production AI use cases
• Establish standards for data modelling data governance data quality metadata lineage and security
• Design architectures supporting both structured and unstructured data including data required for GenAI and RAG applications
• Provide architectural direction across real-time batch and streaming data workloads
• Assess emerging Azure and data technologies and determine their suitability for enterprise adoption
• Ensure architecture meets banking requirements around security privacy regulatory compliance resilience and scalability
• Help establish the technical foundations and standards for the new AI Lab Azure Technology StackStrong experience across the Microsoft Azure data ecosystem is essential ideally including Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2Azure Data Factory Synapse PipelinesAzure Synapse AnalyticsMicrosoft Fabric and or modern lakehouse architecturesAzure DatabricksAzure Event Hubs streaming technologiesAzure SQL Cosmos DBMicrosoft PurviewAzure security networking and identity servicesAzure AI Azure OpenAI and data architectures supporting GenAI and RAG

Strong experience across the Microsoft Azure data ecosystem is essential ideally including Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2Azure Data Factory Synapse PipelinesAzure Synapse AnalyticsMicrosoft Fabric and or modern lakehouse architecturesAzure DatabricksAzure Event Hubs streaming technologiesAzure SQL Cosmos DBMicrosoft PurviewAzure security networking and identity servicesAzure AI Azure OpenAI and data architectures supporting GenAI and RAG

The ideal candidate will be a strong Azure-focused Data Architect with deep hands‑on experience designing modern enterprise data platforms and a solid understanding of how data architecture needs to support AI, machine learning, analytics and GenAI workloads.

Ideal Candidate

• 10+ years experience across Data Architecture, Data Engineering or Enterprise Data Platforms.
• Strong track record designing large-scale enterprise data architectures.
• Deep practical experience with Azure data technologies and cloud-native architecture.
• Strong understanding of data lakehouse, data warehouse, data mesh and modern data platform patterns.
• Experience with large-scale data integration, ETL/ELT, batch and streaming architectures.
• Strong knowledge of data modelling, governance, lineage, quality and security.
• Experience designing data platforms to support AI/ML and GenAI workloads.
• Strong understanding of cloud architecture, APIs, microservices and distributed systems.
• Experience within banking, financial services, fintech or another highly regulated environment would be highly advantageous.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work with both senior stakeholders and highly technical engineering teams.

What Will Differentiate You

My client is looking for a hands‑on, technically credible Data Architect , rather than someone purely focused on governance or high‑level documentation. The strongest candidates will have a deep Azure technical foundation , have personally designed modern data platforms at scale, and understand how to build the data foundations required to support AI, analytics and GenAI in a banking environment.

This is an opportunity to join the AI Lab at an early stage and play a significant role in defining the data architecture and technology standards that will underpin its future AI capabilities.