Lead AI Data Engineer

Salt; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 350,000 - 550,000; Full time

Job summary

Salt is seeking a Data Architect to join its AI Lab and shape the data foundations that will scale AI, analytics and data-driven products for a banking environment. The ideal candidate has deep hands-on experience designing Azure-based modern data platforms, with expertise in data lakehouse, data warehouse, governance and security to support GenAI workloads and regulated data.

Strong collaboration with engineers and product teams is essential.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience across Data Architecture, Data Engineering or Enterprise Data Platforms.
• 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 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.

Skills

Azure data platforms

Data architecture

GenAI workloads

Data governance

Data security

Cloud-native architecture

Stakeholder collaboration

Tools

Azure

Microsoft Fabric

Azure Event Hubs

Azure OpenAI

Job description

My client is looking for a Data Architect to join a newly established AI Lab. 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.

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.

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.

Strong experience across the Microsoft Azure data ecosystem is essential, ideally including:

• Microsoft Fabric and/or modern lakehouse architectures
• Azure Event Hubs / streaming technologies
• Azure security, networking and identity services
• Azure AI / Azure OpenAI and data architectures supporting GenAI and RAG

Ideal Candidate

• 10+ years' experience across Data Architecture, Data Engineering or Enterprise Data Platforms.
• 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