AI-First Lead Data Architect (Remote)

UNAVAILABLE; United States; Hybrid; USD 142,186 - 177,732; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/Dental/Vision coverage

Holiday and vacation time

Health & Wellness days

Birthday bonus day

Job summary

Applied Systems is seeking a Principal Data Architect to shape AI-enabled data architecture and governance at enterprise scale. You will lead data strategy, mentor engineering teams, and partner across Applied to drive observability, quality, and rapid insights.

You will define long-term AI-driven data capabilities, collaborate with stakeholders, and own architectural outcomes while teaching by doing in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 15+ years in software/data engineering or architecture
• Degree in Computer Science or related field
• Expert knowledge of data architecture principles
• Hands-on builder experience at scale
• Proven ability to influence without authority
• Pragmatic approach and dislike of waste
• Teaching-through-action mindset with player-coach leadership
• Adaptability in ambiguous environments
• Excellent communication across audiences
• Experience with AI-enabled data architectures (GCP BigQuery, dbt a plus)
• Experience architecting large-scale data warehouses or lakehouses
• Strong data modeling and governance understanding

Responsibilities

• Define large-scale data architecture decisions across batch/streaming platforms, warehouses, and lakehouses
• Architect observability, alerting, and incident-response frameworks for data pipelines
• Partner to define data quality, lineage, access control, cataloging, and governance standards; set SLAs/SLOs
• Design data modeling standards across OLAP/warehouse, OLTP, streaming, and AI/vector use cases
• Define patterns for embedding AI and agent-supported workflows in the data lifecycle
• Enforce data engineering standards and best practices across the org
• Mentor engineers via code reviews and design discussions; guide roadmaps

Skills

Data architecture

GCP BigQuery

dbt

Data warehouse design

Leadership

Mentoring

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Education

CS degree or related field

Tools

BigQuery

dbt

Job description

Applied Systems is seeking a Principal Data Architect to shape AI-enabled data architecture and governance at enterprise scale. You will lead data strategy, mentor engineering teams, and partner across Applied to drive observability, quality, and rapid insights.

You will define long-term AI-driven data capabilities, collaborate with stakeholders, and own architectural outcomes while teaching by doing in a fast-paced environment.