Data Architect – FDE | Hartford, CT / Minneapolis, MN

Inabia-Software-; Minneapolis (MN); On-site; USD 140,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Virtusa is seeking a highly hands-on Data Architect with Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) capabilities to solve complex enterprise data problems within a Microsoft Azure environment. This is not purely conceptual architecture; you will work directly with business, product, data, and engineering stakeholders to design and implement solutions.

The role requires 12+ years of experience, expertise in Azure Databricks, ADLS Gen2, ADF, Lakehouse/Delta Lake, and strong Python/PySpark skills.

Qualifications

• At least 10+ years in data engineering or data architecture.
• Strong Azure-based architecture and hands-on Azure tooling.
• Proficiency in Python, PySpark, and SQL for data processing.
• Experience with lakehouse architectures, Delta Lake, and data modeling.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with stakeholders to translate complex data problems into architectures.
• Define target-state architectures and scalable Azure data solutions.
• Hands-on coding with Python, PySpark, SQL in Databricks.
• Oversee ingestion, transformation, storage, APIs, and integration patterns.
• Guide Data Engineers and FDE teams, with architecture reviews.

Skills

Azure architecture

Python

PySpark

SQL

Data modeling

ETL/ELT

API & integration

CI/CD

Security & governance

Stakeholder communication

Tools

Azure Databricks

ADLS Gen2

Azure Data Factory

Lakehouse/Delta Lake

Microsoft Fabric

Job description

Hello,

We have a new requirement with Virtusa for a Data Architect – FDE. Please review the details below and start sourcing qualified candidates.

Job Title: Data Architect – FDE

Client: Virtusa

Location: Hartford, CT / Minneapolis, MN – Onsite

Experience: 12+ Years

Employment Type: Contract

Cloud Ecosystem: Microsoft Azure

Visa: H1B – C2C

Rate: $70/hr

About the Role

We are looking for a highly hands-on Data Architect with Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) capabilitiesto solve complex enterprise data problems within a Microsoft Azure environment. This is not a purely conceptual architecture position. The candidate will work directly with business, product, data, and engineering stakeholders to understand complex and sometimes ambiguous problems, investigate existing systems and data, design appropriate solutions, and remain closely involved through implementation and production deployment. The ideal candidate should combine enterprise-level architecture expertise with strong hands-on engineering capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Work directly with business and technical stakeholders to understand complex data and technology problems.
• Translate ambiguous business requirements into actionable architecture and engineering solutions.
• Understand existing data ecosystems, applications, integrations, data flows, and constraints.
• Define target-state architectures for enterprise data solutions.
• Architect scalable solutions using Azure Databricks, ADLS, ADF, Microsoft Fabric/Synapse, and related Azure technologies.
• Define Lakehouse, Delta Lake, batch, streaming, and analytical architecturepatterns.
• Remain hands-on with Python, PySpark, SQL, Databricks, and data engineering.
• Develop or guide rapid prototypes to validate architecture decisions.
• Define ingestion, transformation, storage, consumption, API, and integration patterns.
• Architect solutions spanning data platforms, APIs, applications, analytics, and AI/ML consumers.
• Define logical and physical data models.
• Establish standards for data quality, metadata, lineage, security, governance, and observability.
• Design for scalability, resiliency, performance, security, and cost optimization.
• Conduct architecture, design, and code reviews.
• Troubleshoot complex cross-platform technical issues.
• Provide technical direction and hands-on guidance to Data Engineers and FDE teams.
• Partner with AI/ML, DevOps, security, product, and application engineering teams.
• Own technical outcomes from problem discovery through production implementation.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ yearsof progressive Data Engineering/Data Architecture experience.
• Strong Microsoft Azure architectureexperience.
• Hands-on experience with Azure Databricks.
• Strong Python and PySparkskills.
• Advanced SQL.
• ADLS Gen2.
• Azure Data Factory (ADF).
• Lakehouse and Delta Lake architecture.
• Data modeling.
• ETL/ELT and distributed data processing.
• API and enterprise integration architecture.
• CI/CD and modern engineering practices.
• Data security, governance, metadata, lineage, and data quality.
• Experience architecting enterprise-scale data platforms.
• Strong stakeholder-facing communication and technical leadership.
• Ability to move between architecture discussions and hands-on technical problem solving.

Preferred Qualifications

• Microsoft Fabric.
• Azure Synapse.
• Unity Catalog.
• Event Hubs/Kafka.
• AKS/Kubernetes.
• Terraform/IaC.
• Azure OpenAI / AI Foundry exposure.
• Healthcare data/platform experience.
• Consulting, customer-facing engineering, or Forward Deployed Engineeringexperience.

Important Submission Guidelines

• H1B candidates on C2C only.
• Rate: $70/hr C2C.
• Candidate must be comfortable working onsite in Hartford, CT or Minneapolis, MN.
• Please prioritize candidates who are hands-on architectsand can contribute directly to engineering and implementation.
• Purely conceptual/enterprise architecture profiles without strong hands-on Azure data engineering experience will not be a good fit.
• Strong experience with Azure Databricks, Python, PySpark, SQL, ADLS Gen2, ADF, Lakehouse, and Delta Lakeis required.
• Please ensure candidates closely match the technical requirements before submission.