Databricks Solution Architect

International Business Machines Corporation; Minneapolis (MN); Remote; USD 150,000 - 185,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Consulting seeks a senior data/AI architecture leader to guide enterprise-scale data, AI/GenAI initiatives across cloud platforms. You will shape data platforms, governance, and scalable patterns aligning with business goals and security controls.

You will drive cross-cloud design, data product concepts, and a pipeline from ingestion to analytics, ensuring reliable, cost-conscious, and compliant architectures across AWS, Azure, and GCP.

Qualifications

• Databricks certified or equivalent with enterprise-scale data, AI/ML, GenAI experience.
• Advanced data/solution architecture and lakehouse/data-product modeling.
• Hands-on Spark, Delta Lake, MLflow, Unity Catalog, large-scale workloads.
• Experience with open table formats (Delta Lake, Apache Iceberg) and data sharing.
• Experience architecting GenAI solutions including RAG, MLOps/LLMOps, governance.

Responsibilities

• Define target data and AI architecture across AWS/Databricks/ GCP, and integration patterns.
• Lead data migration architecture, sequencing, cutover, and risk management.
• Own data architecture and data modeling standards across lakehouse layers.
• Define data engineering patterns for ingestion, transformation, and CI/CD.
• Architect the reporting layer with semantic models and governance.
• Design ML/GenAI lifecycle, monitoring, and MLOps/LLMOps.

Skills

Databricks Certification

Enterprise data architecture

Data migration planning

Lakehouse architecture

CI/CD patterns

Security governance

Executive communication

APIs & microservices

Tools

Spark

Delta Lake

MLflow

Unity Catalog

Apache Iceberg

Kafka

EventBridge

Job description

A career in IBM Consulting is built on long-term client relationships and close collaboration worldwide. You'll work with leading companies across industries, helping them shape their hybrid cloud and AI journeys. With support from our strategic partners, robust IBM technology, and Red Hat, you'll have the tools to drive meaningful change and accelerate client impact. At IBM Consulting, curiosity fuels success. You'll be encouraged to challenge the norm, explore new ideas, and create innovative solutions that deliver real results. Our culture of growth and empathy focuses on your long-term career development while valuing your unique skills and experiences.

A career in IBM Consulting is built on long-term client relationships and close collaboration worldwide. You'll work with leading companies across industries, helping them shape their hybrid cloud and AI journeys. With support from our strategic partners, robust IBM technology, and Red Hat, you'll have the tools to drive meaningful change and accelerate client impact. At IBM Consulting, curiosity fuels success. You'll be encouraged to challenge the norm, explore new ideas, and create innovative solutions that deliver real results. Our culture of growth and empathy focuses on your long-term career development while valuing your unique skills and experiences.

Your Role And Responsibilities

Responsibilities

• Define the target data and AI architecture across the AWS/Databricks data platform and GCP-based ML/GenAI services, and the integration patterns between them.
• Lead the data migration architecture: re-engineering approach, migration patterns, Integration & Ingestion patterns, sequencing, cutover, reconciliation, and risk management.
• Own data architecture and data modeling standards, covering conceptual, logical, and physical models, lakehouse/medallion layers, and data product design.
• Define data engineering patterns and standards for ingestion (Fivetran), transformation, orchestration, CI/CD, observability, and cost control on cloud-based platforms.
• Architect the reporting and analytics layer, including semantic models, governed metrics, and self-service access on top of data products.
• Design the ML/GenAI lifecycle: feature engineering, model training and serving, RAG and agentic patterns, MLOps/LLMOps, monitoring, and evaluation.
• Architect secure, scalable cross-cloud data movement and integration across hyperscalers (AWS, Microsoft Azure, GCP), selecting services based on fit, cost, and performance.
• Ensure the architecture uses data products from the Databricks lakehouse, including SAP-sourced data via SAP BTP / BDC Connect.
• Define security, data privacy, responsible AI, and governance guardrails for AI use cases.
• Provide architectural oversight on related initiatives, such as the Tier-1 application migration from MySQL to Databricks Lakebase.
• Evaluate and shape the roadmap for advanced AI capabilities (agentic AI, frontier models, and emerging superintelligence-class technologies) as they apply to the client.
• Lead architecture reviews and communicate design decisions to executive and technical stakeholders.
• Design end-to-end architectures that embed AI capabilities into enterprise applications and workflows, defining reference patterns for AI services, models, and orchestration layers that integrate with existing systems, APIs, and data platforms.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to translate business objectives into scalable, resilient, and policy-compliant designs, balancing vendor-managed services with custom development and meeting performance, security, compliance, and cost objectives.
• Drive governance for AI integration: prompts, guardrails, and lifecycle management, with observability, privacy, and responsible AI principles embedded from design through operations.

This job can be performed from anywhere in the US

Required Technical And Professional Expertise

• Must be able to travel 4 days per week (mandatory).
• Databricks Certified Data Engineer or Machine Learning Professional, with proven expertise architecting enterprise-scale data, AI/ML, and Generative AI solutions.
• Advanced expertise in data/solution architecture, enterprise data migration, data modelling, lakehouse/data-product architecture, reporting, and cloud-based data engineering using Databricks and AWS.
• Hands-on experience with Spark (PySpark and/or Scala, Spark SQL), Delta Lake, MLflow, Unity Catalog, and large-scale batch and streaming workloads.
• Experience with open table formats, including Delta Lake and Apache Iceberg, and modern data-sharing patterns such as Delta Sharing and Lakehouse Federation.
• Experience architecting enterprise AI/GenAI solutions, including RAG, agents, MLOps/LLMOps, observability, guardrails, privacy, and responsible AI, with working knowledge of AWS, Azure, and GCP.
• Strong expertise in integration, security, and architecture leadership, including APIs, microservices, event-driven patterns, Kafka, and Amazon EventBridge/SQS, with strong technical and executive-level communication.

Preferred Technical And Professional Experience

• Knowledge of SAP BTP, SAP Business Data Cloud, SAP-native data products, and SAP IS-U.
• Experience with Fivetran, Databricks Lakebase, OLTP-to-lakehouse patterns, Collibra, Erwin, or ER Studio.
• Advanced knowledge of AI orchestration, RAG/hybrid reasoning, microservices, and AI governance tooling.
• Experience with reporting and analytics architecture, including semantic layers and BI delivery on a lakehouse.
• Experience in the utilities or energy industry, with relevant cloud or Databricks architecture certifications.