Databricks Solution Architect

KTek Resourcing; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

KTek Resourcing LLC is seeking a Databricks Solution Architect to own the end-to-end design of a modern data platform in San Francisco. You will translate business needs into scalable, secure data architectures and drive architectural decisions across multiple teams, collaborating with the Principal Engineer on detailed designs and pipelines.

The role focuses on target-state architecture on Databricks, migration planning from legacy systems, security and governance, and cost modeling.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in data engineering or architecture.
• 5+ years on Databricks lakehouse platform.
• Strong Spark, Delta Lake and SQL; data modeling (medallion, dimensional).
• AWS networking, IAM, encryption, multi-account design.
• Migration from legacy Hadoop/Hive/warehouse systems.

Responsibilities

• Define enterprise data architecture on Databricks across ingestion, medallion, serving and ML.
• Run discovery with stakeholders and produce solution designs and roadmaps.
• Design marketing architecture for identity resolution and data sharing.
• Plan migration of legacy Hadoop/Hive/EMR workloads and cutover strategy.
• Oversee governance, standards and vendor evaluations with Databricks and cloud providers.

Skills

Data engineering

Databricks lakehouse

Spark & Delta Lake

AWS architecture

Security design

Migration planning

Batch vs streaming

Disaster recovery

Cost modeling / FinOps

Stakeholder communication

Tools

Kafka

Unity Catalogue

Job description

Role Name: Databricks Solution Architect

Location: San Francisco, CA (Preferred Local candidate)

About the Role

We are building our modern data platform on Databricks and need a Solution Architect to own the end-to-end design. You will turn business needs from Risk, Fraud, Finance, Marketing, Collections and Product into scalable, secure data architectures that integrate cleanly with existing systems. You will own architectural decisions across teams and work closely with the Principal Engineer, who turns the architecture into detailed designs and working pipelines.

Key Responsibilities

• Target-state architecture: Define the enterprise data architecture on Databricks: ingestion, medallion layering, serving and ML, and how they connect to source systems, the legacy warehouse, loan servicing platforms and vendor feeds.
• Discovery and roadmaps: Run discovery with business and technology stakeholders and turn requirements into solution designs, reference architectures and delivery roadmaps.
• Marketing architecture: Design for identity resolution, segmentation, campaign and attribution measurement, and compliant data sharing with marketing platforms and vendors.
• Collections architecture: Design for near-real-time delinquency and contact data, agency and vendor file exchange, and compliant handling of contact preferences and regulatory restrictions.
• Cross-cutting decisions: Decide on batch vs. streaming, build vs. buy, workspace topology, network and multi-account design, and disaster recovery.
• Security architecture: Design the security and compliance architecture with InfoSec: Unity Catalogue access model, PII/NPI protection, encryption, audit logging and lineage.
• Migration planning: Plan and sequence the migration of legacy Hadoop/Hive/EMR and warehouse workloads, including cutover strategy and risk mitigation.
• Cost and business case: Build the cost and capacity model (DBU forecasting, FinOps guardrails) and the business case for platform investments.
• Governance: Chair the architecture review board and maintain standards, reference patterns and decision records.
• Vendors: Manage the relationship with the Databricks account team and cloud provider, and lead vendor evaluations and proofs of concept.

Must-Have Skills (candidate must meet all)

• Experience: 12+ years in data engineering or architecture, with 5+ years on Databricks lakehouse platform.
• Data platform fundamentals: Strong Spark, Delta Lake and SQL, plus data modeling (medallion, dimensional).
• AWS architecture: Networking, IAM, encryption and multi-account design on AWS.
• Secure design: Platform design for PII/NPI, including Unity Catalog access models and lineage.
• Migration: Migration planning from legacy Hadoop/Hive/warehouse systems.
• Streaming and batch design: Ability to choose between batch and streaming (Kafka, Structured Streaming) and design for both.
• Resilience: Disaster recovery and high-availability design.
• Cost modeling: FinOps and Databricks cost and capacity modeling, including a business case.
• Communication: Stakeholder management, vendor management and clear architecture documentation.

Good-to-Have Skills (preferred, not required)

• Banking, lending or other regulated financial services experience
• Collections data architecture (delinquency, agency and dialer feeds)
• ML/MLOps architecture on Databricks (feature store, MLflow)
• Databricks and AWS Solution Architect certifications