Databricks Solutions Architect 4

Gilder Search Group; Los Alamos (NM); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Gilder Search Group is looking for an experienced solution architect specializing in Databricks workloads in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The right candidate will guide architecture design, mentor data teams, and ensure compliance with regulations.

A minimum of 7 years in building and operating Databricks environments is required, along with strong operational knowledge of cloud architectures and data security governance.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience designing, building, and operating Databricks workloads.
• Hands-on experience with Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, and Spark Structured Streaming.
• Strong experience in cloud architecture supporting Databricks.

Responsibilities

• Advise on Databricks reference architecture and full-stack solution design.
• Guide platform migrations from legacy SQL to Databricks.
• Mentor data engineers and participate in architecture reviews.

Skills

Databricks workload design

Cloud architecture

Python

SQL

Spark

Excellent communication skills

Tools

Databricks

Delta Lake

MLflow

Oracle EBS

Terraform

Job description

Responsibilities

• Advise on the Databricks reference architecture covering Lakeflow, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog Mosaic AI, Databricks SQL, and Databricks Apps
• Provide hands‑on guidance on Databricks full‑stack solution design
• Advise on design of both data movement (e.g., batch, real‑time streaming) and zero‑copy patterns
• Guide platform migrations from legacy SQL and document stores onto Databricks and related cloud data platforms
• Recommend security, governance, and compliance‑as‑code: Unity Catalog ABAC, governed tags, row filters/column masks, key management, networking security and compliance security profiles.
• Advise on design of segregated/tiered data pool architectures aligned to the organization’s data classification policy and applicable regulatory requirements, including cross‑tier data movement
• Recommend FinOps and performance standards, workload and cost management
• Mentor data engineers, analysts, and AI/ML teams participate in architecture reviews and contribute to standards
• Work with information & cyber security, and other teams as needed for compliance to policies and standards
• Evaluate emerging Databricks capabilities and recommend adoption strategies, including endpoint integrations with third parties as they evolve

Required

• 7+ years designing, building, and operating Databricks workloads with medallion layer architecture
• Hands‑on experience with Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Spark Structured Streaming, Lakeflow (or DLT/Live Tables), Databricks SQL, MLflow, and Mosaic AI Model Serving
• Strong experience in cloud architecture supporting the platform (VPC/VNet, Security, S3/ADLS, KMS, etc.)
• Proven experience migrating enterprise data workloads from legacy/on‑prem data warehouse/lake to Databricks
• Production streaming and CDC experience
• Depth in security and governance: Unity Catalog policies (ABAC), classification, encryption, access auditing, compliance‑to‑control translation
• Hands‑on experience designing multi-tier Databricks architectures driven by data classification requirements
• Strong Python and SQL, Spark, Notebooks
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Nice to have

• Active Databricks certifications
• GenAI and agent systems on Databricks experience
• Delta Sharing and Databricks Clean Rooms for controlled, governed data exchange across organizational/cross‑tier/system boundaries
• Familiarity with Oracle EBS and SAP enterprise data
• Experience with SAP BDC/DataSphere and Databricks integration to SAP BDC, with zero‑copy patterns
• Lakeflow Designer, Databricks Apps, Genie, Databricks One
• CI/CD, Infrastructure‑as‑Code (e.g., Terraform) for data platforms
• Experience in designing, building, supporting BI reporting layers
• Data Quality and Data Governance experience
• Prior experience in regulated industries (e.g., utilities, life sciences, government services) and exposure to related frameworks (e.g., FERC/NERC, HIPAA, GxP, GDPR, FedRAMP, ITAR, etc.)