Lead Data Architect

Fractal; New York (NY); On-site; USD 130,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

Disability benefits

401(k) plan

Parental leave

Paid holidays

PTO policy

Job summary

Fractal is seeking a Lead Data Architect to design scalable, secure data solutions for enterprise analytics and AI applications in New York City. You will define enterprise data standards, build semantic layers, and oversee models across SQL and NoSQL stores, data warehouse, and lakehouse ecosystems.

Leading multi-disciplinary teams, you will drive cloud modernization, data governance, and cost optimization using CI/CD and containerized deployments on Azure or GCP, with a focus on performance,

Qualifications

• 8–12 years of overall experience in data architecture, enterprise data management, or platform architecture.
• MS or PhD in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, Operations Research, or a related quantitative field.
• Proven experience designing and implementing large-scale data platforms and enterprise data solutions.
• Experience leading architecture initiatives across multiple business functions and technology teams.
• Strong background in cloud-based analytics and modern data platforms.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain enterprise-wide data architecture standards, principles, and best practices.
• Design scalable, resilient, and secure data architectures supporting analytics, AI/ML, LLM, and operational workloads.
• Develop conceptual, logical, and physical data models that align with business objectives and enterprise architecture standards.
• Architect modern data warehouse, data lakehouse, and data mesh solutions.
• Drive data platform modernization initiatives and cloud migration strategies.

Skills

Data architecture

Data modeling

Cloud platforms (Azure/GCP)

SQL

NoSQL

CI/CD

Data governance

APIs

Data quality

Leadership

Education

MS in Computer Science

PhD in related field

Tools

C3 AI platform

Databricks

Snowflake

Microsoft Fabric

Job description

Fractal is a strategic AI partner to Fortune 500 companies with a vision to power every human decision in the enterprise. Fractal is building a world where individual choices, freedom, and diversity are the greatest assets. An ecosystem where human imagination is at the heart of every decision. Where no possibility is written off, only challenged to get better. We believe that a true Fractalite is the one who empowers imagination with intelligence. Fractal has been featured as a Great Place to Work by The Economic Times in partnership with the Great Place to Work® Institute and recognized as a ‘Cool Vendor’ and a ‘Vendor to Watch’ by Gartner.

Please visit Fractal | Intelligence for Imagination for more information about Fractal

Location: New York City, NY (On-site)

Note: This position is not eligible for Immigration Sponsorship at this time.

Position Overview:

We are seeking a Lead Data Architect with experience in data architecture, data modeling, and modern data platforms to design scalable, secure, and high-performing data solutions. In this role, you will orchestrate comprehensive system design, enforce resilient code architecture standards, and drive rigorous resource optimization across high-throughput infrastructure to maximize performance and minimize cloud compute costs. Beyond traditional data layouts, this position requires applying clean code practices, distributed software design patterns, caching mechanisms. Working closely with business and technical teams, you will oversee the design of robust semantic layers, conceptual, logical, and physical schemas, and optimized layouts for relational (SQL) and non-relational (NoSQL) configurations within modern data warehousing and data lakehouse systems.

As a technical leader, you will handle the entire data lifecycle, setting up automated data quality processes, master data management, data observability tools, and managing metadata to make sure all data is accurate, consistent, and easy to use for analytics and AI/LLM applications. Using secure CI/CD practices and containerization, the architect will translate requirements into practical solutions, provide implementation guidance, and drive data governance best practices. Strong skills in data modeling, SQL, cloud platforms (Azure or GCP), and APIs are required, with experience in large-scale data projects and exposure to the C3 AI platform will be highly preferred.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define and maintain enterprise-wide data architecture standards, principles, and best practices.
• Design scalable, resilient, and secure data architectures supporting analytics, AI/ML, LLM, and operational workloads.
• Develop conceptual, logical, and physical data models that align with business objectives and enterprise architecture standards.
• Architect modern data warehouse, data lakehouse, and data mesh solutions.
• Drive data platform modernization initiatives and cloud migration strategies.

Data Modeling & Semantic Layer Design

• Design and optimize: Conceptual Data Models Logical Data Models Physical Data Models
• Create enterprise semantic layers to support self-service analytics and business intelligence.
• Establish standards for dimensional modeling, data vault, star schema, snowflake schema, and normalized data models.
• Design scalable relational and non-relational data structures for diverse business use cases.
• Ensure data models support reporting, advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning requirements.
• Architect and govern data solutions on: Microsoft Fabric, Databricks, Snowflake, Azure Data Platform, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Design data ingestion, transformation, storage, and consumption layers.
• Establish best practices for batch, streaming, and real-time data processing architectures.
• Design architectures supporting hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Performance Optimization & Resource Efficiency

• Drive optimization of compute, storage, and networking resources across cloud platforms.
• Implement scalable data processing patterns for high-volume and high-throughput environments.
• Design caching mechanisms and distributed processing strategies to improve platform performance.
• Establish performance benchmarks, monitoring frameworks, and optimization standards.
• Identify opportunities to reduce cloud infrastructure costs while maintaining performance and reliability.
• Ensure efficient utilization of cloud resources through workload optimization and architecture reviews.

Required Experience:

• 8–12 years of overall experience in data architecture, enterprise data management, or platform architecture.
• MS or PhD in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, Operations Research, or a related quantitative field.
• Proven experience designing and implementing large-scale data platforms and enterprise data solutions.
• Experience leading architecture initiatives across multiple business functions and technology teams.
• Strong background in cloud-based analytics and modern data platforms.

Preferred Experience:

• Hands-on experience with the C3 AI platform.
• Experience working in an embedded client environment, partner delivery model, enterprise SaaS implementation, or AI platform delivery role.
• Experience delivering AI solutions for large enterprises or Fortune 500 clients.
• Domain experience in manufacturing, energy, utilities, supply chain, aerospace, or other operationally complex industries.
• Experience with demand forecasting, asset reliability planning, predictive maintenance, inventory optimization, or supply chain optimization.
• Experience mentoring junior team members or leading small technical teams.

Pay:

The wage range for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions, including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. The disclosed range estimate has not been adjusted for the applicable geographic differential associated with the location at which the position may be filled. At Fractal, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is: $130,000 - $185,000. In addition, you may be eligible for a discretionary bonus for the current performance period.

As a full-time employee of the company or as an hourly employee working more than 30 hours per week, you will be eligible to participate in the health, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability plans in accordance with the plan documents, which may be amended from time to time. You will be eligible for benefits on the first day of employment with the Company. In addition, you are eligible to participate in the Company 401(k) Plan after 30 days of employment, in accordance with the applicable plan terms. The Company provides for 11 paid holidays and 12 weeks of Parental Leave. We also follow a “free time” PTO policy, allowing you the flexibility to take the time needed for either sick time or vacation.

Fractal provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.