Lead Data Architect (Google spanner)

Tata Consultancy Services; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

A multinational consulting firm is seeking an experienced distributed systems architect to own the data architecture on Google Spanner. The ideal candidate will have over 10 years of experience in large-scale data architecture, with deep expertise in Google Spanner internals. Responsibilities include defining logical data models, designing physical schemas, and ensuring transactional consistency. A Bachelor's in Computer Science is required, along with the ability to work on petabyte-scale distributed systems. Salary range is $120,000-$130,000 per year.

Responsibilities

• Own the target-state data architecture on Google Spanner.
• Define the Logical Canonical Data Model (LCDM) independent of physical storage.
• Design Spanner-native physical schemas and key distribution strategies.
• Define transaction boundaries under Spanner constraints.
• Work with QA and platform teams to validate CRUD contracts and query semantics.

Skills

Large-scale data architecture

Google Spanner internals

Distributed transactions

Synchronous replication

Designing petabyte-scale OLTP systems

Distributed consistency models

Failure modes in globally distributed databases

Canonical logical data model

Spanner physical schemas

Transaction design guidelines

Education

Bachelor of Computer Science

Job description

Overview

Job Description Own the target-state data architecture on Google Spanner, ensuring the new data model satisfies functional correctness, performance SLOs, and transactional semantics required by 1000+ applications—before large-scale app rewrites occur.

This role is not a schema converter. It is a distributed systems architect role.

Responsibilities

• Define the Logical Canonical Data Model (LCDM) independent of physical storage.
• Design Spanner-native physical schemas:
• Row key distribution (hotspot avoidance)
• Interleaving decisions
• Secondary index strategy
• Decide where denormalization, projections, or materialized views are required.

Transaction & Consistency Design

• Define transaction boundaries under Spanner constraints:
• Single-partition vs multi-partition transactions
• Atomicity and consistency trade-offs
• Classify workloads by strong consistency vs bounded staleness tolerance
• Define idempotency and retry-safe patterns.

Compatibility & Contract Validation

• Work with QA and platform teams to validate:
• CRUD contracts
• Query semantics
• Transaction invariants
• Review and sign off on schema compatibility scorecards.

Performance & Scalability

• Participate in workload replay analysis.
• Diagnose and resolve:
• Hot key risks
• Transaction conflicts
• Index amplification
• Size Spanner instances and estimate cost envelopes.

Required Skills

• 10+ years in large-scale data architecture
• Deep expertise in Google Spanner internals:
• TrueTime
• Distributed transactions
• Synchronous replication
• Experience designing petabyte-scale, multi-region OLTP systems
• Distributed consistency models
• Failure modes in globally distributed databases
• Prior Oracle → distributed DB migration experience strongly preferred
• Canonical logical data model
• Spanner physical schemas & index strategies
• Transaction design guidelines
• Performance readiness assessments
• Migration readiness sign-off per domain

Salary Range: $120,000-$130,000 per year.

Qualifications

• BACHELOR OF COMPUTER SCIENCE