Senior Data & AI Architect (Forward-Deployed)

Cognizant; Plano (TX); On-site; USD 150,000 - 186,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance

Paid holidays plus PTO

401(k) plan and contributions

Long-term/Short-term Disability

Paid Parental Leave

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking a Staff Data & AI Architect (Forward-Deployed) to translate data and AI strategy into scalable, production-ready solutions. You will design enterprise data products, govern platforms, and lead data-driven transformations with strong governance and operational metrics.

This onsite Plano-based role combines architecture leadership with hands-on ownership, driving initiatives across data engineering, AI capabilities, and platform modernization.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in data architecture and data engineering for enterprise-scale solutions.
• Proven ability to design and govern data platforms with AI capabilities.
• Strong experience with Databricks and modern data lakehouse patterns.
• Hands-on in building and deploying data pipelines with CI/CD practices.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management across large teams.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement enterprise data solutions across data layers and models.
• Lead integration of AI-enabled capabilities into data platforms.
• Own delivery of transformation initiatives with measurable business outcomes.
• Establish data governance, lineage, quality, and operational practices.
• Provide technical leadership and architecture reviews for engineering teams.

Skills

Data architecture

Data engineering

AI/Generative AI

Databricks

CI/CD for pipelines

Communication skills

Tools

Databricks Delta Lake

Delta Live Tables

Unity Catalog

Power BI

Tableau

Job description

Cognizant is seeking a Staff Data & AI Architect (Forward-Deployed) to translate data and AI strategy into scalable, production-ready solutions. You will design enterprise data products, govern platforms, and lead data-driven transformations with strong governance and operational metrics.

This onsite Plano-based role combines architecture leadership with hands-on ownership, driving initiatives across data engineering, AI capabilities, and platform modernization.