Senior Data & AI Solutions Architect

ElevationHR, LLC; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 165,000 - 207,000; Full time

Job summary

ElevationHR is supporting a Houston based Oil and Gas organization to identify a Senior Data & AI Solutions Architect who can own enterprise architecture from business problem through production. This is a hands-on role for someone who can make technical decisions, guide engineering teams, and still work deeply in the technology.

You will design end-to-end data and AI solutions using Microsoft Azure, Azure Databricks, Delta Lake, Lakehouse architecture, Spark, PySpark, and Python; manage data

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in technology roles focused on data and AI architecture.
• Ability to own enterprise data and AI solutions from requirements through production.
• Hands-on Azure data platform expertise and architecture decision ownership.

Responsibilities

• Architect end-to-end enterprise Data and AI solutions from requirements to production.
• Design data platforms using Azure, Databricks, Delta Lake, and Lakehouse patterns.
• Lead architecture reviews and guide cross-functional engineering teams.

Skills

Architecture leadership

Azure cloud

Azure Databricks

Python / PySpark

Data & AI strategy

Enterprise architecture

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Data Science, or related discipline

Tools

Azure Databricks

Delta Lake

Lakehouse architecture

Unity Catalog

Databricks Workflows

Azure Data Factory

Azure Synapse

Job description

Houston, TX | Downtown Houston | 100% Onsite

$120 to $150 per hour | 1099

1 Year Contract to Hire

Build What You Architect

ElevationHR is supporting a leading Data and AI services partner working with a Houston based Oil and Gas organization to identify a Senior Data & AI Solutions Architect who can own enterprise architecture from business problem through production.

This is a hands on architecture role for someone who can make the technical decisions, explain the tradeoffs, guide engineering teams, and still work deep enough in the technology to validate, troubleshoot, or build critical components.

We are specifically looking for an experienced Data Architect, Solutions Architect, Data & AI Architect, AI Solutions Architect, Cloud Solutions Architect, or Enterprise Architect.

This is not a Data Engineer or Senior Data Engineer position.

What You Will Own

• Architect end to end enterprise Data and AI solutions from requirements and technical strategy through implementation, governance, deployment, and production
• Design modern data platforms using Microsoft Azure, Azure Databricks, Delta Lake, Lakehouse architecture, Spark, PySpark, and Python
• Own architecture decisions involving technology selection, design patterns, scalability, performance, security, governance, reliability, cost, and maintainability
• Architect solutions across structured, semi structured, and unstructured data, including databases, APIs, CSV and Excel files, logs, PDFs, scanned documents, images, and enterprise content
• Design unstructured data pipelines involving document extraction, OCR, document intelligence, classification, metadata extraction, chunking, embeddings, indexing, and downstream AI consumption
• Architect production Databricks environments using Delta Lake, Medallion Architecture, Unity Catalog, Databricks Workflows, Spark, and PySpark
• Design Azure solutions using technologies such as Azure Data Factory, Azure Databricks, Synapse Analytics, ADLS, Azure SQL, Azure Functions, Key Vault, Purview, RBAC, and Managed Identities
• Develop and review production grade Python and PySpark solutions and establish technical standards for engineering teams
• Architect scalable ETL and ELT pipelines, distributed processing solutions, enterprise data models, integration patterns, lineage, governance, data quality, and security
• Design AI and machine learning solutions using Generative AI, Large Language Models, Retrieval Augmented Generation, vector search, AI agents, intelligent automation, and conversational AI
• Architect RAG solutions spanning document ingestion, extraction, chunking, embeddings, vector indexing, retrieval, grounding, prompting, evaluation, and deployment
• Define MLOps and LLMOps patterns for model development, registration, deployment, monitoring, governance, evaluation, and lifecycle management
• Translate complex operational and business challenges into scalable enterprise architecture
• Lead architecture reviews, technical assessments, proof of concepts, design reviews, and solution evaluations
• Guide data engineers, AI engineers, developers, cloud engineers, cybersecurity teams, product teams, and business stakeholders through implementation

What You Will Bring

• 8 or more years of relevant technology experience
• Recent professional experience in a formal architecture role such as Data Architect, Solutions Architect, Data & AI Architect, AI Solutions Architect, Cloud Solutions Architect, or Enterprise Architect
• Demonstrated ownership of architecture decisions, technology selection, design patterns, technical standards, and implementation direction
• Experience taking enterprise solutions from initial requirements through architecture, development, deployment, and production
• Strong hands on Microsoft Azure architecture experience
• Strong hands on Azure Databricks, Delta Lake, Lakehouse, Spark, PySpark, and Python
• Experience architecting production Databricks environments, including Unity Catalog and Databricks Workflows
• Strong understanding of structured, semi structured, and true unstructured data architectures
• Hands on architecture experience involving documents, PDFs, scanned files, images, or similar enterprise content
• Understanding of OCR, document intelligence, content extraction, classification, metadata extraction, chunking, embeddings, and indexing
• Experience personally architecting production AI and machine learning solutions
• Experience with Generative AI, LLMs, RAG, vector search or vector databases, and AI agents
• Experience integrating AI capabilities with enterprise data platforms
• Experience with MLOps, model governance, deployment, monitoring, and production AI
• Strong understanding of enterprise security, governance, lineage, quality, performance, and reliability
• Ability to reason through unfamiliar architecture problems, identify the actual technical challenge, evaluate alternatives, and clearly explain tradeoffs
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Data Science, or a related technical discipline

Preferred Experience

Experience in one or more of the following would strengthen your fit:

• Oil and Gas, Energy, Utilities, Marine, Transportation, Industrial, Manufacturing, or another asset intensive environment. Large regulated or operationally complex enterprises
• Document intelligence or enterprise content processing platforms
• AI solutions built on operational enterprise data

What Makes This Opportunity Compelling

This role gives you the opportunity to do more than produce architecture diagrams.

You will own critical technical decisions, shape enterprise Data and AI platforms, guide implementation teams, and remain close enough to the technology to ensure what is designed actually works in production.

The strongest candidate will be able to explain not only what they architected, but why they made those decisions, what alternatives they evaluated, how the solution was implemented, and what measurable outcome it delivered.

• Location: Downtown Houston, TX
• Work Arrangement: 100% onsite
• Rate: $120 to $150 per hour
• Engagement: 1099
• Duration: 1 year contract to hire
• Sponsorship: No current or future sponsorship available
• Relocation: Houston based candidates preferred. Candidates relocating must do so at their own expense.