Senior Databricks Architect - Remote Data Lakehouse Lead

Cognizant; Salem (OR); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognizant is hiring a Databricks Architect to lead enterprise data modernization initiatives. The role demands deep expertise in Databricks Lakehouse architecture, Spark, Delta Lake, and AWS cloud, driving migration from legacy platforms to a scalable Databricks ecosystem.

The candidate will define data strategies, governance, security, and metadata management while mentoring engineers and shaping best practices. Remote work is available, with a focus on enterprise-grade data platforms.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of Data Engineering/Data Architecture experience.
• 5+ years of hands-on Databricks Architecture experience.
• Strong expertise in Databricks Lakehouse, Apache Spark / PySpark, Delta Lake, Databricks Workflows, Unity Catalog, Databricks SQL, Python, SQL.
• AWS Cloud experience (S3, IAM, networking, security).
• Experience designing enterprise data models and data integration patterns.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement enterprise-scale Databricks Lakehouse architecture.
• Lead data modernization and migration programs from legacy platforms to Databricks.
• Architect scalable ELT/ETL pipelines using Databricks, Spark, Delta Lake, and Python.
• Define data governance, security, lineage, and metadata management strategies using Unity Catalog.
• Design batch and real-time data processing solutions.
• Provide architecture guidance for cloud-native solutions on AWS.
• Collaborate with business, analytics, and engineering teams to define data strategies.
• Establish best practices for data quality, monitoring, performance tuning, and cost optimization.
• Create architecture standards, reference architectures, and technical documentation.
• Mentor data engineers and technical leads throughout the development lifecycle.
• Evaluate and recommend emerging technologies and AI/ML capabilities within the Databricks ecosystem.

Skills

Databricks Lakehouse

Apache Spark / PySpark

Delta Lake

Databricks Workflows

Unity Catalog

Databricks SQL

Python

SQL

AWS Cloud

Data Modeling

Leadership / Stakeholder Mgmt

Tools

Terraform

Snowflake

Databricks

Job description

Cognizant is hiring a Databricks Architect to lead enterprise data modernization initiatives. The role demands deep expertise in Databricks Lakehouse architecture, Spark, Delta Lake, and AWS cloud, driving migration from legacy platforms to a scalable Databricks ecosystem.

The candidate will define data strategies, governance, security, and metadata management while mentoring engineers and shaping best practices. Remote work is available, with a focus on enterprise-grade data platforms.