Senior Solutions Architect

Appnovation; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Appnovation seeks a Principal Solutions Architect to define and own the architecture of a governed, zero-copy data platform across multi-cloud sources, guiding the engineering team with clear standards and patterns.

The role focuses on data governance, AI-driven data consumption, and ensuring alignment with enterprise practices, while delivering practical trade-offs and scalable solutions.

Qualifications

• Senior, hands-on technical leader with architecture governance experience.
• Experience designing cross-cloud data architectures and data-product thinking.
• Experience embedding governance metadata into platform workflows and data contracts.

Responsibilities

• Define the end-to-end architecture for a governed, zero-copy data platform across cloud sources.
• Own architecture artifacts, reference architectures, and decision records.
• Produce build-versus-integrate recommendations and drive engineering alignment.
• Define catalog and metadata integration patterns across lakehouse environments.
• Design agent-based access patterns and exposure of governed data to enterprise AI tools.
• Set future-state direction for data products and cross-source data composition.
• Communicate trade-offs to engineers and senior stakeholders; influence rather than command.
• Embed data governance, access control, and data-contract standards into platform workflows.

Skills

Cross-cloud architecture

Data governance

IAM / OAuth OIDC

Terraform

Python

Stakeholder management

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science / related field

Tools

Databricks

Snowflake

Collibra

Unity Catalog

Horizon

Neo4j

Job description

• We are seeking a Principal Solutions Architect to define the architecture for a governed, zero-copy, cross-cloud data platform, establishing the design standards and integration priorities that guide the engineering team
• Working across Databricks, Snowflake, and adjacent cloud data sources, this leader will translate an evolving product vision into concrete design specifications and a clear path toward agent-based data consumption, while ensuring alignment with the organization’s existing enterprise engineering practices
• The role is accountable for owning the end-to-end solution architecture of a governed, zero-copy data platform in which data remains in place within its source systems
• Solution Architecture Ownership: Own the end-to-end solution architecture for a governed, zero-copy data platform in which data remains in place within its source systems, working across Databricks, Snowflake, and adjacent cloud data sources
• Architecture Artifacts and Standards: Produce architecture artifacts — decision records, reference architectures, and solution diagrams — establish the design standards that guide the engineering team, and provide clear build-versus-integrate recommendations
• Catalog and Metadata Integration: Define and prioritize catalog and metadata integration patterns across cloud and lakehouse environments
• Agent-Based Access Design: Design agent- and MCP-based access patterns that expose governed data products to enterprise AI tools and agent platforms
• Future-State Direction: Establish future-state direction for data products, cross-source data composition, and agentic consumption, translating an evolving product vision into concrete design specifications
• Enterprise Alignment: Ensure alignment with the organization’s existing enterprise engineering practices while guiding the engineering team toward a clear path for agent-based data consumption
• Architectural Strategy and Judgment: Connects business priorities, enterprise architecture standards, and emerging technology into a practical target architecture that guides design and investment
• Influence and Partnership: Communicates clearly with engineering teams and senior stakeholders, frames build-versus-integrate trade-offs, builds alignment, and drives decisions without relying solely on formal authority
• Governance Mindset: Embeds data governance, access control, and data-contract standards into platform workflows, balancing the openness of governed data products with security, privacy, and compliance

This position requires a senior, hands-on technical leader who can operate at the intersection of platform strategy, modern data engineering, and architectural governance — creating clarity from complexity, making sound build-versus-integrate trade-offs, and setting the technical standards that help Appnovation’s clients deliver faster, safer, and more reusable data capabilitiesSenior solutions or enterprise architect with demonstrated experience designing cross-cloud and multi-cloud data architecturesExperience defining data-contract standards (e.g., the Linux Foundation / Open Data Contract Standard) and embedding governance metadata into platform workflowsPrior experience in a consulting or client-facing delivery environment, working across multiple concurrent initiatives and prioritiesBachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field, with 10+ years of technology experience, including significant experience in solution, enterprise, or data architectureDeep expertise in data governance, including attribute- and role-based access control, data sensitivity and policy classification, and geolocation-based access requirementsStrong background in identity and access management for both users and machine/agent identities (OAuth/OIDC, service accounts)Excellent communication, stakeholder-management, and documentation skills, with the ability to explain complex technical trade-offs to both technical and non-technical audiencesProven application of zero-copy, data-mesh, and data-product principles, including domain-driven designFoundations: Python; OAuth/OIDC and identity providers; infrastructure-as-code (Terraform)AI and agents: MCP, Snowflake Cortex and Genie, vector search and embeddingsGovernance and catalog: Collibra, Unity Catalog, Horizon; Neo4j and knowledge graphsData platforms: Databricks, Snowflake; AWS-native data a plusFormats and contracts: Apache Iceberg and open table formats, YAML-based data contractsBrings hands-on credibility across cloud data platforms, governance, and agent-based access to guide engineers, challenge assumptions, evaluate emerging technologies, and make sound platform-scale technology choicesYou actively seek out things outside your comfort zone with the ability to rapidly learn and take advantage of new concepts, business models, and technologiesYou have solid analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skillsUnderstands how agentic consumption, MCP-based access, and modern data-product thinking can responsibly expose governed data to enterprise AI while maintaining appropriate controls and verificationYou set high standards for architecture quality, governance, performance/scalability and security and seek continuous improvementYou can influence technology choices with both engineers and senior leadersYou are comfortable in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial and rapid-growth environmentYou can explain complex technical solutions engagingly to technical and non-technical audiences and connect technological solutions with measurable business valuePrior experience and connections in the Life Sciences industry is preferredYou engage and build positive internal and external client relationships, while managing multiple initiatives, often with competing prioritiesYou have a customer-first mindset and a devotion to customer serviceYou have strong self-initiative, passion, interpersonal, oral and written communication and collaboration skills with the ability to work, influence and make an impact in a cross-functional environment with all levels of the organizationYou are responsive and thrive in a fast-paced diverse high-performance environment with rapidly changing business needsYou have prior experience in consulting and client negotiationsYou can take an evolving product vision and business requirements and transform them into concrete technical designs and specifications for software developers, data engineers, and other technology stakeholdersFamiliarity with semantic layers, ontologies, knowledge graphs, and retrieval-augmented generation or vector search for data discoveryAwareness of cross-cloud cost management and FinOps practicesExperience operating in a regulated life-sciences or comparable compliance-driven environment (GxP, GDPR/HIPAA, PII/PHI handling)