Senior Data Architect (8-month FTC), Manchester

I'm hiring a Senior BI Data Architect to join a global SaaS organisation and take ownership of a large‑scale data platform transformation.

This is a hands‑on architecture role sitting at the intersection of data engineering and BI - where your work will directly shape how the business uses data to make decisions.

A global technology business operating in the data and insights / research space, serving major clients worldwide and processing hundreds of millions of data points annually.

They are investing heavily in modernising their data platform and analytics capabilities, with a strong focus on performance, scalability, and self‑serve analytics.

The role: You'll take full ownership of the Databricks Lakehouse and BI architecture, leading the migration away from legacy systems while building a clean, governed and scalable platform.

This is not just a design role - you'll be deep in the detail, refactoring SQL, building pipelines, and optimising performance.

• Design and implement a governed Databricks Lakehouse architecture (Unity Catalog, schemas, volumes)
• Lead migration of complex legacy SQL logic into modular, scalable pipelines
• Build and optimise data transformation frameworks using Spark / Python / SQL pipelines
• Act as the go‑to expert for query performance optimisation (Spark execution plans, data skew, joins)
• Design and implement dimensional data models (star / snowflake schemas)
• Architect the semantic layer for BI (Omni or similar tools like Looker)
• Build CI/CD pipelines to automate testing and deployment
• Work with stakeholders across Product, Finance, and Commercial teams to deliver scalable solutions

• 8+ years in data engineering / data architecture
• Deep experience with Databricks (Lakehouse, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog)
• Expert SQL and distributed computing knowledge
• Strong experience with data modelling (star / snowflake schemas)
• Proven experience migrating legacy data platforms
• Ability to optimise performance across large datasets
• Experience with modern BI semantic layers (e.g. Looker, Omni, Superset)
• Experience with CI/CD and version control (Git)

• Experience with dbt or similar transformation frameworks
• Exposure to AI/BI or natural language querying tools
• Experience in multi‑tenant or embedded analytics environments

• Own and shape a modern data platform at scale
• High‑impact project with visible business outcomes
• Combination of architecture + hands‑on engineering
• Work on performance, scalability, and governance challenges
• Flexible, remote‑friendly working

• A clean, governed Lakehouse architecture
• Improved performance and reduced cost across the platform
• Scalable, reusable data pipelinesA robust semantic layer enabling self‑serve analytics across the business