Microsoft Fabric Architect

Job Overview
We are seeking an experienced Microsoft Fabric Architect to design, deliver, and govern enterprise-scale data platforms using Microsoft Fabric. The role will partner with engineering, data science, analytics, and business stakeholders to translate business requirements into scalable, secure, and cost-effective Fabric-based solutions that enable self-service analytics and advanced data workloads.

Key Responsibilities
Define end-to-end architecture for Microsoft Fabric solutions including OneLake, Data Integration, Data Engineering (Spark), Data Science, Real-Time Analytics, and Power BI integration.
Lead migrations from legacy data platforms (on-premises or other cloud services) to Microsoft Fabric, ensuring data integrity, minimal downtime, and cost efficiency.
Design data models, data lakes/warehouses, and ingestion/ETL/ELT patterns optimized for Fabric.
Establish governance, security, and compliance patterns: access control, encryption, data classification, data lineage, and auditing.
Build and enforce best practices for CI/CD, environment promotion, automated testing, and infrastructure-as-code for Fabric deployments.
Optimize performance and cost: tuning Spark jobs, query optimization, storage layout, partitioning, caching, and resource management.
Implement observability and operational runbooks: monitoring, alerting, incident response, and capacity planning.
Collaborate with analytics and BI teams to enable governed self-service reporting and provide solution guidance for Power BI on Fabric.
Mentor engineers and data teams on Fabric architecture patterns, Spark, KQL, data modeling, and security practices.
Evaluate and prototype new Fabric features and third-party integrations; provide roadmap recommendations for adopt/adapt decisions.
Drive stakeholder communication: architecture reviews, design documentation, and executive-level summaries of technical tradeoffs and costs.
Required Qualifications
9+ years of experience designing and delivering enterprise data platforms; 3+ years with Microsoft Fabric or equivalent modern cloud data platforms.
Strong experience with:
Microsoft Fabric components (OneLake, Data Integration, Data Engineering Spark, Power BI integration, Data Science workflow)
Spark-based data engineering and performance tuning.
SQL, data modeling (star/snowflake), and large-scale ETL/ELT patterns.
Data governance concepts: RBAC, data masking, lineage, cataloging.
CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code tools.
Proven track record of migrating large datasets and workloads to modern data platforms.
Solid understanding of identity and access management in cloud ecosystems (Azure AD, service principals, managed identities).
Excellent communication skills; able to present architecture and tradeoffs to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Preferred Qualifications
Microsoft certifications such as:
Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect (or equivalent)
Any Fabric-specific training or workshops
Experience with related Azure services (Azure Data Factory, Synapse components, Azure Storage, Azure Key Vault).
Familiarity with open data formats (Parquet, Delta) and metadata/catalog solutions.
Experience with real-time/streaming ingestion patterns (Event Hubs, Kafka, streaming Spark).Experience with cost governance and chargeback/finops practices.
Technical Skills
Languages/Tools: SQL, Python/Scala, Spark, KQL, Power Query/M, Power BI, Git, CI/CD tools, Terraform/ARM/Bicep (or equivalent).
Data storage & formats: OneLake concepts, Delta/Parquet, partitioning, compression strategies.
Monitoring/Observability: Application Insights, Log Analytics, Prometheus (or equivalent), Fabric-native monitoring.
Security: Data encryption, network isolation, VNet/SASE concepts, compliance frameworks (GDPR, HIPAA, as applicable).