[Hiring] Principal Data Architect @Robots and Pencils

Role Description

We’re looking for a Principal Data Architect who owns the hardest data architecture challenges, sets technical direction across data platforms, and serves as the senior technical voice on how organizations model, move, govern, and trust their data. You set the standard for warehouses, lakes, lakehouse environments, streaming systems, and the data foundations that power AI/ML at scale.

In this role, you will operate as the senior technical authority on data architecture — championing data mesh, data product, and governance strategies, owning high-stakes decisions on platform direction, and shaping the data foundations behind production AI systems. You will partner closely with leadership and clients on data strategy, mentor experienced engineers and architects, and drive a long-term vision for data that is scalable, secure, and built to compound in value over time.

What You’ll Do

Craft & Delivery

• Set the standard for data architecture across warehouses, data lakes, and lakehouse environments, including medallion architecture and open table format strategy.
• Design for data and AI governance, including data governance, lineage, quality, cataloging, access control for AI agents, and evaluation data.
• Define vision and direction for batch and streaming data systems at scale and the orchestration that runs them.
• Champion enterprise data modeling strategy across dimensional, Data Vault, data mesh, and data product paradigms.
• Own the architecture of data foundations for AI/ML at scale, including feature stores, embeddings and vector store strategy, and RAG and real-time retrieval data pipelines.
• Architect semantic layers, knowledge graphs, and unstructured data pipelines (documents, text, images, audio) that give AI agents trusted business context.
• Drive infrastructure as code, CI/CD, and observability standards that govern how data platforms are built and operated.
• Champion performance, scalability, cost, and reliability optimization across the data estate.
• Own security, governance, and compliance posture across data assets (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, SOC2, PII, data residency, and audit readiness).
• Stay hands-on: prototype, write production code, and review designs and pull requests alongside delivery teams.
• Bring an AI-forward mindset to your daily work, using tools like Claude, Cursor, and other modern AI assistants to ship higher-quality work at pace.

Collaboration & Communication

• Partner with senior leadership and clients as the principal technical voice on data strategy and platform direction.
• Support pre-sales as the senior data voice, shaping solution approaches, scoping, estimates, and proposals, and joining client conversations.
• Communicate the most complex data architecture concepts clearly to engineering and executive stakeholders alike.
• Engage across engineering, AI, analytics, and product organizations to align data architecture with enterprise strategy.
• Set the standard for data architecture documentation, modeling and governance practices, and data contracts across teams.

Leadership & Influence

• Define and champion architectural standards and best practices on the engagements you support.
• Build reusable accelerators, reference architectures, and templates that scale the data practice and speed delivery across engagements.
• Mentor experienced engineers and architects, helping them grow their technical judgment and impact.
• Own the most difficult architectural and integration challenges, serving as the senior technical decision-maker.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend tools, frameworks, and patterns that improve architecture over time.

Qualifications

• A doer.
• A fast learner who knows you don't know everything.
• Direct in a way that makes the work better.
• Obsessed with craft.
• Built for ownership.
• All in.
• Resourceful when the budget, timeline, or team is tight.
• Calm when it gets hot.
• Glad to be in the room with people who care as much as you do.

Requirements

• The salary range for this role is $170,000 USD - $240,000 USD in the US, and $190,000 - $260,000 CAD in Canada.
• An offer of employment may be conditional upon successful completion of a background check in accordance with local legislation and our candidate privacy notice.
• We are committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities for all job applicants and employees.

Benefits

• Comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off, medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k)/RRSP Matching to eligible employees.