Databricks Data Architect

About the Role

We partner with global enterprises to design and build large-scale data platforms that power the products and operations at the center of their business. This engagement is a Databricks lakehouse foundation for a US defense manufacturer, which is establishing Databricks as the central platform for their engineering and manufacturing data.

Most of that data is export-controlled. Access cannot be a per-table exercise here; it has to derive from classification, which means governance is not a layer added later: it is the architecture. You will build the classification model, express it as a Unity Catalog policy, and defend it to enterprise security reviewers.

This is a technical leadership role. You will lead through architecture, technical credibility, and influence, with one senior engineer on the team alongside you. Two people on the engagement means you own the architecture and governance end to end, run stakeholder discovery yourself, and present without an account team in between.

The engagement opens with a discovery and architecture phase: assess the current landscape, prioritize use cases, and author the target-state design, governance model, and implementation roadmap. It then moves into the build, executing what you wrote.

Actively hiring

We are hiring for a current opening on an active client project. This is a specific, presently open role. We review applications on a rolling basis and aim to move qualified candidates through our process promptly.

What You’ll Do

• Lead discovery across the client's data, engineering, security, and business teams, documenting data movement, security architecture, integration topology, and platform configuration, and setting the cadence, RACI, and communication plan.
• Prioritize the work by facilitating use case sessions and scoring candidates on business value, technical complexity, and data readiness.
• Design the target-state Lakehouse architecture, including medallion design across structured relational sources, Delta Lake patterns (managed versus external tables, predictive optimization, liquid clustering), orchestration in Databricks Workflows, and federate-versus-ingest decisions per source using Lakehouse Federation.
• Own the Unity Catalog governance blueprint: metastore topology, row filters, column masks, attribute-based access control, governed tags, and lineage, with CUI and ITAR classification expressed as tag-driven policy so access derives from classification rather than per-table maintenance.
• Apply FinOps discipline through budget and cluster policies, serverless spend management, and chargeback tagging, alongside data quality monitoring standards and the semantic layer.
• Present to enterprise security reviewers and carry the architecture through their process.
• Author the deliverables: current-state assessment, target-state architecture, implementation roadmap, and the executive readout to client leadership.
• Lead the build, implementing the architecture on AWS, including GovCloud deployment where required, workspace topology, network isolation, identity integration, Unity Catalog governance, and Delta Sharing across regulatory boundaries.
• Set technical direction for the ingestion engineer, review their work, and unblock them on source system and platform issues.

What We’re Looking For

• 8+ years across solutions architecture, data engineering, or related roles, including multiple production Databricks platform architectures on AWS. At least one should be in a regulated or export-controlled environment.
• Deep, hands-on Unity Catalog expertise. You have implemented row filters, column masks, and attribute-based access control in production and can explain the trade-offs of each.
• Practical experience translating regulatory requirements (CUI, ITAR, or equivalent classification regimes) into enforceable data policy.
• Working knowledge of Delta Lake internals, Lakehouse Federation, Delta Sharing, and Databricks Workflows sufficient to make and defend design decisions under questioning.
• Demonstrated ownership of platform cost: you have written cluster and budget policies and built a chargeback model.
• Strong technical writing. Architecture documents, assessment reports, and executive decks are core deliverables here, reviewed by the client and by enterprise security.
• Experience running structured discovery independently across large enterprise stakeholder groups, synthesizing conflicting input into clear decisions.
• A skilled communicator with the presence to lead technical conversations, align stakeholders, and drive decisions in complex, multi-team environments.
• Databricks Data Engineer Professional certification, or willingness to obtain it before start.
• US citizenship and ability to pass a background check.
• Fluent English, both written and spoken.

Nice to Have

• Prior work in a defense, aerospace, or FedRAMP environment.
• Familiarity with digital thread architecture and how PLM, MBSE, ERP, and manufacturing data connect.
• Prior delivery alongside Databricks Professional Services or as a Databricks partner practitioner.
• Familiarity with Teamcenter, Cameo, Siemens Capital, or Oracle E-Business Suite data models.
• Experience integrating AI-native tooling into engineering and discovery workflows.

Why Lumenalta is an amazing place to work at

At Lumenalta, you can expect that you will:

• Be 100% dedicated to one project at a time so that you can innovate and grow.
• Be a part of a team of talented and friendly senior-level developers.
• Work on projects that allow you to use leading tech.

For Databricks practitioners specifically, we are a Databricks partner with Champions and MVPs on our team, and that carries three concrete things:

• Delivery Partner Program qualification. Databricks co-delivers its Professional Services engagements through a short list of approved partner organizations, and practitioners have to be individually qualified before they can work on them. The qualification is granted once at the individual level and does not expire, so it stays with you. Partner organizations are the route in, so the qualified pool stays small. That scarcity is most of the value, and we sponsor it.
• Champion path. Databricks Champion is an individual recognition with its own badge, a dedicated Databricks solutions architect as your mentor, access to product teams, confidential roadmap briefings, and an invitation to the internal Tech Summit. Nomination has to come from a partner organization, which puts it out of reach for independents and most contractors. We nominate actively and regularly, and the Champions already on our team mentor candidates through it.
• Certifications covered. We pay the exam fee for any Databricks certification you want to take.

Our Process

A screening call, a technical interview, and a HackerRank assessment. The technical interview is a conversation rather than a whiteboard exam. We will ask you to walk through a governance design you have shipped, a federate-versus-ingest call you made, what you would change, and what you would expect security reviewers to push hardest on. We will also ask for a writing sample. Relevant project references matter more to us than certifications.

Location

This is a fully remote position. This position supports a U.S. Government contract that requires all personnel to possess U.S. Citizenship. Availability to work overlapping Pacific, Central, or Eastern U.S. time zones.

Application Deadline

Applications will be accepted until October 4th, 2026. Candidates can expect feedback by October 12th, 2026.