Data Architect - Senior

Our Client is seeking an experienced Data Architect to support the Digital Regulatory Assurance System (DRAS), a major initiative focused on modernizing regulatory and environmental data management across the province.

The successful candidate will lead the design and integration of data across DRAS, Databricks-based data platforms, and the Alberta Geospatial Platform, ensuring regulatory, environmental, and spatial data is reliable, secure, well-governed, and reusable.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and maintain target-state data architecture across enterprise systems and data platforms.

• Design conceptual, logical, and physical data models for regulatory, environmental, and geospatial data.

• Design scalable Databricks lakehouse architectures, including Bronze/Silver/Gold layers, Delta Lake, and Unity Catalog.

• Establish enterprise integration patterns including REST APIs, ETL/ELT, event-driven integration, change data capture, and batch/near-real-time processing.

• Design and guide data pipelines and interfaces between business systems and data platforms.

• Define data contracts, APIs, integration specifications, and interface standards.

• Architect geospatial data integrations while maintaining geometry, coordinate reference systems, and spatial accuracy.

• Establish data governance practices covering metadata, lineage, classification, master/reference data, security, and data quality.

• Ensure architecture complies with Government of Alberta information security, privacy, and records-management standards.

• Resolve complex architecture and integration issues involving schema changes, data quality, latency, and system dependencies.

• Partner with developers, data engineers, GIS specialists, business analysts, cybersecurity teams, product owners, and enterprise architects.

• Produce architecture diagrams, technical documentation, and architecture decision records.

• Provide technical leadership and mentor team members on data architecture best practices.

• Participate in Agile ceremonies and translate architecture requirements into actionable delivery work.

Required Qualifications

• College or university degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Geomatics, or a related discipline.

• Approximately 8+ years of enterprise data architecture, database architecture, data engineering, or enterprise solution experience.

• Strong experience working as a Data Architect within complex enterprise IT environments.

• Hands-on experience with Databricks, Delta Lake, Spark/PySpark, SQL, and Unity Catalog.

• Strong knowledge of relational, dimensional, and lakehouse data modelling.

• Experience designing and implementing enterprise integration solutions using REST APIs, ETL/ELT, event streaming, and change data capture.

• Experience with cloud and big-data platforms, preferably Microsoft Azure.

• Knowledge of Azure Data Lake Storage, Azure Data Factory, Event Hubs, and Key Vault.

• Experience designing, implementing, and supporting enterprise databases and data warehouse solutions.

• Strong SQL and Transact-SQL experience.

• Experience with ServiceNow integration.

• Experience conducting or contributing to threat and risk assessments and presenting technical recommendations.

• Strong understanding of enterprise architecture principles, data governance, metadata management, data quality, privacy, and security.

• Experience working within Agile delivery environments.

• Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills.

Nice to Have

• Experience integrating with GIS/geospatial platforms and working with geospatial data formats, standards, coordinate systems, and spatial data.

• Experience with architecture modelling tools such as PowerDesigner, ER/Studio, or similar tools.

• Experience with enterprise Business Intelligence and performance-management platforms.

• TOGAF certification.

• Previous Government of Alberta or Canadian public-sector experience is a strong asset.