Manager, Platform Architecture

Design and govern an enterprise-scale data platform on Microsoft Azure and Databricks for a fortune 500 company with some of the most iconic brands! Have a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or a related field? Have five years in data engineering, data platform engineering, or cloud data architecture with architecture ownership at scale, including 3+ years architecting solutions on Azure Databricks? If so, we want to speak with you!We are actively recruiting a Manager, Platform Architecture, to join our team in Richmond, VA.This role will own the architectural blueprint for a unified Lakehouse ingestion, transformation, governance, and serving, that powers analytics, data engineering, and AI/ML across the organization.

The architect sets technical standards, leads architecture decisions across initiatives, partners across IT and with external delivery partners, and connects platform investments to business value, while balancing performance, security, scalability, and cost.

This is a strategic architecture and leadership role rather than a hands-on engineering position.
What you'll be doing:


* Platform Architecture: Own the reference architecture for the Azure + Databricks Lakehouse - medallion design, Delta Lake standards, and Unity Catalog and multi-workspace topology.


* Cross-Functional IT Partnership: Partner with enterprise IT - cloud infrastructure, network engineering, and security teams - to co-design landing zones, connectivity, and platform guardrails aligned to enterprise standards and shared services.


* Vendor & Managed Service Oversight: Provide architectural direction and quality governance to managed service providers and system integrators; define standards and acceptance criteria, review deliverables, set and monitor SLAs, and hold partners accountable to the reference architecture and security controls.


* CI/CD & Automation: Establish Infrastructure-as-Code and CI/CD standards (Azure DevOps / GitHub Actions, Terraform, Databricks Asset Bundles) for repeatable, governed delivery across environments.


* Performance & Cost Optimization (FinOps): Drive tuning and cost-efficiency across compute, pipelines, and SQL workloads; embed FinOps discipline, tagging, and chargeback.


* Innovation & Continuous Improvement: Run proofs-of-concept, pilot emerging Azure/Databricks capabilities (including Microsoft Fabric), and evolve architecture patterns to improve performance, cost, and capability.


* Standards & Leadership: Define and enforce architecture governance and best practices; lead design and architecture reviews; and shape the platform's multi-year roadmap.

We want you to have


* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field.


* 5+ years in data engineering, data platform engineering, or cloud data architecture with architecture ownership at scale, including 3+ years architecting solutions on Azure Databricks.


* Strong expertise in ...