Principal Architect & Data Engineer in Canada Creek, Nova Scotia at Jobgether
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Job Description
This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Principal Architect & Data Engineer based in Canada.
This is a senior technical leadership opportunity at the intersection of data architecture, AI enablement, and enterprise-scale platform engineering. You will be responsible for shaping the next generation of a federated enterprise data ecosystem, unifying fragmented data landscapes into a modern, high-performance Lakehouse architecture.
The role combines deep hands-on engineering with strategic architecture ownership, requiring you to define standards for data modeling, governance, observability, and secure AI consumption.
You will act as a key technical authority, influencing decisions across distributed teams while ensuring alignment with enterprise-wide data strategy.
A strong focus is placed on enabling autonomous business units through data mesh principles, while maintaining a governed and trusted single source of truth.
You will also contribute to the evolution of agentic AI frameworks and enterprise data intelligence capabilities.
This is a highly visible role involving direct engagement with senior leadership to translate technical architecture into measurable business outcomes.
The environment is complex, fast-evolving, and ideal for a senior architect who thrives at scale and enjoys solving foundational data challenges.
- Design and lead the evolution of a unified enterprise data platform, including Lakehouse architecture (Iceberg/Delta Lake) and federated data mesh models.
- Define and implement standards for data governance, observability, quality, lineage, and metadata management across structured and unstructured data.
- Develop and scale agentic AI frameworks and enterprise AI registries to support model-agnostic and production-ready AI systems.
- Establish best practices for high-performance data engineering, including zero-copy architectures, federated query engines, and semantic layers.
- Lead architectural direction across distributed engineering teams, ensuring alignment with enterprise data strategy and governance standards.
- Mentor and coach data architects and engineers, fostering technical excellence, automation, and continuous improvement.
- Collaborate with business stakeholders to align data products and AI initiatives with KPIs such as revenue growth and operational efficiency.
- Present architectural roadmaps, risk assessments, and ROI-driven insights to senior leadership and executive stakeholders.
- Define secure data access patterns, including encryption, RBAC/ABAC, masking, and policy-as-code for AI and analytics consumption.
- Optimize cloud data platforms for cost efficiency, scalability, and performance across large-scale environments.
- 10+ years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, or enterprise data platforms.
- 1+ years in a Staff or Principal-level technical leadership role.
- Strong expertise in Python, SQL, and Spark for large-scale data processing and engineering.
- Hands-on experience with orchestration tools (e.g., Airflow), CI/CD pipelines, and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform or CloudFormation).
- Deep experience with AWS (S3, Glue, Redshift, Bedrock) or Google Cloud (BigQuery, Vertex AI).
- Strong knowledge of federated data systems, data mesh principles, and modern data sharing patterns.
- Experience building enterprise data governance frameworks, including metadata standards, classification, and PII handling.
- Expertise in data security practices, including access control, encryption, masking, and compliance-driven architectures.
- Proven experience with RAG architectures, vector databases, and enterprise AI/ML integration patterns.
- Strong executive communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical topics into business impact.
- Demonstrated leadership in mentoring and developing senior engineering talent.
- Strong understanding of cloud economics, cost optimization, and data platform financial governance.
- Experience working across large, distributed organizations with multiple stakeholders and priorities.
- Competitive base salary aligned with senior principal engineering roles in Canada (approx. CAD $160,000–$170,000).
- Equity/stock options as part of total compensation package.
- Comprehensive health, dental, and wellness benefits.
- Flexible remote-first work model within Canada.
- Opportunity to define enterprise-scale data and AI architecture strategy.
- High-impact leadership role with direct influence on product and business outcomes.
- Exposure to cutting-edge AI, data mesh, and cloud-native technologies.
- Strong professional development and leadership growth opportunities in a global engineering environment.