[Job - 32043] Senior Data Architect, Colombia

Job description

At CI&T, we help large enterprises transform the potential of AI into real business impact with AI Deployment, AI-native execution, and tech-integrated business solutions. With 30 years of experience in technological transformation, we accelerate innovation with expertise in Agentic SDLC, Application modernization, Data & AI, Martech and Business strategy. We are 8,000 CI&Ters across more than 25 countries, collaborating to build solutions with real impact. AI is already part of how we work, evolve, and innovate every day. CI&T is expanding its data capabilities to support a strategic, end-to-end technology engagement with a US-based client in the Education Technology (EdTech) sector — a company that partners with hundreds of universities and higher education institutions through digital learning solutions. To lead this data initiative, we are looking for a Data Architect Senior who combines deep technical expertise with the ability to guide a team and communicate clearly with client stakeholders. This is a hands-on technical leadership role — not a traditional management position. The Data Architect Senior will be the technical reference for the data team, responsible for architectural decisions, solution design, and day-to-day technical direction. The role spans the full lifecycle of data products, from ingestion and lakehouse design through modeling, governance, and serving, and operates in a nearshore model with strong overlap with US business hours. **Responsibilities:** - Lead the data team technically, providing hands-on guidance to database specialists and developers on the design, development, and maintenance of data products and pipelines. - Define and evolve the target data architecture — covering ingestion, lakehouse design, data modeling, governance, and serving layers — aligned with security, performance, and cost standards. - Drive solution design by translating business and technical requirements into workable solutions, selecting appropriate frameworks, patterns, and modeling approaches for each context. - Collaborate directly with the client's architects and business leaders to present architectural options and trade-offs; record decisions clearly so the team builds from a shared, agreed foundation. - Establish and enforce standards for data quality, access control, data lineage, and privacy in an environment that handles regulated and sensitive data. - Maintain a stable and productive development environment by incorporating CI/CD and DataOps practices that support consistent, reliable delivery. - Lead current-state data assessments and knowledge transfer processes during transitions, identifying priorities that deliver measurable business value incrementally. - Develop proofs of concept and prototypes to validate architectural approaches and demonstrate value to client stakeholders. - Stay actively connected to CI&T's data practice, contributing to and drawing on shared methodologies and expertise across engagements. **Requirements:** - Advanced English proficiency (C1 level or above) — mandatory for direct, daily engagement with North American stakeholders - Proven experience in data architecture design and hands-on technical leadership of multidisciplinary data teams - Solid experience designing, building, and deploying data pipelines, lakehouse architectures, and data products at scale - Hands-on experience with Databricks — including Delta Lake and Unity Catalog — or equivalent depth on AWS data services - Strong data modeling skills across dimensional (Kimball) and relational approaches, with advanced SQL - Experience with pipeline orchestration and workflow automation (e.g., dbt, Databricks Workflows, or Apache Airflow) - Demonstrated ability to translate business problems into practical data solutions and communicate trade-offs to both technical and non-technical audiences - Ability to work in a nearshore delivery model with consistent overlap with US Central business hours **Nice to Have:** - Databricks certification - Experience with Snowflake or similar cloud data warehouse platforms - Knowledge of data governance and privacy principles in regulated industries - Experience with CI/CD and MLOps pipeline practices - Familiarity with AI solutions and agentic coding workflows - Experience leading consultative data assessments and data modernization engagements - Spanish or Portuguese language skills #LI-JP3