JD - PRINCIPAL DATA ARCHITECT

Principal data architects at Thoughtworks play a key part in developing modern data architecture approaches to meet business objectives and provide end-to-end data solutions.

They are responsible for enabling clients and Thoughtworks teams to align on outcomes that support the vision painted by data strategists.

They lead the design and architecture of the initiatives which are key to delivery of solutions to budget and timelines. They also guide and mentor delivery teams on architectural decisions to deliver to the solution agreements.

Job responsibilities

• You will lead complex data programs, navigating architectural concerns and enabling delivery teams to deliver on accepted standards within time and budget.
• You can provide client-facing technical leadership and guidance on topics related to data engineering, machine learning and Agentic AI to advise clients on bringing their data strategy to life.
• You will interact with client counterparts from the enterprise architecture group and lead the delivery, alignment and sign-off of key architectural decisions, trade-offs and ways of working.
• You can effectively communicate the trade-offs associated with different technology choices to stakeholders with varying levels of technical expertise, covering both high-and low-level details.
• You understand business capabilities or business architecture—including business process, information flow, and technology solution mapping to capabilities—and can map business outcomes with specific concrete business KPIs aligned with OKRs and KRAs for a particular domain or industry.
• You will be responsible for the technical design of data governance, data security, and data privacy to fulfill compliance requirements, with the ability to detect and mitigate threats, vulnerabilities, and unintended consequences that can arise when using data.
• You seamlessly incorporate data quality frameworks and processes to address and fulfill requirements as set out in strategy and acceptance criteria.
• You collaborate with sales and pre-sales to clarify requirements and design viable solutions, bringing experience to envision and articulate solution architecture artifacts using industry acceptable methods
• You will represent Thoughtworks in various online and offline forums, including events and conferences.

Job qualifications

Technical Skills

• Cloud & Big Data Platforms: Multi-cloud experience across major hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, GCP) with relevant certifications required. Deep expertise in big data technologies, modern lake houses, and platforms like Databricks, Snowflake and Fabric.

• Data Platform Building, Tuning & Monitoring: Proven track record in end-to-end building, performance tuning, and monitoring of enterprise data platforms, including real-time streaming architectures (e.g., Apache Kafka, Spark Streaming).

• Data Architecture, System Design & Modeling: Strong background in overall system architecture design, data warehouse design and data modeling (Dimensional, Data Vault), data mesh, data as a product, data governance, data quality & lineage, along with trade-off analysis for technology selection.

• AI/ML, MLOps & Vector Architecture: Comprehensive experience in AI/ML solutions, orchestrating MLOps pipelines, managing vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Milvus, Chroma), and productionizing AI models at scale.

• Hands-on Coding & DataOps/IaC: Strong hands-on PySpark development skills combined with DataOps best practices, Infrastructure as Code (IaC - Terraform/CloudFormation), and automated CI/CD deployment pipelines for data platforms.

• AI Fluency & Agentic Coding for Data: Proficiency in applying AI-assisted and agentic coding workflows to accelerate data pipeline engineering, automated data transformations, and system development.

Professional Skills

• You understand the importance of stakeholder management and can easily liaise between clients and other key stakeholders throughout projects, ensuring buy-in and gaining trust along the way.
• You are resilient in ambiguous situations and can adapt your role to approach challenges from multiple perspectives.
• You don’t shy away from risks or conflicts, instead you take them on and skillfully manage them.
• You coach, mentor and motivate others and you aspire to influence teammates to take positive action and accountability for their work.
• You enjoy influencing others and always advocate for technical excellence while being open to change when needed.
• Cultivating strong partnerships comes naturally to you; You understand the importance of relationship building and how it can bring new opportunities to our business.
• Certifications is cloud, data and AI platforms would be beneficial (Databricks, Snowflake, Azure, AWS, Claude)

Other things to know

Learning & Development

There is no one-size-fits-all career path at Thoughtworks: however you want to develop your career is entirely up to you. But we also balance autonomy with the strength of our cultivation culture. This means your career is supported by interactive tools, numerous development programs and teammates who want to help you grow. We see value in helping each other be our best and that extends to empowering our employees in their career journeys.

About Thoughtworks

Thoughtworks is a dynamic and inclusive community of bright and supportive colleagues who are revolutionizing tech. As a leading technology consultancy, we’re pushing boundaries through our purposeful and impactful work. For 30+ years, we’ve delivered extraordinary impact together with our clients by helping them solve complex business problems with technology as the differentiator. Bring your brilliant expertise and commitment for continuous learning to Thoughtworks. Together, let’s be extraordinary.

Responsible Use of AI in Recruitment

At Thoughtworks, we use AI tools to support our recruitment team with administrative tasks such as drafting communications, scheduling interviews and writing job descriptions.

Crucially, our AI tools do not screen, assess, rank or make hiring decisions. Every application is reviewed by our team and all selection decisions are made exclusively by our interviewers and hiring managers.

We are committed to fairness and responsible AI. We actively manage our AI systems by testing, monitoring for biased outcomes and implementing mitigation measures. We hold our third-party vendors to these same high standards through a rigorous governance process. For additional information, please see our full Thoughtworks AI Policy for Recruitment.

See here our AI policy.