Data ArchitectLocation: New York, NY (Hybrid – 3 Days Onsite) Rate: DOE Employment Type: ContractKey Responsibilities:Lead end-to-end architecture and solution design for Snowflake-based enterprise data platforms.Design logical and physical data models, ingestion frameworks, and scalable storage architectures, including raw, curated, and semantic layers.Architect high-performance data warehouses, data lakes, and lakehouse solutions with a focus on scalability, optimization, and cost efficiency.Implement AI-powered solutions using Snowflake Cortex capabilities, including Cortex LLM functions, Cortex Search, Cortex Analyst, vector embeddings, semantic search, RAG architectures, and AI agents.Design and optimize real-time and batch data pipelines using Snowpipe, Streams, Tasks, and Snowpark (Python/Scala/Java).Define and enforce enterprise data governance, security, and compliance frameworks, including RBAC, masking policies, encryption, lineage, and secure data sharing.Integrate data from cloud, on-premises, and SaaS platforms using modern orchestration and ETL/ELT tools.Collaborate with business stakeholders, data engineers, analysts, and data scientists to deliver scalable and reusable data products.Lead migration initiatives from legacy platforms and establish enterprise reference architectures and standards.Monitor platform health and optimize Snowflake environments for performance, workload management, high availability, replication, and disaster recovery.Mentor junior engineers and architects while promoting best practices in data modeling methodologies such as Data Vault, Kimball, and hybrid approaches.Support AI/ML initiatives by enabling AI-ready data foundations and integrating structured and unstructured data sources.Required Qualifications:8+ years of experience in Data Architecture, Data Engineering, or Data Platform roles.4+ years of hands-on experience designing and optimizing Snowflake solutions.Strong expertise with Snowflake features, including:SnowparkSnowpipeStreams & TasksWarehouses & Resource MonitorsZero-Copy CloningTime TravelData SharingSecurity & Governance ControlsStrong proficiency in SQL and advanced data modeling techniques (conceptual, logical, and physical).Experience designing scalable ETL/ELT pipelines and cloud-native data architectures.Hands-on experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP cloud platforms.Strong understanding of performance tuning, query optimization, and cost management strategies.Experience implementing secure architectures for analytics, reporting, and AI/ML workloads.Knowledge of data governance, lineage, data quality, and compliance standards such as GDPR, SOC2, or HIPAA.Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and leadership skills.Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field