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Principal Architect of Data

United States or Canada

Overview

We’re seeking a Principal Data Architect to lead strategic data modernization advisory and reference architecture engagements for Financial Services clients. You will serve as the principal consultant and executive-facing advisor—partnering with Chief Data & Analytics Officers, CIOs/CTOs, Line-of-Business leaders, and program sponsors to define strategy, validate target-state architecture, and de‑risk implementation.

This role blends billable delivery leadership with pre‑sales solutioning. Expected mix: ~60–70% billable delivery leadership and ~30–40% pre‑sales/solutioning and thought leadership. This person drives discovery/advisory workstreams, define value‑anchored roadmaps, and guide implementation teams across modern data platforms (e.g., Databricks, Snowflake, Azure) and Salesforce (including Data Cloud).

Primary Responsibilities

  • Pre-Sales, Solutioning, and Thought Leadership
    • Partner with Sales/Accounts to shape opportunities, conduct discovery, craft SOWs and proposals, build estimates/approaches, and present to executives.
  • Advisory Leadership & Strategy
    • Lead executive advisory engagements that connect business value (growth, efficiency, risk) to a pragmatic data modernization strategy and investment plan.
    • Define and validate target-state enterprise data architecture.  Produce a phased, value‑anchored roadmap with clear outcomes, success metrics, and FinOps/budget guardrails.  Build additional architecture artifacts to describe desired-state architecture.
    • Design governance frameworks (policy-driven access, quality, lineage, metadata, ownership/stewardship, regulatory alignment) and connect them to measurable outcomes.
  • Architecture, Design, and Delivery Oversight
    • Design reference architectures based on Cloud principles, such as the Well-Architected Framework.
    • Own the reference architecture across Lakehouse, Warehouse, and Mesh patterns leveraging industry leading technologies.
    • Define design patterns for ingestion, transformation, orchestration, and observability (monitoring, logging, alerting) that scale across domains.

Mentor and coach architects, engineers, and analysts.

Required Qualifications

  • 10+ years designing and delivering enterprise‑scale data solutions (with at least 5 years in cloud platforms such as Azure, Databricks, Snowflake, and/or AWS/GCP).
  • Proven experience working with Cloud Platforms and services.
  • Proven experience migrating workloads to Cloud environments.
  • Proven track record leading advisory and modernization programs end‑to‑end, from discovery through roadmap and into delivery oversight.
  • Deep knowledge of enterprise data reference architecture, including Lakehouse/Medallion patterns, Mesh principles, CDC/streaming, and domain‑oriented data products.
  • Expertise in data modeling (dimensional, 3NF, Data Vault), metadata/lineage, data quality, and observability.
  • Hands-on governance with Unity Catalog (Databricks) and/or Microsoft Purview; pragmatic implementation of RBAC, lineage, and data masking.
  • Strong grasp of governance (policy‑driven access, privacy/security, and regulatory expectations in banking such as GLBA, AML/KYC, BCBS 239), FinOps/cost management, and performance/scalability.
  • Executive‑level communication and facilitation skills; trusted advisor to CDAO/CIO/CTO and business leaders.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Financial Services experience (banking/credit union/wealth) strongly preferred; familiarity with common cores/feeds (e.g., FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry) and regulatory context is a plus.
  • Certifications and/or deep hands‑on experience with Databricks, Snowflake, and/or Azure data services; Unity Catalog and Purview.
  • Salesforce experience (FSC, Data Cloud) including data migration/integration patterns and activation.
  • Background with AI/ML enablement (feature engineering, model ops) and GenAI/Agentic data readiness.
  • Prior leadership in consulting with measurable sales influence (pipeline creation, close rates) and CSAT results.

Qualities of the Ideal Candidate

  • Self-motivated, strong desire to help customers meet their goals
  • Consulting experience (ideally leadership)
  • FINS experience
  • Experience integrating with Salesforce
The full compensation package is based on candidate's experience and certifications. 

Zennify pay range

$170,000 - $200,000 USD

Pay Transparency

We believe that pay transparency helps to foster trust and open communication between employers and employees. It allows our team members to have a clear understanding of their earning potential and the expectations associated with their roles. We also believe that pay transparency promotes fairness, as everyone is compensated based on their experience and skills, regardless of factors such as gender, race, or ethnicity. We recognize that the skills and experience of our candidates may vary, and we are committed to compensating them accordingly. As such, we will evaluate each candidate's qualifications, experience, and performance to determine the appropriate compensation within the stated salary range. We hope that this transparent approach to compensation will provide our potential candidates with the information they need to make informed decisions about their career paths.

This is what we mean when we say we’re the Sum of Our Parts

We understand that everyone comes to the table with their own special histories, perspectives, opinions, backgrounds, and cultures. Here at Zennify, we believe that all of those distinctive individual aspects of our employees are precisely what makes Zennify a great place to work. We want to see you for who you are, so please bring your whole self to the interview process with us. In fact, here are some unique benefits that we offer as a direct result of our amazing employees:

Pawreavement & Pawternity Leave: Two days off of work if you bring a new furry friend home, and two days off of work if you have to say goodbye to one. We take our pets very seriously at Zennify, so it’s important to us to represent our entire family in the benefits we offer!

Unlimited PTO: Because we want you to be a human being first and an employee second!

We cannot wait to meet you!

 

About Us

Founded in 2013, Zennify is a Platinum Salesforce consulting partner focused in Financial Services, Health and Life Sciences, and other key industries that prioritize the customer experience. With consistently high Customer Satisfaction scores, we live to provide epic solutions that solve our customers’ challenges, and exceed expectations! Our commitment to People Development and Customer Success are the driving forces behind our firm.Our purpose is to provide opportunities for professionals to develop amazing careers that drive compelling business impact. We promote and grow from within, building on strengths and investing in development.Balancing industry-leading Salesforce technical expertise with clear purpose and line of sight to our client’s business objectives, we deliver innovative and contextual solutions that scale. Zennify’s mission is to be problem solvers and relationship builders, striving to create solutions, opportunities, and sustained success for our people, customers, community, and future generations. We aspire to be the most trusted, impactful, and inspirational advisor in the consulting ecosystem. As professionals, we put in the work and are committed to milestones, but at Zennify having fun and giving back are part of the journey. We offer a culture that inspires, a place people love coming to work and believe in open communication.  It’s all part of the Zenn!  

Our Values:  Inspire Passion, Embrace Equality, Be Authentic, Integrity Matters.

 

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It is the policy of Zennify to provide equal employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. This policy relates to all phases of employment, including, but not limited to, recruiting, employment, placement, promotion, transfer, demotion, reduction of workforce and termination, rates of pay or other forms of compensation, selection for training, the use of all facilities, and participation in all company-sponsored employee activities. Provisions in applicable laws providing for bona fide occupational qualifications, business necessity, or age limitations will be adhered to by the company where appropriate.

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