Senior Azure Data Architect
Primary stack
Job description
About the Position
We are looking for an experienced Senior Azure Data Architect for a long-term enterprise project. The role focuses on Azure Data Platform architecture and on designing the data layer for applications that use GenAI, RAG, and/or Agentic AI.
This is not an AI/ML Engineer position. Hands-on development of RAG solutions or AI agents is not expected. What matters is your experience designing the data architecture around such systems: how enterprise data and knowledge sources are ingested, processed, stored, governed, and made available for retrieval and AI consumption.
The project involves working with an existing enterprise data platform: assessing it, stabilizing it, and taking it through further modernization.
Responsibilities
- Analyze the current Azure data platform and identify key architecture, scalability, performance, and data-quality issues.
- Define tactical architecture for quick improvements and a long-term target architecture.
- Design scalable Azure data architecture for enterprise workloads.
- Design the data layer for RAG / GenAI / Agentic AI applications.
- Define approaches to ingestion, preparation, storage, governance, and retrieval of corporate data and knowledge sources.
- Work with both structured and unstructured data.
- Design reusable, metadata-driven ingestion architecture.
- Make and justify architecture decisions across Cosmos DB, Synapse, Databricks, Azure SQL, Data Lake/Lakehouse, and other Azure services.
- Prepare detailed architecture documentation, diagrams, and implementation-ready recommendations for engineering teams.
- Move quickly from analysis of the existing system to concrete, actionable recommendations. The client expects meaningful architectural output within the first 1–2 weeks.
Requirements
- Strong experience in enterprise Azure Data Architecture and ownership of architectural decisions.
- Hands-on experience with Azure Cosmos DB (mandatory).
- Real production experience designing data architecture / the data layer for GenAI, RAG, and/or Agentic AI applications.
- Experience with Azure Synapse Analytics and Azure Databricks.
- Azure SQL MI / SQL Server / T-SQL.
- Azure Data Lake / Lakehouse architecture.
- Azure Functions.
- Strong data modeling, ingestion, and platform modernization experience.
- Experience with both structured and genuinely unstructured data: documents, PDFs, scans, images, free text, emails, etc.
- Experience building metadata/configuration-driven ingestion and scalable data platforms.
- Ability to make technology-neutral architecture decisions, choosing between Azure SQL, Synapse, ADF, Databricks, Lakehouse, and others based on scale, cost, and business requirements.
- Experience working with existing/legacy data platforms and modernizing them.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to work with both technical teams and business stakeholders.
- English: ideally C1.
Please note: candidates should be ready to discuss a real RAG/GenAI/Agentic AI project in detail: their role and ownership, preparation of source data and knowledge, metadata, chunking, embeddings, vector search/retrieval, storage and search technologies, and the use of Cosmos DB.
Location
- Priority: Serbia, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia.
- Also considered: EU, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Moldova.
- Candidates who are physically located in Ukraine are not considered. Ukrainian citizenship is not a restriction if the candidate currently resides in another eligible country.
We Offer
- 20 working days of paid vacation per year.
- Official holidays of Ukraine – days off.
- Modern equipment for work.
- Corporate events.
- External and internal training: conferences, professional events, courses, TechTalks.
- English speaking club.
About the Company
We offer a fully remote work environment with a UK/CET-aligned schedule. You will gain influence over enterprise-level architecture decisions, work at the intersection of Data Engineering and GenAI, and be part of a long-term project with clear, meaningful goals.
Apply for this Position
Ready to take the next step in your career? Interested in this role? Fill out the form below and attach your CV. We review every application and will get back to you within a few days.
Yuliia Odyntsova
Head of Recruiting Department
© Academy SMART. This job description was sourced from the employer's public career page. TheJob is not the employer — we index the posting and route candidates to the source. All content rights and hiring decisions belong to the employer.
IT Company Academy Smart provides IT development services for software solutions and applications for business.