Data Warehouse Architect Lead Specialist

Job Title: Data Warehouse Architect Lead Specialist
Location: Durham, North Carolina
Experience: 12+ Years
Employment Type: Contract
Interview Type: In-Person or Webcam

We are seeking a highly experienced Data Warehouse Architect Lead Specialist to guide the design, development, and optimization of enterprise-scale data warehouse solutions. The ideal candidate will demonstrate deep expertise in data modeling, ETL architecture, enterprise data strategy, and modern data warehousing technologies. This role requires a strong ability to collaborate with business leaders, analysts, and engineering teams to transform complex data requirements into scalable and high-performing solutions.

The Data Warehouse Architect Lead Specialist will be responsible for designing data architectures, implementing best-in-class data integration frameworks, and ensuring data quality, governance, performance, and security across systems. The candidate must be capable of leading technical discussions, providing architectural direction, and influencing technology decisions in alignment with organizational data goals.

• Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of enterprise data warehouse platforms and solutions.

• Translate business requirements into scalable data models, data pipelines, and analytical structures.

• Build data architecture blueprints, conceptual/logical/physical data models, and documentation.

• Oversee ETL/ELT pipeline development and performance tuning across data ingestion, transformation, and integration.

• Design, implement, and optimize data storage strategies for structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.

• Work with stakeholders to establish data governance, metadata management, data lineage, and data quality frameworks.

• Define standards, best practices, security guidelines, and architecture patterns for enterprise data solutions.

• Mentor engineering teams, review solution designs, and provide guidance on technical decisions.

• Collaborate with cloud engineering teams on migration of traditional warehouses to modern cloud-based solutions.

• Conduct performance tuning, capacity planning, cost optimization, and system scalability analysis.

• Support analytics, BI, and machine learning initiatives by ensuring data availability and consistency.

• 12+ years of experience in data warehousing, data architecture, and enterprise data systems.

• Strong expertise in data modeling (dimensional modeling, star schema, snowflake, normalization).

• Hands-on experience with major database platforms such as Oracle, SQL Server, Teradata, DB2, or Netezza.

• Proficiency in ETL/ELT tools such as Informatica, DataStage, Talend, SSIS, or Matillion.

• Advanced SQL performance tuning and query optimization skills.

• Experience with cloud data platforms such as AWS Redshift, Azure Synapse, Snowflake, or Google BigQuery.

• Experience with real-time streaming technologies (Kafka, Spark, or similar) is a plus.

• Knowledge of BI tools like Tableau, Power BI, QlikView, or MicroStrategy.

• Strong understanding of data governance, MDM, metadata, lineage, and data quality concepts.

• Experience leading data architecture strategy and technical roadmap planning.

• Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills.

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field.