Senior Data Architect, Colombia

CI&T is expanding its data capabilities to support a strategic, end-to-end technology engagement with a US-based client in the Education Technology (EdTech) sector — a company that partners with hundreds of universities and higher education institutions through digital learning solutions. To lead this data initiative, we are looking for a Data Architect Senior who combines deep technical expertise with the ability to guide a team and communicate clearly with client stakeholders.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role — not a traditional management position. The Data Architect Senior will be the technical reference for the data team, responsible for architectural decisions, solution design, and day-to-day technical direction. The role spans the full lifecycle of data products, from ingestion and lakehouse design through modeling, governance, and serving, and operates in a nearshore model with strong overlap with US business hours.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the data team technically, providing hands-on guidance to database specialists and developers on the design, development, and maintenance of data products and pipelines.
• Define and evolve the target data architecture — covering ingestion, lakehouse design, data modeling, governance, and serving layers — aligned with security, performance, and cost standards.
• Drive solution design by translating business and technical requirements into workable solutions, selecting appropriate frameworks, patterns, and modeling approaches for each context.
• Collaborate directly with the client's architects and business leaders to present architectural options and trade-offs; record decisions clearly so the team builds from a shared, agreed foundation.
• Establish and enforce standards for data quality, access control, data lineage, and privacy in an environment that handles regulated and sensitive data.
• Maintain a stable and productive development environment by incorporating CI/CD and DataOps practices that support consistent, reliable delivery.
• Lead current-state data assessments and knowledge transfer processes during transitions, identifying priorities that deliver measurable business value incrementally.
• Develop proofs of concept and prototypes to validate architectural approaches and demonstrate value to client stakeholders.
• Stay actively connected to CI&T's data practice, contributing to and drawing on shared methodologies and expertise across engagements.

Requirements:

• Advanced English proficiency (C1 level or above) — mandatory for direct, daily engagement with North American stakeholders
• Proven experience in data architecture design and hands-on technical leadership of multidisciplinary data teams
• Solid experience designing, building, and deploying data pipelines, lakehouse architectures, and data products at scale
• Hands-on experience with Databricks — including Delta Lake and Unity Catalog — or equivalent depth on AWS data services
• Strong data modeling skills across dimensional (Kimball) and relational approaches, with advanced SQL
• Experience with pipeline orchestration and workflow automation (e.g., dbt, Databricks Workflows, or Apache Airflow)
• Demonstrated ability to translate business problems into practical data solutions and communicate trade-offs to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Ability to work in a nearshore delivery model with consistent overlap with US Central business hours

Nice to Have:

• Databricks certification
• Experience with Snowflake or similar cloud data warehouse platforms
• Knowledge of data governance and privacy principles in regulated industries
• Experience with CI/CD and MLOps pipeline practices
• Familiarity with AI solutions and agentic coding workflows
• Experience leading consultative data assessments and data modernization engagements
• Spanish or Portuguese language skills