Lead Data Engineer / Data Architect

**Lead Data Engineer / Data Architect** **Location:** Chicago, IL | Quincy, MA | Salisbury, NC **Company Overview** Glint Tech Solutions is a women-owned global staffing and IT recruiting firm connecting top technical talent with leading enterprise clients across the United States and Canada. **Project Description** Our client, a major US retail organization, is modernizing their enterprise eCommerce platform serving millions of weekly omnichannel customers. The Lead Data Architect will own enterprise data architecture strategy, driving scalable platform design across re-architecture, database migrations, and cloud-native microservices migration — all with zero business disruption. Availability until 8:00 PM CET is required; no overtime expected. **Key Responsibilities** - Design and own enterprise data architecture supporting high-volume retail eCommerce operations - Build and maintain ETL/ELT pipelines using Azure Data Factory, Synapse Analytics, and Databricks/pySpark - Design conceptual, logical, and physical data models for efficient data storage and retrieval - Implement data warehousing solutions — dimensional modeling, star schemas, Data Mesh, Delta Lakehouse, Data Vault - Lead database migrations and microservices migration to unified cloud-native solutions - Integrate data from databases, APIs, and external providers via API integration and message queuing - Embed metadata and governance processes into cloud-based data platforms - Lead and mentor cross-functional engineering teams while driving technical strategy and stakeholder communications **Mandatory Skills** - 8+ years overall experience with 1+ year in an Architect-level role - 3+ years of strong hands-on Azure Data Factory and Azure Synapse Analytics experience - Deep Microsoft Azure expertise — Data Lake Storage, Databricks, pySpark, Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL - Strong SQL proficiency for complex queries, transformations, and cloud performance tuning - Experience with Azure MI, Cosmos DB, Analysis Services, and Informix - Proficiency in Python and Python-based ETL tools - Shell scripting experience — Bash, Unix, or Windows - Proven ability to lead teams, define technical strategy, and communicate across all organizational levels **Nice-to-Have Skills** - Elasticsearch experience - Docker and Kubernetes familiarity - Performance tuning and pipeline optimization expertise - Azure, Databricks, or relevant cloud certifications