Cloud Data Platform Architect Lead

Job Description

Maybe you’ve stopped by for a coffee, fueled up your car, or grabbed something to eat on the go. Then you know what Circle K is about: making everyday life easier for people all over the world. We’ve grown into a successful global company with over 15,000 stores in 26 countries, serving more than 6 million customers each day. In all, we have more than 120,000 people working at our stores and support offices.

Circle K is transforming our Global Data Engineering and BI platform to match our business needs. Our ambition is to deliver modern and efficient solutions with the use of cutting-edge technologies, and we are looking for an experienced Data Platform Architect to join our Global Data Engineering and BI Team, responsible for the Circle K Data Platform in Microsoft Azure.

As a Data Platform Architect Lead, you will be responsible for designing, building, and maintaining robust data platforms and solutions on Azure and providing leadership to a team of architects and cloud platform administrators. Your work will focus on optimizing data delivery and ensuring the architecture aligns with business objectives, supporting new initiatives, and enhancing existing data capabilities. You will lead architectural decisions, establish governance standards, and collaborate across teams to ensure seamless data flows and scalable solutions.

This role will report to the Head of Global Data Engineering and BI and will have two direct reports and four to six contractors.

Responsibilities:

• Ensuring work is assigned, understood and completed by the team members as per agreed timelines and in accordance with team members’ skillsets and agreed upon standards
• Executing the required performance management requirements for your direct reports (employees) including but not limited to setting annual objects / KRAs, mid-year and year-end progress reviews, and growth conversations
• Working with Azure Cloud data platforms, providing subject matter expertise in designing, architecting and maintaining these solutions
• Driving the adoption and usage of Azure Databricks, Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric, and Power BI in the data platform
• Performing architectural assessments and defining solutions to produce detailed design documents addressing complex data needs
• Working with the team to define and drive platform governance initiatives
• Contributing and collaborating with other architects within the Enterprise Architecture team to get required approval from the Architecture Review Board for new initiatives
• Providing technical direction on Azure platform services, including best practices for system configurations, integration patterns, and leveraging platform features to meet business requirements.
• Providing platform standards to support the broader team of Data Engineering and Data Science Teams (establishing standards & best practices, efficient usage of Azure service, efficient ETL design patterns)
• Mentoring of Data Engineering and Data Science teams on, for example, leveraging Azure platform capabilities, such as configuring SPNs for system connections, enabling monitoring/logging for pipelines, and implementing security protocols
• Providing technical support for platform performance tuning and optimization activities 
• Participating in the creation and maintenance of technical roadmaps
• Participating in PoCs and evaluations of new technologies to identify opportunities for improving data platform capabilities and integration
• Working with Information Security Architect to develop and implement application or solution information security architectures
• Collaborating with Information Security teams to design and implement security strategies, including identity management, access control, and data encryption within the Azure platform.
• Collaborating with product owners, business analysts, and developers to translate business requirements into scalable platform solutions.
• Defining and implementing monitoring frameworks for data pipelines and platform services to ensure high availability and proactive issue resolution.
• Driving automation of platform deployments using CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) frameworks such as Terraform or Azure DevOps.

Required Skills and Experience

• 10 years of professional experience in designing & architecting Data & Analytics solutions, with a focus on Azure-based platforms and enterprise-scale systems
• 5 years’ experience leading cloud platform architects and platform administrators

• Working experience in designing and architecting solutions that leverage Databricks and Snowflake
• Hands-on experience with Azure Cloud services (Azure Synapse/SQL Server, ADF or close equivalents)

• Working experience with Microsoft Power BI (Power BI Platform, AAS/Tabular) integration with Azure-based Platforms.
• Expert understanding of relational databases, Data Warehouse & Data Lake modeling techniques & concepts, ETL/ELT processing patterns, and Big Data technologies

• Practical experience in designing systems to handle large data volumes
• Practical experience in designing systems for large-scale data processing with a focus on Azure performance optimization and cost management.

• Working knowledge of Python, PySpark, SQL & T-SQL
• Working experience in designing and architecting solutions that comply with data security industry standards and regulations, including RBAC, data encryption (GDPR, PCI, etc.), and monitoring
• Microsoft Azure Certification required

Soft Skills:

• Ability to understand complex business requirements and translate those into effective technical solutions, strategic and tactical directions
• Ability to mentor and provide leadership to team members on Azure platform usage, including best practices for architecture, cost optimization, and performance tuning.
• Ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with IT teams and business stakeholders, including facilitating discussions between technical and business staff
• Agile mindset and willingness to learn new tools
• Ability to work as part of a global team, including understanding how to navigate cultural differences in workstyles and communications

Other:

• Experience working in agile methodologies
• Git version control

• Fluent English (all project communication in English)

Nice to have:

• Snowflake and Databricks certification
• Experience in managing Apache Airflow
• Experience with CI/CD tools (preferably GitHub and Azure DevOps)
• Experience in JIRA and Confluence

Circle K is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
The Company complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA) and all state and local disability laws.  Applicants with disabilities may be entitled to a reasonable accommodation under the terms of the ADA and certain state or local laws as long as it does not impose an undue hardship on the Company. Please inform the Company’s Human Resources Representative if you need assistance completing any forms or to otherwise participate in the application process.

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