Data Architect – FDE | Hartford, CT / Minneapolis, MN

Hello, We have a new requirement with **Virtusa** for a **Data Architect – FDE**. Please review the details below and start sourcing qualified candidates.**Job Title:** Data Architect – FDE **Client:** Virtusa **Location:** Hartford, CT / Minneapolis, MN – **Onsite** **Experience:** **12\+ Years** **Employment Type:** Contract **Cloud Ecosystem:** **Microsoft Azure** **Visa:** **H1B – C2C** **Rate:** **$70/hr** **About the Role** We are looking for a highly hands\-on **Data Architect with Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) capabilities** to solve complex enterprise data problems within a Microsoft Azure environment. This is **not a purely conceptual architecture position**. The candidate will work directly with business, product, data, and engineering stakeholders to understand complex and sometimes ambiguous problems, investigate existing systems and data, design appropriate solutions, and remain closely involved through implementation and production deployment. The ideal candidate should combine **enterprise\-level architecture expertise with strong hands\-on engineering capabilities**. **Key Responsibilities*** Work directly with business and technical stakeholders to understand complex data and technology problems. * Translate ambiguous business requirements into actionable architecture and engineering solutions. * Understand existing data ecosystems, applications, integrations, data flows, and constraints. * Define target\-state architectures for enterprise data solutions. * Architect scalable solutions using **Azure Databricks, ADLS, ADF, Microsoft Fabric/Synapse**, and related Azure technologies. * Define **Lakehouse, Delta Lake, batch, streaming, and analytical architecture** patterns. * Remain hands\-on with **Python, PySpark, SQL, Databricks**, and data engineering. * Develop or guide rapid prototypes to validate architecture decisions. * Define ingestion, transformation, storage, consumption, API, and integration patterns. * Architect solutions spanning data platforms, APIs, applications, analytics, and AI/ML consumers. * Define logical and physical data models. * Establish standards for data quality, metadata, lineage, security, governance, and observability. * Design for scalability, resiliency, performance, security, and cost optimization. * Conduct architecture, design, and code reviews. * Troubleshoot complex cross\-platform technical issues. * Provide technical direction and hands\-on guidance to Data Engineers and FDE teams. * Partner with AI/ML, DevOps, security, product, and application engineering teams. * Own technical outcomes from problem discovery through production implementation. **Required Qualifications*** **10\+ years** of progressive Data Engineering/Data Architecture experience. * Strong **Microsoft Azure architecture** experience. * Hands\-on experience with **Azure Databricks**. * Strong **Python and PySpark** skills. * Advanced **SQL**. * **ADLS Gen2**. * **Azure Data Factory (ADF)**. * **Lakehouse and Delta Lake architecture**. * Data modeling. * ETL/ELT and distributed data processing. * API and enterprise integration architecture. * CI/CD and modern engineering practices. * Data security, governance, metadata, lineage, and data quality. * Experience architecting **enterprise\-scale data platforms**. * Strong stakeholder\-facing communication and technical leadership. * Ability to move between architecture discussions and hands\-on technical problem solving. **Preferred Qualifications*** Microsoft Fabric. * Azure Synapse. * Unity Catalog. * Event Hubs/Kafka. * AKS/Kubernetes. * Terraform/IaC. * Azure OpenAI / AI Foundry exposure. * Healthcare data/platform experience. * Consulting, customer\-facing engineering, or **Forward Deployed Engineering** experience. **Important Submission Guidelines*** **H1B candidates on C2C only.** * **Rate: $70/hr C2C.** * Candidate must be comfortable working **onsite in Hartford, CT or Minneapolis, MN**. * Please prioritize candidates who are **hands\-on architects** and can contribute directly to engineering and implementation. * Purely conceptual/enterprise architecture profiles without strong hands\-on Azure data engineering experience will not be a good fit. * Strong experience with **Azure Databricks, Python, PySpark, SQL, ADLS Gen2, ADF, Lakehouse, and Delta Lake** is required. * Please ensure candidates closely match the technical requirements before submission. KEEZdFN27c