Principal Data Architect

Position Description

• Assess data functions for maturity, delivery health, gaps, overlaps, and handoff issues, and recommend practical improvements.
• Advise Data team leaders on architecture, engineering, governance, quality, delivery, cost, and risk, and track recommendations through results.
• Review and challenge solution designs, data models, architecture decisions, and engineering approaches before build.
• Ensure adherence to Azure Databricks lakehouse, ADF, and medallion architecture standards, including Staging, Standard, EDH/Gold, and BSL.
• Work hands-on with PySpark, Spark SQL, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Databricks Workflows, and ADF orchestration.
• Build reference implementations, accelerators, and reusable patterns for adoption across Data teams.
• Design and review FHIR R4 models, resources, and APIs for claims, clinical, provider, and member data, including US Core, CARIN Blue Button, Da Vinci, and PDex.
• Guide CMS Interoperability delivery, including CMS-9115-F and CMS-0057-F requirements for Patient Access, Provider Directory, Payer-to-Payer, Provider Access, and Prior Authorization APIs.
• Review data quality, testing, regression coverage, security, privacy, and compliance readiness, including HIPAA, PHI/PII, CMS, and state Medicaid requirements.
• Translate requirements from Operations, Clinical, Finance, Actuarial, Quality/Stars, and Compliance into clear technical expectations.
• Identify technical debt, duplicated effort, and cost inefficiencies and drive remediation.
• Coach directors, architects, and engineers through design reviews, pairing, and knowledge sharing.
• Partner with the Data PMO on prioritization, budgets, cloud spend, run-rate, and data risk.
• Manage consulting and technology vendors, including SOWs, SLAs, staffing, rate cards, utilization, scope, performance, licensing, and knowledge transfer.
• Support RFPs and POCs for data governance, data quality, MDM, testing, and observability solutions.
• Partner with Procurement, Legal, Information Security, and Third-Party Risk on contracts, BAAs, and compliance.

Required Skills

• 15+ years of data and analytics experience, including senior advisory, architecture, or leadership experience across multiple data disciplines.
• Deep, current, hands-on Azure Databricks experience with PySpark, Spark SQL, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Workflows, and lakehouse/medallion architecture.
• Experience with Azure Data Factory, ADLS Gen2, and Azure security/networking fundamentals.
• Hands-on FHIR R4 experience, including resource modeling, US Core, CARIN, Da Vinci, FHIR servers, and/or Azure Health Data Services.
• Working knowledge of CMS-9115-F and CMS-0057-F and related interoperability APIs.
• Healthcare payer experience, particularly Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, or managed care.
• Experience across data governance, data quality, MDM/RDM, and QA/testing.
• Strong consulting/vendor management experience, including SOWs, SLAs, negotiations, utilization, and performance management.
• Ability to review business and technical requirements and identify gaps, risks, and misalignment.
• Proven ability to challenge and influence senior leaders without direct authority.
• Excellent executive communication skills and the ability to turn complex issues into clear, actionable recommendations.

Bonus Skills

• Experience with claims, eligibility, provider, pharmacy, quality/HEDIS, and encounter data.
• Big Four, tier-one technology consulting, or similar senior advisory experience.
• Knowledge of HIPAA, X12 EDI, TEFCA, and state Medicaid reporting.
• FinOps/cloud cost-management experience.
• Master’s degree or MBA.
• Certifications such as Databricks Data Engineer Professional, Azure Data Engineer/Solutions Architect, HL7 FHIR, CDMP, or TOGAF.