Lead Data Engineering Architect

As Lead Data Engineering Architect, you will be a senior technical leader and trusted advisor for our clients. You will combine architecture expertise, hands-on engineering know-how and delivery leadership to help our customers design, build and evolve modern data platforms.

Working closely with the Practice Lead and a growing team of consultants, you will play a key role in shaping delivery success, guiding technical decisions, mentoring engineers and supporting the continued growth of our Data & AI practice in Belgium.

You will lead architecture and delivery activities across multiple client engagements, act as a trusted technical counterpart for stakeholders, and help translate business objectives into scalable, secure and production-ready data platform solutions.

As the practice continues to grow, you will have the opportunity to progressively expand your responsibilities in areas such as client development, pre-sales, recruitment, coaching and practice leadership.

• participate the end-to-end delivery of Data Platform & Engineering engagements, from initial scoping through kick-off, onboarding, execution, steering, quality assurance and closure of the delivery.

• Act as the primary technical contact for clients, building trusted relationships with delivery stakeholders, sponsors and decision-makers.

• Coordinate between one and four engagements, maintaining clear priorities, delivery plans, dependencies, risks, decisions and escalation paths.

• Take ownership of scope and architecture decisions, with broader staffing and delivery choices made in close collaboration with the Practice Lead.

• Lead operational steering meetings, communicate progress transparently and manage technical issues, delays, consultant transitions and scope changes.

• Safeguard delivery quality through architecture reviews, engineering standards, technical assessments and hands-on quality checks.

• Identify follow-on opportunities within existing engagements and bring them to Sales and the Practice Lead without compromising delivery focus.

• Design and evolve modern cloud data platform architectures, primarily across Microsoft Azure, Databricks and Microsoft Fabric, with Snowflake experience considered an advantage.

• Remain hands-on when required, particularly in Python, PySpark, Terraform, Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD.

• Define scalable patterns for ingestion, transformation, orchestration, security, monitoring, deployment and operational quality.

• Translate business and non-functional requirements into pragmatic architecture choices and executable delivery plans.

• Challenge designs constructively, coach engineers and ensure that solutions are maintainable, secure, cost-conscious and ready for production.

• Contribute across adjacent Data & AI topics when an engagement requires cross-domain collaboration.

• Support technical qualification, solution shaping, architecture, effort estimation, staffing, planning and risk assessment for new opportunities.

• Present and defend proposed solutions with clients, supported by the Practice Lead where appropriate.

• Run technical interviews and provide a clear go/no-go recommendation for Data Platform & Engineering candidates.

• Help shape recruitment priorities and support the certification and competence development of consultants.

• Represent the practice credibly in client discussions and, over time, contribute to reusable assets, delivery standards, partner activities and the evolution of the Data Platform offering.

• 9+ years of experience in Data Engineering, Cloud Data Platforms, Data Architecture or Technology Consulting.

• Strong expertise in Microsoft Azure and Databricks, with experience delivering modern cloud-based data platforms.

• Solid hands-on experience with Python, PySpark and modern data engineering practices.

• Experience designing and delivering scalable, secure and maintainable data solutions in enterprise environments.

• Ability to translate business requirements into architecture decisions and practical delivery plans.

• Experience interacting directly with clients, leading workshops and communicating with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Proven ability to coach, mentor or guide engineering teams.

• Professional fluency in English and native proficiency in either French or Dutch.

• Willingness to work with clients across Belgium and collaborate regularly with the Brussels-based team.

• Experience with Microsoft Fabric and/or Snowflake.

• Experience with Terraform, Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD practices.

• Knowledge of DataOps, DevOps, cloud security, governance, observability or FinOps.

• Experience leading delivery teams or coordinating multiple parallel workstreams.

• Experience supporting pre-sales activities, solution design or effort estimation.

• Experience in consulting environments and customer-facing delivery organizations.

• Familiarity with Agile delivery frameworks such as Scrum, SAFe or PRINCE2.

• Microsoft, Databricks or other relevant cloud certifications.