Posted 3 months ago
Chief Architect - Data Engineering (Databricks Practice)
@ Unison Group
Toronto, Ontario
Overview
Unison Group is hiring a Lead Solution Architect for Data Engineering to anchor its fast-growing Databricks practice across APAC. The role covers owning architecture on client engagements, leading migrations and cloud transformation programs, and supporting presales.
Responsibilities:
- Own end-to-end architecture on Databricks engagements
- Lead production data platform delivery and large migrations
- Drive presales through discovery, PoCs, RFPs and proposals
- Mentor engineers and build reusable accelerators and offerings
Requirements summary:
- 12+ years in data engineering or architecture
- 3+ years on Databricks at enterprise scale
- Deep Spark, Delta Lake and Unity Catalog expertise
- Strong Python, SQL and Scala
- Experience leading large migration programs
- Databricks Data Engineer Professional or SA certification preferred
Tools & skills
Source and dates
Employer career site / ATS feed · workable
- Employer posting date
- 2026-08-19
- First seen by our source
- 2026-10-26
- Source record updated
- 2026-10-26
These dates describe the source record, not a live verification that the employer is still hiring. Check the original posting.
Job details
| Seniority | Lead |
| Department | Software development |
| Experience | 12+ years |
| Manages people | Yes |
| Hours per week | 40 (estimated) |
| Work setting | Office, Client sites |
| Position | Mostly sitting |
| Physical demands | physical low · computer high |
Summary and details written by AI from the posting; the employer’s posting is the authority.
Unison Group
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Open jobs on Jobsy | 1 |
We are building a fast-growing Databricks practice delivering enterprise data and AI solutions across APAC. As Lead Solution Architect – Data Engineering, you will be the technical anchor of the practice: leading solution design on client engagements, owning and defending enterprise architectures in presales, and driving large-scale migration and cloud transformation programs. This is a hands-on leadership role for a builder who can equally command a whiteboard in front of a CTO and a Spark UI when a pipeline misbehaves. You will also shape the practice itself — mentoring engineers, creating accelerators and reusable assets, and converting delivery success into case studies and go-to-market offerings.
Architecture & Delivery
- Own end-to-end architecture and design decisions on Databricks engagements, ensuring solutions are secure, scalable, performant, and aligned with Lakehouse best practices.
- Lead delivery of production-grade data platforms — ingestion, transformation, orchestration, governance through Unity Catalog, and downstream BI/ML enablement.
- Lead large-scale migrations (legacy DW/ETL, Hadoop, on-prem estates) and cloud transformation projects to Databricks on Azure/AWS/GCP, including assessment, wave planning, and cutover.
- Stay hands-on: performance tuning, debugging, code and design reviews, and setting engineering standards for the team.
Presales & Stakeholder Management
- Own and defend enterprise solution designs in front of architecture boards, CIOs, and CTOs — and enjoy it.
- Drive presales end-to-end: discovery, solutioning, estimation, PoCs, RFPs, and proposals that convert.
- Translate hard technical trade-offs into decisions executives can act on — from engineer to boardroom without changing gears.
Who Thrives Here
- A builder at heart — 12+ years in data engineering/architecture, 3+ on Databricks at enterprise scale, and still happiest when hands are on the keyboard.
- Deep Spark expertise — architecture, performance tuning, streaming, debugging, the advanced stuff that separates architects from diagram-drawers.
- Lakehouse fluency — Medallion architecture, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, governance, orchestration (Workflows, DLT/Lakeflow, Airflow, ADF); Microsoft Fabric exposure a bonus.
- Battle-tested in migrations — you've led large transformation programs and have the scars and success stories to show for it.
- Presales instinct — you don't just design solutions; you sell them, price them, and defend them under fire.
- Modern edge — strong Python/SQL/Scala, CI/CD for data platforms, and comfort integrating ML/AI (MLflow, LLM APIs like OpenAI and Anthropic) into what you build.
- Certified credibility — Databricks Data Engineer Professional / SA accreditations strongly preferred.
- Founder energy — curiosity, adaptability, and the drive to build offerings, not just deliver projects
Journal
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