Senior Azure Data Architect (Cosmos DB, Synapse, GenAI/RAG)

We are looking for a Senior Azure Data Architect for a long-term engagement with an enterprise client. You will take ownership of an existing Azure data platform, modernise it, and design the data layer behind production GenAI, RAG and Agentic AI applications. This is not a hands-on LLM or AI-agent development role; it focuses on enterprise data ingestion, preparation, storage, governance and retrieval for AI consumption.

• Assess an existing Azure data platform, separate quick tactical fixes from the long-term target architecture, and drive both forward
• Deliver implementation-ready architecture: documentation, diagrams and recommendations that engineering teams can act on, with first results within 1-2 weeks
• Design the data and knowledge layer for RAG and Agentic AI applications
• Design scalable metadata/configuration-driven ingestion for databases, APIs and file-based sources
• Make technology-neutral decisions on when Synapse, Databricks, ADF, Azure SQL or a Lakehouse are justified

• Recent enterprise Azure data architecture experience with clear architecture ownership
• At least one production project (not a POC) where you designed or owned the data layer for a RAG, GenAI or Agentic AI application: document processing, OCR, chunking, embeddings, vector search
• Azure Cosmos DB in depth: data modelling, partition keys, indexing, RU/cost optimisation, Change Feed
• Azure Synapse Analytics, current experience: Pipelines, Spark, Serverless SQL, Dedicated SQL Pools
• Azure Databricks, ADF, Azure SQL MI / SQL Server / T-SQL, ADLS / Lakehouse, Azure Functions
• Strong data modelling (star schemas, fact and dimension tables), metadata-driven ingestion, structured and unstructured data (PDFs, scans, emails)
• Experience taking over and modernising a legacy data platform
• English C1

• 12-month full-time contract with a long-term perspective
• Start ASAP