Data Platform Principal Architect

The role

You will architect governed, reusable data, knowledge, and skills layers to power analytics, AI agents, and real-time decision systems. You will own technical execution for data localisation strategies and design scalable patterns for datasets and analytical workflows.

What you will do

• Own the technical execution of regional and global data localisation strategies within Databricks.
• Design scalable patterns for governed datasets, semantic models, knowledge artifacts, analytical workflows, agent-callable tools, and transformation primitives.
• Reconcile local compliance constraints with global consistency in data definitions, metrics, and knowledge assets.
• Partner with Data Science, AI Engineering, Product, and Risk teams.
• Lead global data modelling efforts.
• Define Agent Interfaces through APIs and tools.
• Embed automated lineage and quality controls through Governance-as-Code.
• Serve as the primary technical authority leading design reviews and mentoring engineers.

Required qualifications

• 10+ years of experience designing and building large-scale data systems with strong architectural fundamentals.
• Hands-on experience with the Databricks ecosystem, including Unity Catalog and Delta Lake.
• Experience implementing semantic layers or metric stores to enable consistent reporting and analytics.
• Strong understanding of how AI and agent-based systems consume data, with experience building APIs or data services to support them.
• Experience designing data solutions that meet regional data residency and compliance requirements.
• Demonstrated senior-level individual contributor experience, including leading design reviews and mentoring engineers.

Nice to have

• Comfortable with ambiguity.
• Own the outcome and don't wait for permission to fix what's broken.
• Connect dots across functions and hold the big picture without losing grip on the details.
• Simplify complexity rather than hiding behind it.
• Comfortable operating across time zones with a globally distributed team.

About the company

Airwallex is an AI-native financial operating system for a real-time, intelligent economy. It provides financial infrastructure spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.