Data Practice Lead

Summary of the position

We are seeking an experienced and visionary Practice Lead – Data Engineering to build, scale, and lead our Data Engineering practice as a strategic capability within the organization. This role is a key investment aligned with our long-term growth strategy, recognizing data as a foundational pillar for digital transformation, analytics, AI/ML, and enterprise decision-making.

The Practice Lead will be responsible for defining the technical vision, delivery standards, talent strategy, and commercial roadmap for the Data Engineering practice. While current engagements span platforms such as Azure Data Factory, Microsoft Fabric, Synapse Analytics, Microsoft Purview, Power BI, and enterprise integration projects, the role is technology-agnostic and forward-looking, with a mandate to continuously evolve the practice in line with market trends and client needs.

This role combines deep technical expertise, delivery governance, people leadership, and business acumen, and will act as a trusted advisor to both clients and internal leadership.

Key accountabilities

Practice Strategy & Vision

• Define and wn the Data Engineering practice roadmap, including technology direction, service offerings, accelerators, and reusable frameworks.
• Cntinuously evaluate emerging platforms, architectures, and tools across cloud and open-source ecosystems (Azure, AWS, Fabric, Databricks, Snowflake, etc.).
• Establish the practice as a Center f Excellence (CoE) for data ingestion, transformation, governance, and analytics enablement.
• Align practice gals with organizational growth objectives, client demands, and industry trends

Technical Leadership & Architecture Governance

• Act as the technical authrity for all data engineering engagements across the organization.
• Define reference architectures, design standards, and best practices fr:
• Data lakes, lakehouses, and warehouses
• Metadata management, lineage, and governance
• Data quality, observability, and performance optimization
• Batch and real-time data pipelines
• Review and guide slution designs across projects to ensure scalability, security, and maintainability.

Delivery Excellence & Quality Assurance

• Prvide oversight across multiple client engagements to ensure consistent delivery quality.
• Define and enfrce engineering practices including:
• Coding standards and reviews
• Pipeline testing and validation
• CI/CD for data workflows
• Documentation and knowledge management
• Cnduct periodic technical health checks and delivery audits to proactively identify risks and improvement areas.
• Partner with Delivery Managers and Architects t resolve complex delivery challenges.

Client Engagement & Pre-Sales Support

• Act as a trusted technical advisr for clients on data strategy, modernization, and platform adoption.
• Supprt pre-sales activities including solutioning, estimations, proposals, and client presentations.
• Translate business requirements int scalable data architecture and implementation approaches.
• Help clients move from traditional reporting to modern, data-driven decision-making platforms

Talent Development & Capability Building

• Define skill matrices, learning paths, and certificatin plans for the practice.
• Mentr senior engineers and groom future practice leaders and architects.
• Foster a culture of engineering excellence, ownership, and continuous learning.

Skills and Experience

Core Experience

• About 12 to 15 years of experience in data engineering, analytics platforms, or large-scale integration programs.
• At least 5 years in a senior technical leadership, architecture, or practice-building role.
• Proven experience building and scaling enterprise-grade data platforms.

Technical Expertise

• Azure Data Factry, Synapse Analytics, Microsoft Fabric
• Data gvernance tools such as Microsoft Purview
• BI platfrms like Power BI
• Broad exposure to data engineering concepts:
• ETL/ELT, streaming, and event-driven pipelines
• Data lakehuse and warehouse architectures
• Data quality, lineage, security, and cmpliance
• Experience across cloud platforms (Azure preferred; AWS exposure is a plus).
• Familiarity with DevOps, CI/CD, and Infrastructure-as-Code for data platforms.

Leadership & Business Skills

• Strong stakeholder management and executive communication skills.
• Ability to balance technical depth with business and commercial considerations.
• Experience working with multiple clients and managing competing priorities.
• Strategic mindset with a bias for execution and measurable outcomes.