Principal Data Architect

Founded in Switzerland in 1968, Zühlke is owned by its partners and located across Europe and Asia. We are a global transformation partner, with engineering and innovation in our DNA. We're trusted to help clients envision and build their businesses for the future – to run smarter today while adapting for tomorrow’s markets, customers, and communities. Our multidisciplinary teams specialise in tech strategy and business innovation, digital solutions and applications, and device and systems engineering. We excel in complex, regulated spaces including health and finance, connecting strategy, tech implementation, and operational services to help clients become more effective, resilient businesses. If you share our values and want to do the best work, for the right reasons, we can offer you the chance to do it on a global scale and play a real role in shaping our exciting journey. Role As a Principal Data Architect, you will provide strategic guidance and long-term vision across data and AI, working closely with our clients to solve complex data challenges, from platform modernisation and governance to real-time architectures and AI operationalization. You will design and deliver data architectures and strategies that are fit for purpose, balancing technical rigour with business value, while bringing the curiosity and conviction to challenge conventional thinking and push the boundaries of what data and AI can do for our clients. How you’ll make impact

What’s important to us

What we offer

• Trusted Advisor: You guide our clients towards successful solutions to their data challenges. You'll lead design sessions, architecture reviews, proof-of-concept projects and evaluation of new data technologies and vendors.
• Early Engagement & Vision: You take part in pre-sales and sales activities to help create a compelling vision for our clients' data strategy, modernisation and governance journeys, including transitions to cloud-native data platforms, data meshes, real-time data architectures, and AI-native platforms.
• Architecture & Implementation: You design sophisticated architectures for data and AI projects, implementing them together with your team while inspiring your stakeholders.
• Methodology & Concepts: You bring rigorous methodology to every engagement, applying agile DevOps and DataOps practices to keep delivery on track, while ensuring architectural decisions are grounded in deep conceptual understanding of data platforms, data mesh, security and governance.
• Cloud Expertise: You feel at home in both cloud and on-premises environments. In the cloud, you design optimal solutions on Azure, AWS, and GCP, knowing when each platform is the right fit.
• Data Engineering: You lead your team to success in flagship projects with solid data engineering knowledge, ensuring clean and maintainable code, efficient data models and robust pipelines.
• AI Operationalization: You take data and AI projects from prototype to production readiness, with a strong focus on traceability, transparency, and reproducibility as foundations for governed and compliant AI.
• Thought Leadership & Consulting: You promote understanding of AI and data technologies, share your knowledge both internally and externally, and invest in growing the talent around you.
• You bring deep expertise in AI and data solutions, along with a nuanced understanding of their possibilities and limitations.
• You have a passion for clean, maintainable software architecture in data platforms and have taken on responsibility in technical mandates in agile environments both as an architect and as an engineer within your career.
• You have proven experience leading the technical aspects of pre-sales activities and bid management, shaping winning proposals and translating client needs into compelling solution narratives.
• You are proficient across multiple data platforms and cloud environments, including Azure, AWS, GCP, Databricks and Snowflake, and are comfortable with distributed processing, data modelling, API design, containerisation, serverless computation, data governance, and data security.
• With your positive attitude and strong self-motivation, you take responsibility for proposals, client projects and the further development of our data and AI competencies. You make confident decisions and can clearly explain your reasoning, balancing technical rigour with pragmatism to keep delivery on track.
• Excellent communication skills on management level as well as with technical experts in both German and English are essential.
• You hold a technical degree in Computer Science, or a comparable field.
• Work