Data Platform Engineer

Data Platform Engineer

architectural leadership

Key Responsibilities

Platform Architecture & Infrastructure

• Design and implement enterprise-grade Microsoft Fabric architecture with a focus on performance, scalability, and cost efficiency.
  
• Build and maintain core data infrastructure, including data lakes, semantic layers, and integration frameworks.
  
• Establish and manage security models, access controls, and compliance frameworks across Fabric and legacy environments.
  
• Oversee performance monitoring, capacity planning, and resource optimisation.
  
• Implement cost governance practices, including usage monitoring, charge-back models, and optimisation strategies.
  
• Design and maintain integrations with legacy systems (SQL Server, SSIS, SSRS, Excel/VBA, OLAP cubes).
  

Governance & Standards

• Define and enforce enterprise data governance policies, quality standards, and architectural principles.
  
• Establish development standards, deployment pipelines, and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) practices.
  
• Maintain comprehensive platform documentation, architectural guidelines, and best practice standards.
  
• Implement data lineage, cataloguing, and metadata management solutions.
  
• Design and execute disaster recovery and business continuity strategies.
  

Technical Leadership & Vendor Management

• Mentor and guide Data Engineers and Data Analysts on platform usage and best practices.
  
• Lead architectural governance for external vendors developing data products on the Fabric platform.
  
• Review and approve vendor technical designs and implementation strategies.
  
• Ensure adherence to architectural standards and integration patterns.
  
• Troubleshoot complex technical issues in both internal and vendor-delivered solutions.
  
• Coordinate rollout of new platform capabilities and features.
  

Strategic Platform Development

• Evaluate and integrate new Microsoft Fabric features to enhance platform capabilities.
  
• Develop integration patterns for connecting external systems and data sources.
  
• Plan and execute platform upgrades, migrations, and scalability initiatives.
  
• Collaborate with enterprise architecture teams to align with broader IT strategy.
  

Required Skills & Experience

Essential

• 4+ years in data platform engineering with modern cloud platforms.
  
• 2+ years hands-on experience in Microsoft Fabric administration and architecture.
  
• Proven expertise in cost management and performance optimisation for large-scale data platforms.
  
• Strong security background, including Azure AD, RBAC, and compliance frameworks (GDPR, HIPAA, etc.).
  
• Integration experience with legacy systems (SQL Server, SSIS, SSRS, Excel/VBA).
  
• Advanced performance tuning skills for Fabric compute engines and SQL Server.
  
• Demonstrated scalability planning for expanding data volumes and user bases.
  

Highly Valued

• Microsoft Azure certifications (AZ-305, DP-203, DP-700).
  
• Experience with enterprise data governance tools and frameworks.
  
• Background in platform engineering or DevOps practices.
  
• Familiarity with data mesh or federated analytics architectures.
  
• Experience with monitoring and observability tools.