Senior Azure Data Architect – GenAI / RAG Data Layer

Space Folding is looking for a Senior Azure Data Architect for a 12-month, full-time, fully remote engagement with an enterprise client working in the CET time zone.

This is a data architecture role, not an LLM or agent developer role. The client needs someone who has owned the data layer behind a production GenAI, RAG or agentic application on Azure: how enterprise data and documents are ingested, prepared, stored, governed and made available for retrieval and AI consumption.

What you'll do

• Take ownership of an existing, incompletely documented Azure data platform, assess it quickly, and deliver both tactical fixes and a long-term target architecture
• Design AI-ready data architecture and the knowledge layer supporting GenAI/RAG use cases (ingestion, text extraction/OCR, metadata, chunking, embeddings, vector search)
• Build scalable, metadata/configuration-driven ingestion for databases, APIs and file-based sources, so new sources can be added without rebuilding
• Work with genuinely unstructured data: PDFs, scanned documents, images, emails, free text
• Improve performance, scalability, maintainability and data quality
• Produce implementation-ready architecture documentation, diagrams and technical recommendations that engineering teams can act on, with concrete output in the first 1–2 weeks
• Shape the direction toward AI and natural-language querying of enterprise data

Must have (recent, hands-on experience)

• Senior-level enterprise Azure data architecture ownership, including modernizing an existing problematic platform
• Azure Cosmos DB in production: data modeling, partition-key strategy, indexing, RU/throughput and cost optimization, scaling, consistency, Change Feed, working with file-based data. You can explain when Cosmos DB is the right choice and when it is not.
• Azure Synapse Analytics , current experience across Pipelines, Spark, Serverless SQL and Dedicated SQL Pools, and when to use Synapse versus Azure SQL, ADF, ADLS, Databricks or Fabric
• At least one production (not POC) RAG/GenAI/agentic project where you personally designed or owned the data layer
• Azure Databricks, Azure Data Factory, Azure SQL MI / SQL Server / T-SQL, Azure Data Lake / Lakehouse architecture, Azure Functions
• Strong data modeling (fact tables, dimensional/star schemas, analytical model optimization) and batch, incremental processing and incremental refresh
• Technology-neutral judgment: comfortable concluding that Databricks, Synapse or ADF is not needed when scale, cost or the existing architecture don't justify it
• Works independently with incomplete information and moves quickly from analysis to tangible output
• Clear communication with both technical teams and business stakeholders
• Strong English (C1 preferred)

Engagement

• 12 months, full-time, fully remote, CET working hours
• B2B contract
• Start: ASAP
• Location: Serbia
• Interview process: short intro call + one technical interview (1 hour)

How to apply

Send your CV with clear dates, clients/projects and your personal responsibilities, plus a short description (5–10 lines) of:

1. Your production RAG/GenAI/agentic project: dates, what the application did, what you personally owned, how data was prepared for retrieval (OCR, text extraction, metadata, chunking, embeddings), which storage and vector-search technologies were used, whether Cosmos DB was part of the AI architecture, and whether it ran in production
2. Your strongest Azure Synapse project: which Synapse capabilities you personally designed or used, and which architecture decisions were yours

Please also include: years of experience, English level, country of residence, citizenship, earliest start date, and expected rate.

Shortlisted candidates will complete a skills matrix that the client verifies during the technical interview. Please describe only experience you can discuss in depth. Applications without a concrete project description will not be considered.

#Azure #DataArchitecture #CosmosDB #Synapse #RAG #GenAI #Databricks #RemoteJob #Hiring

Rad na daljinu: Da

Izvor: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4473143222/

Nivo: senior