Lead Data Architect
Somewhere
🇿🇦 Hirezar Summary for South African Applicants
This fully remote full time position at Somewhere is open to applicants from South Africa. The estimated monthly salary is R74,000 – R111,000 ZAR. This role is suited for senior-level professionals. As a remote position, you can work from anywhere in South Africa — whether you're based in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, or a smaller town.
Job Description
Lead Data Architect (Microsoft Certified)Remote | Full-Time
About the Company
We are a rapidly growing Microsoft partner specializing in data, AI, and business applications. Our Data & AI practice helps organizations modernize their data estates, implement intelligent analytics, and build the foundations required for AI transformation. We are growing — and we are selective. We hire people who raise the bar, deliver with excellence, and care deeply about client success.
About the Role
Our Microsoft Data & AI practice is experiencing significant growth, and this hire is about acceleration — not a rebuild. You will join an established, high-performing team and take on a senior architectural leadership role across client engagements, pre-sales pursuits, and internal practice development.
This is a rare combination of roles: a strategist who architects, a technologist who leads, and a consultant who delivers. Data is the foundation of AI, and our clients rely on us to guide them through modernization — from strategy through execution. As Lead Data Architect, your work will directly shape how organizations harness their data for competitive advantage.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
* Partner with practice and delivery leadership to scale and mature our Data & AI capabilities
* Define and evolve our technical vision, reference architectures, and delivery methodologies
* Represent the company as a trusted advisor and subject matter expert in client executive conversations
* Build and maintain relationships with Microsoft and technology partners to stay ahead of platform evolution
Client Engagement & Pre-Sales
* Lead solution architecture for strategic pursuits and complex proposals
* Conduct executive workshops, architecture reviews, and data strategy sessions
* Translate business challenges into compelling, defensible technical solutions
* Develop client-ready assets: architecture blueprints, roadmaps, and business cases
Architecture & Technical Excellence
* Design enterprise-scale data platforms spanning ingestion, transformation, storage, analytics, and governance
* Architect solutions for both real-time streaming and batch processing workloads
* Define data governance frameworks leveraging Microsoft Purview and industry best practices
* Ensure solutions are secure, performant, cost-optimized, and production-ready
Delivery Oversight & Quality
* Provide architectural governance across active client engagements
* Conduct design reviews, resolve technical blockers, and ensure delivery quality
* Champion documentation standards, knowledge transfer, and long-term maintainability
* Mentor architects and engineers to elevate overall team capability
Thought Leadership
* Create high-quality technical content: blogs, white papers, reference architectures, and presentations
* Represent the company at industry events, webinars, and Microsoft partner forums
* Contribute to internal IP development and accelerator creation
Required Qualifications
* 8+ years in data architecture, data engineering, or enterprise data solutions
* 5+ years in client-facing consulting or professional services
* 3+ years leading architecture across multiple concurrent engagements
* Proven track record of successful enterprise data platform implementations on Microsoft Azure (Fabric, Synapse, or equivalent)
* Hands-on experience with data governance, real-time streaming, and batch processing workloads
Preferred Certifications
* Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate
* Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate
* Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
* Databricks Certified Data Engineer or Architect
Ideal Candidate Profile
You are a senior technologist who is equally comfortable in a boardroom and a whiteboard session. You have strong executive presence, earn credibility quickly with client stakeholders, and know how to drive architectural decisions without creating dependency. You are collaborative by nature, obsessed with client outcomes, and genuinely curious about where data and AI are heading.
You thrive in a consulting environment — you manage ambiguity well, context-switch across engagements, and hold yourself to a high standard of delivery quality. You do not need to be managed closely, and you make the people around you better.
Why Join Us
* High-growth practice at the intersection of data modernization and AI
* Work with enterprise clients on complex, meaningful engagements
* Strong Microsoft partnership with direct access to platform roadmaps
* A team that values technical excellence and invests in yours
Tips for South African Applicants
Timezone Advantage
South Africa (SAST, UTC+2) overlaps well with European business hours and has a few hours of overlap with US East Coast. Mention your timezone flexibility in your application.
Salary in Context
At R74,000/month, this role pays well above the average South African remote salary. The USD equivalent ($4,000/mo) benefits from the favourable exchange rate.
Application Tips
Tailor your CV to international standards — use a clean format, highlight remote work experience, and include your English proficiency. Many SA applicants succeed by emphasising their strong work ethic and cultural adaptability.
Load Shedding Preparedness
If you're applying for a remote role, having a backup power solution (UPS, inverter, or generator) and mobile data as a backup internet connection shows employers you're prepared for South Africa's infrastructure challenges.
About Somewhere
Somewhere is a company in the Recruitment & Staffing industry that hires remote workers from South Africa. They currently have 748 open positions on Hirezar. View all Somewhere jobs →