Microsoft Fabric Architect & Technical Lead

Microsoft Fabric Architect & Technical Lead We are seeking an experienced Microsoft Fabric Architect who will also serve as the Technical Lead for a small team of Fabric data engineers responsible for designing, implementing, and optimising end-to-end solutions on the Microsoft Fabric platform on a contract or consultancy basis initially. The successful candidate will drive technical excellence, lead solution architecture, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver scalable, secure, and high-performing data and AI solutions that support business goals. Key Responsibilities: As the Microsoft Fabric Architect and Technical Lead, you will play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering our data transformation strategy. You will provide hands-on technical leadership to design and implement Fabric-based solutions that enable insight, automation, and innovation across the organisation. Your key responsibilities will include: • Architecting and delivering end-to-end Microsoft Fabric solutions, ensuring scalability, security, and alignment with business goals. • Designing and maintaining enterprise-grade workloads and semantic layers to support robust reporting and analytics capabilities. • Sizing and planning Fabric initiatives, including Fabric capacity planning, estimating effort, infrastructure needs, team size, and delivery timelines. • Implementing monitoring, logging, and performance optimisation across Fabric workloads • Enabling advanced analytics and machine learning by leveraging Fabric Data Science, Notebooks, MLflow, or integration with Azure ML. • Driving governance, security, and compliance best practices, working in alignment with Microsoft Purview and internal data policies. • Collaborating with cross-functional teams including Product Owners, Business Analysts, and Engineers to translate business requirements into technical deliverables. • Leading DevOps practices for analytics, including Git integration, CI/CD pipelines, and automated deployment of Fabric assets. • Providing mentoring and technical guidance to team members while helping build internal capability and knowledge of Microsoft Fabric. • Keeping abreast of Microsoft Fabric roadmap and ecosystem developments and proactively recommending improvements to platform strategy and architecture. • Stay current with Microsoft Fabric roadmap, ecosystem updates, and recommend enhancements to our platform strategy. Required Skills & Experience: To be successful in this role, you will need a solid background in data architecture and platform delivery, with deep technical expertise in Microsoft Fabric. We are looking for candidates who can bring a combination of strategic thinking and hands-on execution, supported by the following: • Scientific degree in relevant field (e.g. Business Intelligence, Business Analytics, Data Science, Statistics, Information Technology) or equivalent experience. • Proven experience in architecting and delivering solutions using Microsoft Fabric, including OneLake, Lakehouses, Warehouses, Data Factory, Pipelines, Notebooks, Real-time intelligence and Power BI. • Strong expertise in data modelling, DAX, and Power BI semantic models. • Solid understanding Python, PySpark, Spark SQL, KQL, Power Query, PowerShell • Hands-on experience with data ingestion, data transformation, and pipeline orchestration in a cloud environment including Azure services like Key Vault, Entra ID, App registrations for Service principal. • Familiarity with machine learning workloads, using Fabric ML capabilities or integration with Azure Machine Learning. • Solid understanding of data security, compliance, and governance frameworks • Experience working with DevOps tools, source control (e.g., Git), and CI/CD pipelines for data and analytics assets. • Ability to lead technical discussions, make architectural decisions, and communicate complex ideas clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders. • Strong problem-solving skills and a continuous improvement mindset. • Excellent documentation and presentation skills (written and verbal) Preferred Qualifications: In addition to the core skills and experience required for the role, the following qualifications and background are desirable and will further strengthen a candidate’s ability to succeed as a Microsoft Fabric Architect and Technical Lead: • Microsoft certifications in Fabric, Power BI, Azure Data Engineering or AI (e.g., DP-700, DP-600, PL-300, DP-100). • Background in software development, data engineering, or cloud architecture. • Experience in Agile/Scrum delivery environments. • Knowledge of ESG reporting, manufacturing data, or operational excellence use cases is a plus.