Senior Data & AI Architect

About the role

Artefact, a strategy and data consulting firm with 1,800+ consultants, data scientists and engineers across 23 countries, is looking for a Senior Data & AI Architect in its Zurich office. The role bridges business strategy and technology across Data and GenAI: you will design the operating model and organization of the Data & GenAI CoE, define the target architecture and steer data products from demand through to rollout.

Key responsibilities

• Design the Data & AI operating model (centralized, federated, hub-and-spoke) following Data Mesh principles, including roles, domain ownership and governance
• Define the Data & GenAI CoE scope, service catalogue, skills, sizing and engagement model with business domains
• Design end-to-end processes for demand management, use case prioritization, funding and value tracking
• Define the target data platform architecture on cloud (Azure, AWS, GCP) and Databricks, including GenAI components (RAG, agents, vector stores, LLMOps)
• Run make-or-buy analyses and vendor selections, and check architecture, security and governance against enterprise standards
• Gather functional requirements with the business and turn them into data products with owners, consumers, SLAs and quality metrics
• Act as design authority during implementation, reviewing integrator solutions and overseeing rollout quality, progress and risks

Required profile

• At least 4 years of professional experience in IT
• At least 2 years on AI/GenAI, Data Mesh and requirements-gathering projects
• Consulting experience, ideally strategy consulting, combined with experience at a system integrator or delivery firm
• Experience designing operating models, Data/AI organizations or CoEs
• Excellent written and spoken English

Required skills

• Data Mesh and governance: domain ownership, data products, federated governance, data contracts, catalogues and lineage (Unity Catalog, OpenMetadata, Collibra)
• Cloud data and AI PaaS services on Azure, AWS and/or GCP, with security, networking and FinOps principles
• Databricks: Lakehouse, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Workflows
• GenAI: RAG, agentic architectures, LLMOps, model evaluation, Azure AI Foundry, Vertex AI, Bedrock
• Requirements gathering, user stories, process modelling, agile methods, programme governance
• Business cases, TCO and value tracking

Nice to have: German not strictly required; pharma client experience; cloud or Databricks certifications; tech due diligence or post-merger transformation experience; prior engineering or developer background.

What we offer

• A role bridging strategy and technology with international projects on Data Mesh, data platforms and GenAI
• Close collaboration with the Project Lead and a growth path towards programme leadership roles
• Hybrid work in Zurich or Lausanne
• Highly competitive compensation package