Life Sciences Data & AI Architect

Life Sciences Data & AI Architect

**AWS Databricks Pharma**

Location: New York / New Jersey

Employment Type: Full-time, Permanent

Salary: Up to $150,000 plus discretionary bonus

Visa Sponsorship: Not available for this position

The Opportunity: An established global AI and analytics consultancy is looking for a Principal Data & AI Architect to lead major data-modernisation and AI transformation programmes for Fortune 50 life-sciences and pharmaceutical clients.

This is a senior, client-facing position combining technical architecture, programme leadership and strategic consulting. You will work directly with senior business and technology stakeholders to design scalable cloud data platforms, establish architectural standards and guide multidisciplinary delivery teams.

The successful candidate will bring strong pharmaceutical or life-sciences consulting experience alongside deep technical expertise in AWS, Databricks and modern data architecture.

Key Responsibilities:

Data and AI Architecture:

• Design end-to-end cloud data and AI architectures using AWS and Databricks.
• Develop scalable data models, ETL pipelines, consumption layers and analytical platforms.
• Define architectural standards, reusable patterns and technical best practices.
• Assess existing data environments and produce future-state architecture roadmaps.
• Review solution designs for scalability, performance, security and cost efficiency.
• Evaluate technology options and recommend appropriate long-term strategies.
• Design architectures supporting analytics, AI and machine-learning products.
• Establish metadata, lineage, data-quality and governance frameworks.
• Implement observability, logging, monitoring and cost-optimisation standards.
• Support cloud migration and data-platform modernisation programmes.

Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical Consulting:

• Apply knowledge of pharmaceutical and life-sciences data environments to complex transformation programmes.
• Help clients modernise the data foundations supporting AI products and business applications.
• Work with operational data layers, contextual and ontology layers, governance frameworks and enterprise AI foundations.
• Translate business and analytical requirements into practical, scalable technical solutions.
• Support the adoption of modern data platforms and engineering practices across client organisations.

Client and Programme Leadership:

• Lead workshops with senior client stakeholders to define problems, requirements and potential solutions.
• Advise VP and Executive Director-level stakeholders on data, analytics and AI strategy.
• Manage technical delivery across multiple onsite and offshore teams.
• Partner with engineering teams, data-product owners and business stakeholders.
• Provide technical direction throughout complex, enterprise-scale programmes.
• Lead steering-committee discussions and communicate technical decisions clearly to non-technical audiences.
• Contribute to client proposals, RFPs, RFIs and the development of new opportunities.
• Build trusted client relationships and support the continued growth of key accounts.

Essential Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience across data architecture, data engineering, software development or AI.
• A minimum of five years’ consulting experience within pharmaceuticals or life sciences.
• Proven experience designing enterprise-scale data architectures.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of Databricks, Python, Spark and SQL.
• Strong experience with AWS services such as S3, Glue, Redshift, EMR, Lambda, Athena, DynamoDB and Kinesis.
• Experience with dbt Core or dbt Cloud.
• Strong understanding of distributed computing, including in-memory processing and MPP architectures.
• Experience designing scalable analytical and operational data models.
• Knowledge of metadata management, data lineage, governance and data-quality frameworks.
• Experience with CI/CD, DevOps, automated testing and static-code analysis.
• Experience leading technical delivery across multidisciplinary and geographically distributed teams.
• The confidence and executive presence to lead senior client meetings independently.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to translate between business priorities and technical delivery.

Desirable Experience:

• Data Vault 2.0 and automate_dv.
• Enterprise AI foundations and AI-product modernisation.
• Ontologies, contextual data layers and lif…