Data and AI Architect

Company Overview Focaloid was established in 2013 and since then has grown into a trusted technology partner for businesses worldwide. We work with the world's top brands, leading enterprises, small & medium businesses and innovative startups, delivering end-to-end technology services. We provide cutting edge digital solutions to our clients, enabling them to adapt and thrive in the digital economy. Focaloid's specialists have extensive experience in delivering innovative and cutting-edge solutions across industry verticals. We focus on delivering secure & scalable software solutions that provide a simple yet compelling user experience. We pride ourselves on being a true partner and not just a vendor to our clients. Collaboration, continuous learning and a spirit of innovation are at the core of Focaloid's culture. We are present in 4 cities around the globe, and our delivery center is based in India. Please visit our website - www.focaloid.com to learn more. Job Details Job Title Technical Architect Data & AI Experience 12+ years Job Location Kochi Employment Type: Full Time We're looking for a Technical Architect grounded in conventional data and AI engineering — data platforms, ML pipelines, Lakehouse architecture — with strong, certified expertise on Databricks. This role anchors our Databricks-based delivery capability: designing Lakehouse architectures, ML/analytics pipelines, and governance frameworks for enterprise clients, and playing a key role in strengthening our Databricks partner credentials. Key Responsibilities Architect end-to-end data platforms on Databricks: ingestion, Lakehouse (Delta Lake) design, transformation pipelines, and serving layers Design and oversee ML pipelines on Databricks (MLflow, Feature Store, model serving) for classical ML and forecasting use cases Lead technical architecture for client engagements spanning data warehousing, ETL/ELT modernization, and analytics/BI enablement Establish data governance, security, and cost-optimization best practices across Databricks workspaces (Unity Catalog, access controls, cluster policies) Support Focaloid's Databricks partnership growth: contribute to certification goals, joint solutioning, and case-study-worthy delivery outcomes Partner with presales on scoping, estimation, and proof-of-concept builds for prospective Databricks-based engagements Mentor data engineers and data scientists on platform best practices and architecture standards Evaluate build-vs-buy and platform trade-offs (Databricks vs. Snowflake vs. cloud-native alternatives) based on client context Ensure delivery quality through architecture reviews, code reviews, and production readiness checks Required Skills & Experience Strong background in data engineering and data platform architecture: data warehousing, ETL/ELT, Lakehouse design Active Databricks certification(s) required — Databricks Certified Data Engineer Professional, or Databricks Certified Machine Learning Associate/Professional (multiple certifications a strong plus) Deep hands-on experience with the Databricks ecosystem: Delta Lake, Spark (PySpark/SQL), MLflow, Unity Catalog, Workflows Solid understanding of classical ML pipeline design: feature engineering, model training/serving, forecasting, MLOps Cloud platform experience (AWS/Azure/GCP) with Databricks deployed on at least one Strong SQL and Python skills; familiarity with Spark internals and performance tuning Experience designing for data governance, security, and compliance in enterprise environments Comfortable in a client-facing services environment: can communicate architecture trade-offs to both technical and business stakeholders Preferred / Nice-to-Have SnowPro Core or Snowflake certifications (secondary platform exposure) Experience in manufacturing/automotive analytics or industrial data use cases Exposure to GenAI-on-Databricks capabilities (Agent builder, vector search, GenAI Engineer certification track) Prior experience contributing to a formal technology partner program (certification tracking, joint GTM, case studies) Has architected and delivered at least one production-grade Databricks engagement