Senior Solutions Architect

Senior Solution Architect - Data & AI | (Hybrid) across Germany | Competitive | Permanent

AI Futures has been engaged to find a Senior Solution Architect - Data & AI for a major German media and advertising organisation - a company with one of the largest premium digital and out-of-home networks in the country, now investing seriously in the AI layer on top of its Azure and Databricks data platform.

The company

A scaled German media group operating across digital and out-of-home advertising at national scale. Their data platform - built on Azure Data Services and Databricks - underpins audience intelligence, programmatic delivery, and commercial analytics across a premium inventory network.

The role

A senior individual contributor and internal advisor role: you translate business requirements into platform solutions on Databricks and Azure, build the self-service layer that lets analysts and data scientists work independently, and ensure the AI use cases the business wants to build are grounded in architecture that can support them. You will own demand management, data governance in Unity Catalog, and the enablement of a growing data community - and you will build and ship prototypes, dashboards, and AI applications yourself, not just specify them.

What you’ll do

• Analyse business requirements and develop solution architectures on the Databricks Lakehouse platform and Azure Data Services, translating them into concrete recommendations and implementation paths
• Build out self-service capabilities and enable users through training, templates, onboarding, and community formats so they can develop and use data products independently
• Manage demand transparently, prioritising with the Product Owner by business value, effort, and impact
• Shape data governance using Unity Catalog - permissions, access concepts, data quality standards - so the platform can be used safely and independently at scale
• Develop the internal data community through show-and-tell formats, hackathons, and office hours; ensure shared standards are genuinely adopted
• Independently implement prototypes, dashboards, notebooks, and AI applications; drive their transition into production and measure adoption, value, and cost through meaningful KPIs

What you’ll bring

• Several years in data consulting, business intelligence, or solution architecture - with experience guiding business units through change
• Hands-on SQL and Python: you write queries, build dashboards, read and evaluate existing code; production experience with Databricks or a comparable Lakehouse platform is expected
• Practical experience with LLM, RAG, or agent-based AI applications - either in production or a credible proof of concept - with the ability to assess quality, effort, and cost
• Familiarity with agentic engineering frameworks and the judgment to know when an agentic approach actually adds value
• Experience with data governance, access management, data quality, or data privacy requirements - and the ability to translate technical and business requirements into durable standards, ideally including Unity Catalog
• Strong communication: you back recommendations with KPIs and usage data, explain complex topics clearly, and build consensus with well-reasoned arguments
• Direct experience with Azure Data Services - Data Factory, Synapse, Azure Storage, or equivalent
• Databricks certifications or deep platform familiarity beyond the basics
• Experience in media, advertising technology, or publisher-side data platforms
• Track record running internal enablement programmes - community formats, training series, or self-service data initiatives at scale

30 days holiday + sabbatical option

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