Data Architect (DC Metro Area - Remote)

ICF is a rapidly growing, entrepreneurial, multi-faceted consulting company, seeking a Data Architect.  This resource lead the design and implementation of a robust, scalable, and secure data lake architecture to support advanced analytics and AI/ML initiatives to a government agency committed to improving child welfare. The ICF team performs custom software development, analytics, and maintenance on a suite of web-based applications, and works closely with clients and other contractors to ensure the performance and reliability of public-facing, mission-critical applications.

Based on your experiences and interests, we may ask you as a technology professional to support growth-related activities, including (but not limited to) RFI, RFP, prototypes, and oral presentations. Team members are also expected to uphold and maintain appropriate certifications necessary for their practice expertise. 

Job Location: This is a fully remote position; however, the role is tied to the Washington, DC Metro area due to team requirements. Occasional in-person meetings may be required. An in-person interview may be required and candidates must reside within 50 miles of the Washington, DC Metro Area to be considered.

What you’ll be doing:

• Lead the architecture and design of an enterprise-scale AWS-based data lake and data integration ecosystem to support advanced analytics and AI/ML initiatives.
• Define and enforce data modeling, metadata, data lineage, and data governance standards to support analytics and machine learning workflows
• Establish best practices in data architecture, including schema design, data normalization, and optimal format selection (e.g., Parquet, JSON)
• Work with cross-functional teams to define data ingestion, transformation, and curation strategies aligned with AI/ML use cases.
• Collaborate across teams to design scalable, secure and cost-efficient data architectures that support analytics and machine learning needs.
• Guide the selection and use of AWS services (e.g., Glue, S3, Lake Formation, Redshift, Athena, Step Functions) and integration tools (e.g., Kafka, Informatica, Talend).
• Mentor technical teams on architectural standards, data modeling practices, and modern cloud-native data design patterns.
• Support project delivery on Data Lake, Data Warehouse and BI projects for external and internal clients, including partnering with ICF subject matter experts on project execution

What you must have:

• Bachelor’s degree
• 8+ years of experience in data architecture, data engineering, or enterprise data management.
• 3+ years of experience designing and implementing cloud-native data solutions in AWS, including services such as Glue, S3, Athena, Redshift, Lake Formation, Step Functions, and Lambda.
• Experience in data modeling, metadata management, and data governance frameworks.
• Understand ETL concepts of data flow, data enrichment, data consolidation, change data capture and transformation
• Hands-on experience architecting data lakes, data warehouses, and real-time data pipelines.
• Experience working with databases and BI tools such as Tableau, PowerBI , Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services
• Proficiency in SQL, Python, and working knowledge of big data tools such as Spark, Kafka, or AWS Kinesis.
• Knowledge of DevOps tools like Jenkins/Git to assist development process
• Excellent communication and leadership skills; ability to collaborate across technical and non-technical teams.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust
• MUST RESIDE IN THE United States (U.S.) and the work MUST BE PERFORMED in the United States (U.S.), as this work is for a federal contract and laws do apply​

What we'd like you to have:

• Familiarity with data privacy, security, and compliance frameworks in regulated environments.
• Background in supporting data science, BI, or AI/ML product teams.
• AWS Certification (Solutions Architect, Data Analytics, or Big Data Specialty).
• Knowledge of  integration tools such as Storm, and Spark, AWS Kinesis, Kafka a plus
• Familiarity with multi-cloud environments (e.g., Azure or GCP) is a plus.

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Working at ICF

ICF is a global advisory and technology services provider, but we’re not your typical consultants. We combine unmatched expertise with cutting-edge technology to help clients solve their most complex challenges, navigate change, and shape the future.

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