Databricks Practice Lead / Architect at Kanerika – Hyderabad | Jobyssey

About Kanerika

Who we are:

Kanerika Inc. is a premier global software products and services firm that specializes in providing innovative solutions and services for data-driven enterprises. Our focus is to empower businesses to achieve their digital transformation goals and maximize their business impact through the effective use of data and AI. We leverage cutting-edge technologies in data analytics, data governance, AI-ML, GenAI/ LLM and industry best practices to deliver custom solutions that help organizations optimize their operations, enhance customer experiences, and drive growth.

Awards and Recognitions

Kanerika has won several awards over the years, including:

· CMMI Level 3 Appraised in 2024.

· Best Place to Work 2023 by Great Place to Work

· Top 10 Most Recommended RPA Start-Ups in 2022 by RPA today.

· Frost & Sullivan India 2021 Technology Innovation Award for its Kompass composable solution architecture.

· Kanerika has also been recognized for its commitment to customer privacy and data security, having achieved, ISO 9001, ISO 27701, SOC2, and GDPR compliances.

Working for us

Kanerika is rated 4.6/5 on Glassdoor, for many good reasons. We truly value our employees' growth, well-being, and diversity, and people’s experiences bear this out. At Kanerika, we offer a host of enticing benefits that create an environment where you can thrive both personally and professionally. From our inclusive hiring practices and mandatory training on creating a safe work environment to our flexible working hours and generous parental leave, we prioritize the well-being and success of our employees. Our commitment to professional development is evident through our mentorship programs, job training initiatives, and support for professional certifications. Additionally, our company-sponsored outings and various time-off benefits ensure a healthy work-life balance. Join us at Kanerika and become part of a vibrant and diverse community where your talents are recognized, your growth is nurtured, and your contributions make a real impact. See the benefits section below for the perks you’ll get while working for Kanerika.

Locations

We are located in Austin (USA), Singapore, Hyderabad, Indore and Ahmedabad (India).

Job Location: Hyderabad, Indore and Ahmedabad (India)

Requirements

Role:

Kanerika is building out a dedicated Databricks delivery practice and is looking for a Practice Lead / Architect to be the founding technical leader of this group. This is a high-ownership, build-from-scratch role: you will define delivery standards, lead solution architecture for client engagements, support pre-sales and proposal efforts, and mentor a growing team of engineers. You'll be the senior-most technical voice for Databricks both internally and in front of clients.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and own the technical architecture, standards, and best practices for Databricks-based solutions across client engagements (data engineering, lakehouse, ML/AI workloads, and GenAI solutions including RAG pipelines and LLM-based applications).

• Lead solution design for greenfield implementations and migrations to Databricks, including Unity Catalog, Delta Lake (including Change Data Feed, liquid clustering, and deletion vectors), workflows, and governance models.

• Act as the primary technical lead in pre-sales: scope client requirements, build estimates, design proposed architectures, and present solutions in client-facing meetings and demos.

• Support RFP/RFI responses and SOW creation with accurate technical scoping and effort estimation for Databricks engagements.

• Build and maintain reusable accelerators, reference architectures, and delivery templates to speed up future client engagements.

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to the delivery team, including code/architecture reviews and unblocking technical challenges.

• Partner with practice leadership to define hiring needs, skill development plans, and the long-term roadmap for the Databricks practice.

• Stay current with the Databricks platform roadmap (Unity Catalog, Lakeflow Declarative Pipelines (formerly Delta Live Tables) and Lakeflow Connect for managed ingestion, MLflow, Databricks SQL) and proactively bring new capabilities into client conversations.

• Serve as primary point of escalation for technical risk and delivery quality across active engagements.

Required Skills & Experience

· 8–14 years in data engineering/architecture roles, with at least 4 years of hands-on Databricks and Apache Spark experience in production environments.

· Deep expertise in PySpark/Spark SQL, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, and Databricks workflow orchestration.

· Hands-on experience with Auto Loader and structured streaming pipelines in production environments.

· Strong experience designing lakehouse architectures, including ingestion, transformation (ETL/ELT), and serving layers.

· Hands-on experience with at least one major cloud platform (Azure, AWS, or GCP); Azure Databricks experience strongly preferred.

· Cluster design and performance tuning: instance pools, cluster policies, Adaptive Query Execution, and data skew handling.

· Proven experience in client-facing technical roles — solutioning, presenting architectures, and responding to technical objections.

· Experience with pre-sales activities: effort estimation, SOW/proposal input, and technical demos.

· Strong understanding of data governance and security on Databricks, including Unity Catalog privilege model, row-level and column-level security, secrets management, and audit logging.

· Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts for both engineering and business audiences.

· Prior experience setting up or scaling a practice, center of excellence, or technical team is a strong plus.

PEFFERED / NICE TO HAVE

· Databricks certifications (e.g., Databricks Certified Data Engineer Professional, Databricks Certified Solutions Architect).

· Experience with MLflow (experiment tracking, model registry, model serving endpoints), Lakeflow Declarative Pipelines and Lakeflow Connect for managed ingestion, Databricks SQL and AI/BI Genie for analytics use cases, Databricks Vector Search for RAG pipelines, and Mosaic AI for LLM fine-tuning and agent frameworks.

· Exposure to consulting/IT services delivery models and multi-client engagement management.

· Familiarity with complementary tools in the modern data stack (dbt, Airflow, Fivetran, Kafka, etc.).

What Success Looks Like

· Within 3 months: Delivery standards, architecture templates, and a reference solution are in place; actively supporting live pre-sales conversations.

· Within 6 months: First client engagement(s) delivered or in active delivery with the practice's standards applied; hiring plan for the broader team is executing.

· Within 12 months: Kanerika is recognized by clients and prospects as having a credible, mature Databricks delivery capability, with a repeatable pre-sales-to-delivery motion.

Benefits

Why join us?

· Work with a passionate and innovative team in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment.

· Gain hands-on experience in content marketing with exposure to real-world projects.

· Opportunity to learn from experienced professionals and enhance your marketing skills.

· Contribute to exciting initiatives and make an impact from day one.

· Competitive stipend and potential for growth within the company.

· Recognized for excellence in data and AI solutions with industry awards and accolades.

Employee Benefits:

1. Culture:

i. Open Door Policy: Encourages open communication and accessibility to management.

ii. Open Office Floor Plan: Fosters a collaborative and interactive work environment.

iii. Flexible Working Hours: Allows employees to have flexibility in their work schedules.

iv. Employee Referral Bonus: Rewards employees for referring qualified candidates.

v. Appraisal Process Twice a Year: Provides regular performance evaluations and feedback.

2. Inclusivity and Diversity:

a. Hiring practices that promote diversity: Ensures a diverse and inclusive workforce.

b. Mandatory POSH training: Promotes a safe and respectful work environment.

3. Health Insurance and Wellness Benefits:

a. GMC and Term Insurance: Offers medical coverage and financial protection.

b. Health Insurance: Provides coverage for medical expenses.

c. Disability Insurance: Offers financial support in case of disability.

4. Child Care & Parental Leave Benefits:

a. Company-sponsored family events: Creates opportunities for employees and their families to bond.

b. Generous Parental Leave: Allows parents to take time off after the birth or adoption of a child.

c. Family Medical Leave: Offers leave for employees to take care of family members' medical needs.

5. Perks and Time-Off Benefits:

a. Company-sponsored outings: Organizes recreational activities for employees.

b. Gratuity: Provides a monetary benefit as a token of appreciation.

c. Provident Fund: Helps employees save for retirement.

d. Generous PTO: Offers more than the industry standard for paid time off.

e. Paid sick days: Allows employees to take paid time off when they are unwell.

f. Paid holidays: Gives employees paid time off for designated holidays.

g. Bereavement Leave: Provides time off for employees to grieve the loss of a loved one.

6. Professional Development Benefits:

a. L&D with FLEX- Enterprise Learning Repository: Provides access to a learning repository for professional development.

b. Mentorship Program: Offers guidance and support from experienced professionals.

c. Job Training: Provides training to enhance job-related skills.

d. Professional Certification Reimbursements: Assists employees in obtaining professional certifications.

e. Promote from Within: Encourages internal growth and advancement opportunities.

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