Enterprise Data Architect – Customer Data Platform (Azure Databricks Lakehouse)

ASCEND Program Information:

Southern Company is committed to building the future of energy for the customers who depend on us, the communities we serve and the industry we lead. The ASCEND program will transform how we do business, helping us elevate the customer experience, adapt to industry changes, and implement technology that offers new capabilities with more agility. It will involve implementing multiple applications, including the replacement of our meter data management (MDM) and customer service systems (CSS) with a new, Oracle customer information system (CIS) called customer to meter (C2M). Additionally, it includes implementing an advanced analytics platform, customer experience (CX) and commercial engagement platform (CEP).

The new platform, to be rolled out to Alabama Power, Georgia Power and Mississippi Power, will be implemented in phases. Currently, we are building an ASCEND organization dedicated to helping the electric operating companies realize the vision for a modernized, efficient, digital customer experience to deeply engage with our customers and provide a more personalized experience. ASCEND will be one of the most comprehensive Customer Service and Marketing transformation initiatives in our company’s history.

CIS_PROJECT.pdf for more information about the CIS/MDM program and to view FAQs

The successful candidate will remain an employee of the operating company while reporting to the CIS/MDM Program Team and may report to a SCS or operating company leader for delivery. Positions within the CIS Program will be filled based on the job requirements and the business needs and overall project scope. Candidates should answer all applicable questions thoroughly as this information will be used to select the successful candidates.

While these roles are expected to be hybrid work, approximately 25% travel is anticipated and for this reason, it is preferred that resources are located within the electric service territory. The successful candidate will remain an employee of the operating company while reporting to the CIS/MDM Project Team and may report to a Southern Company Services or operating company leader for delivery.

Job Title: Enterprise Data Architect – Customer Data Platform (Azure Databricks Lakehouse)

*********This position follows a hybrid work schedule and requires working on-site three (3) days per week and remotely two (2) days per week. **************

Why this role

Our Azure Databricks Lakehouse is the system of record for replicated Customer Information System (CIS) data for approximately 4.6 million electric utility customers. It feeds billing, rates, credit management, payments, service orders, and metering and usage reporting, and it is the foundation for our analytics, data science, and AI work.

As the technical authority for this platform, you will set the architecture, standards, and roadmap, and you will serve as the final architectural approval authority for the Customer Data Platform ecosystem. This is a highly visible, cross-functional role where reliability and auditability matter, and where your decisions shape how a major utility uses its customer data for years to come.

About the role

You will lead the design, governance, and evolution of the Lakehouse, working at the intersection of enterprise architecture, data engineering, and utility business operations. You will define how CIS data is replicated, secured, and consumed across the enterprise, supporting both batch and near-real-time needs, and you will partner with enterprise architects, application teams, cybersecurity, vendors, and business stakeholders to turn business priorities into scalable solutions.

What you will do

• Own the end-to-end architecture and strategic direction of the Lakehouse, from ingestion through consumption, including medallion design patterns and Delta Lake implementation.
• Architect near-real-time and batch replication of CIS data, and lead decisions on Change Data Capture (CDC), streaming, and integration technologies to meet defined service level objectives.
• Guide data engineers who are defining logical and physical data models and the standards that support operational reporting, business intelligence, advanced analytics, data products, and regulatory needs.
• Establish standards for data quality, lineage, cataloging, observability, and metadata management using Unity Catalog and enterprise metadata tools.
• Design and govern the integration patterns that downstream operational, analytical, and regulatory applications use to consume customer, billing, metering, and premise data.
• Partner with cybersecurity, privacy, and compliance teams on access control, encryption, masking, and regulatory controls, and design for high availability, disaster recovery, and operational resilience.
• Work with data engineers, and data science and analytics teams to create architectural patterns for machine learning, generative AI, and advanced analytics that stay within governance and security standards.
• Provide technical governance for vendor, consulting, and system integration partners, building collaborative relationships grounded in shared accountability.
• Lead and mentor data engineering teams through architecture reviews and design guidance, and maintain reference architectures, architecture decision records, and multi-year roadmaps.
• Optimize platform capacity and cost across Databricks and Azure, support major incident investigations and root cause analysis, and evaluate emerging technologies that improve the platform.

What Success looks like

• A trusted, governed, and highly available CIS data ecosystem.
• A scalable Lakehouse architecture that supports enterprise reporting, analytics, and operational workloads.
• Consistent data standards, quality controls, and architectural governance across data domains.
• Reusable architecture patterns that reduce integration complexity.

• Clear roadmaps that align technology investment with business priorities, with platform performance and cost kept in check.

What you bring (required)

• Experience: Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, or a related discipline, and at least 8 years of progressive experience in data architecture, data engineering, or analytics platform engineering, including at least 3 years in a senior architecture or technical leadership role.
• Platform: You have led the architecture of a production, enterprise-scale Azure Databricks Lakehouse, with hands-on depth in Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, and Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2.
• Data movement: You have designed and delivered CDC and replication from a transactional source system into a lakehouse or warehouse, supporting batch and near-real-time loads (for example, with Qlik Replicate, HVR, Fivetran, Debezium, GoldenGate, or equivalent tools).
• Modeling and governance: You are strong in data modeling (dimensional, Data Vault, or canonical models) and in governing data quality, metadata, lineage, and security controls such as role-based access, classification, and masking.
• Standards leadership: You have established architecture standards, run architecture reviews, and driven adoption of engineering practices across multiple delivery teams.

• Communication: You communicate and influence effectively with executives, engineers, vendors, and business stakeholders, and you can balance business priorities, risk, and cost in your decisions.

What sets you apart (preferred)

• Experience with a utility CIS such as Oracle Customer to Meter (C2M), Oracle CC&B, SAP IS-U, or Cayenta. Experience with comparable high-volume customer or billing platforms in telecom, financial services, healthcare, or retail also translates well.
• Knowledge of utility processes such as billing, collections, meter-to-cash, revenue assurance, rates, and regulatory reporting, and familiarity with NERC CIP and state public utility commission requirements.
• Experience with Apache Spark, Delta Live Tables, Structured Streaming, Databricks Workflows, Event Hubs, or Kafka.
• Experience with platform resiliency, FinOps, and capacity planning on Azure and Databricks.
• Experience with Agile, SAFe, and product-oriented delivery models.
• Master’s degree, or Azure, Databricks, or architecture certifications.

What we value

• Business value mindset. You deliver business outcomes, not just technical solutions.
• Ownership and accountability. You take personal responsibility for commitments and follow through without needing close oversight.
• Collaborative leadership. You build trust across business and technology teams and influence constructively at every level.
• Constructive courage. You challenge assumptions and raise concerns early, with diplomacy and candor, even when it is unpopular.
• Stewardship and integrity. You act as a trusted steward of enterprise data, holding to high standards of security, compliance, and integrity.

First 12 months

• Close the highest-risk gaps in data quality, latency, lineage, and access control.
• Stand up a working architecture-review practice so new pipelines and data products follow the standard.
• Baseline platform reliability and cost and use that baseline in capacity and design decisions.
• Craft a written roadmap that ties the next platform investments to customer and revenue priorities.

This job description does not, nor is it intended to represent an exhaustive listing of all duties, tasks or responsibilities for the position listed. Based upon individual experience and team workload, responsibilities are assigned in varying degrees.