Job Summary

We’re looking for: Senior Data Platform Architect

Background: Inter IKEA Systems is strengthening Business Insights and the Self-Service Data Platform (SSDP) to support centrally managed reporting, governed self-service, data products, and CORE-related delivery for IKEA retailers. Business Insights is developing and operating reporting solutions using Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft Fabric, while SSDP is establishing a governed and scalable platform for domain-owned data products. This new role establishes the dedicated platform-architecture capability required to design, guide, and scale SSDP as a governed self-service data platform. The architect will define reusable patterns, guardrails, governance design, integration approaches, and target-state decisions, while providing technical guidance to Business Insights and reducing dependency on external or part-time architecture support. The consultant’s primary home will be SSDP, with a planned secondary contribution to Business Insights based on priorities.

The scope of the consultant services is to assist IKEA in:
• Define and evolve the SSDP target-state architecture and platform guardrails.
• Guide Microsoft Fabric, data-product, integration, governance, security, IAM, and operating-model decisions.
• Align SSDP architecture with Enterprise Architecture, Security, IAM, Governance, Cloud, and domain teams.
• Provide technical direction and architecture review across SSDP and Business Insights.

Key Responsibilities

The main tasks in the assignment are as below:

• Define and maintain the SSDP target-state platform architecture and document decisions through Architecture Decision Records.
• Guide Microsoft Fabric architecture across Lakehouse, Warehouse, Pipelines, Dataflows, notebooks, semantic models, APIs, and integrations.
• Define workspace, environment, capacity, tenant, deployment, and lifecycle patterns.
• Define data-product patterns, including layering, data contracts, metadata, lineage, versioning, and consumption standards.
• Support architecture for CMD, Sales, and future domain data products.
• Design the governance target state, including catalog strategy, quality framework, federated governance, and platform guardrails.
• Define reusable integration patterns for APIs, batch, events, CDC, D365, Dataverse, and legacy-source connectivity.
• Assess when Microsoft Fabric is sufficient and when other platforms or tools, such as Databricks, may be appropriate.
• Support secure access models, retailer segregation, environment separation, and identity patterns.
• Define SLA and SLO principles and provide architecture reviews and technical guidance across both teams.

Skill Requirements

Desired knowledge, experience, competence, skills etc:

• Databricks, Azure Data Lake, Azure Data Factory, or Synapse experience.
• Microsoft Purview, including catalog, Data Map, lineage, and governance tooling.
• Fabric domains, workspace design, deployment pipelines, and tenant-level setup.
• D365 F&O, Dataverse, CORE, or similar enterprise-source systems.
• Data mesh, domain-owned data products, or federated-governance experience.
• Platform operations, observability, FinOps, and SLA or SLO design exposure.
• Experience in franchise, retail, or multi-entity data-segregation scenarios.
• Relevant certifications such as DP-600, DP-700, or Azure Solutions Architect Expert.
• Able and willing to work across both Business Insights and SSDP, with approximately 20–30% allocation to the secondary team as priorities require.
• Comfortable working in a platform-building environment where not everything is fully defined.
• Creates clear documentation, reusable patterns, and knowledge-sharing practices as part of normal delivery.
• Collaborates effectively with technical and business stakeholders, including IKEA retailer and franchisee contacts where relevant.
• Works transparently with backlogs, priorities, delivery plans, and agile ways of working.
• Communicates clearly in English and actively reduces single-person dependency.

Other Requirements

Following competences must be fulfilled:

• Strong and demonstrable data-platform architecture experience, including ownership of scalable platform designs rather than only individual solutions or pipelines.
• Strong Microsoft Fabric, Azure data-platform, or equivalent modern cloud data-platform experience with a clear transfer path to Fabric.
• Deep understanding of lakehouse architecture, data warehousing, data modeling, and data-product patterns.
• Strong understanding of governance, security, IAM, lineage, metadata, and operational requirements at design level.
• Experience with integration patterns including APIs, batch, events, CDC, and legacy-source connectivity.
• Proven ability to create, communicate, and defend Architecture Decision Records with senior stakeholders.
• Ability to define standards, guardrails, and reusable patterns that delivery teams can adopt.
• Minimum approximately eight years of data-platform experience with demonstrable platform-level architecture ownership.