Senior Solution Architect (Databricks & Energy Sector Architecture)

Talan is a global consulting group specialising in innovation and transformation through technology. For over 20 years, we have partnered with companies and public organisations to drive meaningful change.

We are purpose driven, working across diverse sectors to tackle social and environmental challenges, simplify and improve market operations, leverage digital transformation, and ensure that data is managed responsibly and ethically.

Our expertise spans consultancy and outsourcing services, including Technology, Data & AI and Consulting

Senior Solution Architect (Databricks & Energy Sector Architecture)

Role Overview

The Senior Solution Architect will lead the design, assessment, and governance of data and analytics platforms — with a strong focus on Databricks — for energy utilities operating within the GCC and UAE. The role requires deep technical and data leadership, domain expertise in electricity and water utilities, and the ability to shape enterprise-scale data architectures aligned with regulatory, cybersecurity, and operational requirements unique to the UAE energy landscape.

This position supports strategy, architecture assessment, creation or improvement of data platforms, vendor engagement, and end‑to‑end solution assurance across large‑scale digital and data transformation programmes.

Key Responsibilities

1. Architecture Leadership & Design

• Define and own end‑to‑end data and analytics architecture using Databricks, Delta Lake, ML/AI workloads, and real‑time data processing pipelines.
• Lead the integration of modern cloud-native platforms with legacy OT/IT systems
• Design architectural blueprints for data use cases such as demand and production forecast, AI based data analysis, grid analytics, power network balance, - experience of similar frameworks applied for energy & utility companies within the GCC for digital transformation programmes would be a significant advantage
• Ensure cross-platform interoperability across cloud solutions, data platforms, integration middleware, smart metering, net metering or IoT platforms, and cybersecurity baselines (e.g., NESA, TRA, energy regulators etc).

2. Solution Architecture Assessments

• Conduct architecture maturity assessments, platform capability reviews, and gap analysis for data, integration, and operational systems.
• Evaluate vendor architectures, technical documentation, and compliance with GCC & UAE energy standards.
• Prepare architecture assurance reports, risks & mitigation strategies, and recommendations for platform consolidation.

3. Data Platform Engineering & Governance

• Oversee design patterns for ingestion, ETL/ELT, orchestration, model training, governance, and data quality frameworks on Databricks.
• Establish data governance, RACI models, and minimum-security baselines for data and IT/OT systems — consistent with global industry best practices.
• Ensure compliance with local cybersecurity frameworks, local data protection laws, and critical infrastructure requirements.

4. Stakeholder, Vendor & Regulatory Engagement

• Lead Participate in technical workshops with various stakeholders (internal, vendors, regulators) - echoing responsibilities seen across energy & utilities consultancy roles.
• Translate business objectives into data-driven architectural strategies for multi‑utility environments (electricity/water/cooling).
• Support RFP/RFQ evaluations, vendor scorecards, integration assessments, and architecture due diligence.

5. Delivery & Technical Assurance

• Participate in delivery teams, ensuring architectural and data-oriented decisions are implemented consistently.
• Manage PoCs, pilots, cloud deployments, and scaling of enterprise data platforms.
• Provide and implement technical advice for migration from legacy environments into unified data analytics ecosystems.

 

Required Technical Skills & Experience

Databricks & Cloud Technologies

• 5–10 years experience in designing and implementing data platforms
• Proven experience in data management with Databricks (Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, SQL/ML workloads) and similar platforms.
• Expert in distributed compute, Spark optimisation, workflow orchestration (Jobs, Delta Live Tables).
• Strong hands-on experience with Azure (Data Factory, Synapse, ADLS, Key Vault, DevOps, networking) and AWS

Energy Sector Data Architecture

• Demonstrated experience designing or assessing data management systems for:

• • Smart metering ecosystems (MDMS, HES, concentrators, IoT)
• Grid analytics, balance management, forecasting, outage management, customer systems

• Understanding of GCC & UAE regulatory frameworks energy-market constraints.

Integration & Enterprise Architecture

• Strong knowledge of system integration patterns, API management, middleware, and enterprise platform interoperability.
• Experience modernising legacy systems

Cybersecurity & Governance

• Familiarity with UAE NESA standards, OT/IT security approaches, risk-based governance, and minimum-security baselines required by energy CNI providers.

Core Behavioural Competencies

• Ability to communicate complex architecture simply to technical and executive stakeholders.
• High cultural awareness and experience working in UAE/GCC organisations.
• Skilled in multi‑disciplinary data-oriented engagement (data governance, data models, data lineage, data quality, …)

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or similar.
• Databricks certifications (DAA, DDE, ML).
• TOGAF, Azure Architect Expert, or cloud architecture certifications.
• Arabic language beneficial (as seen in regional job specifications).

Location & Duration

This project is for an initial 3–6-month contract, with the intention of becoming a full-time employment position based within the UAE and within easy access of the local Talan headquarters.  Renumeration will be aligned to experience and qualification demonstration.