Principal Architect (Data Knowledge Platform)

TL;DR

Principal Architect (Data Knowledge Platform): Architecting a governed, reusable data and knowledge layer to power analytics and AI agents with an accent on semantic modeling, data lineage, and real-time decision systems. Focus on evolving the platform into an AI agent-ready infrastructure while ensuring global compliance and scalability within the Databricks ecosystem.

Location: Must be based in San Francisco

Company

Airwallex is a global fintech platform providing integrated solutions for business accounts, payments, spend management, and treasury.

What you will do

• Design patterns for governed, well-modeled structured datasets including transactional records and event streams.
• Architect a semantic layer that enables consistent data interpretation for both human analysts and AI agents.
• Define architecture for operationalized capabilities including agent-callable tools and automated transformation pipelines.
• Lead global data modeling efforts to create unified schemas that accommodate regional variance.
• Implement Governance-as-Code to embed automated data lineage and quality controls into the platform.
• Partner with Data Science, AI Engineering, and Risk teams to support experimentation and decision-making.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience designing and building large-scale data systems.
• Hands-on experience with the Databricks ecosystem, including Unity Catalog and Delta Lake.
• Proven experience implementing semantic layers or metric stores.
• Solid understanding of how AI/agent-based systems consume data.
• Experience designing data solutions that meet regional data residency and compliance requirements.
• Demonstrated senior-level individual contributor experience with a focus on design reviews and mentoring.

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive salary and valuable equity package.
• Collaborative open office environment with a fully stocked kitchen.
• Regular team-building events and a creative, autonomous work culture.
• Opportunity to work on high-visibility, complex problems in a rapidly growing global fintech.