Sr. Power BI Architect

Our client, Vaco by Highspring, is seeking a Senior Power BI Architect for a contract engagement. This role will serve as the subject matter expert for enterprise-level Power BI architecture, governance, performance optimization, and secure data delivery.

As a Senior Power BI Architect, you will lead the design, implementation, and governance of enterprise‑grade Power BI solutions. You will collaborate across data engineering, cloud architecture, security, and business teams to deliver scalable, secure, and high‑performance analytics platforms. This role combines technical architecture, Dev Ops leadership, governance oversight, and strategic roadmap planning.

• Design, implement, and maintain enterprise‑level Power BI solutions including semantic models, datasets, and scalable workspace architectures.
• Develop architectural guidelines for Lakehouse and Warehouse integration, Direct Lake, Direct Query, and Import mode usage.
• Define and enforce standards for data model optimization, naming conventions, reusable components, and development patterns.
• Architect templates and reusable frameworks to ensure consistency and accelerate delivery.

• Establish and maintain enterprise Power BI governance frameworks, including workspace strategy and taxonomy, dataset certification standards, version control, Dev Ops processes, and application lifecycle management best practices.
• Lead or support a BI governance committee or Center of Excellence to align business units and technical teams.
• Document and promote best practices through playbooks, technical standards, and internal training initiatives.

• Build and maintain automation for CI/CD pipelines using Microsoft Fabric and Power BI Deployment Pipelines along with Azure Dev Ops or Git Hub Actions.
• Ensure structured development, testing, and production release management with appropriate approvals and validation processes.
• Standardize deployment patterns for datasets, semantic models, and reports.
• Promote Git‑enabled development and version control best practices across teams.

• Design and implement enterprise security strategies including Row‑Level Security, Object‑Level Security, sensitivity labeling, and data loss prevention policies.
• Align access management and publishing standards with enterprise identity and access management policies.
• Ensure compliance with corporate, regulatory, and data privacy requirements.
• Conduct periodic audits of workspace access, dataset permissions, and publishing practices.

• Establish monitoring processes for dataset refresh performance, gateway health, query performance, DAX efficiency, and capacity management.
• Conduct performance tuning and provide optimization guidance to development teams.
• Implement usage analytics dashboards to track adoption and optimize capacity and cost management.

• Guide BI developers on design patterns, data modeling best practices, visualization standards, and advanced DAX techniques.
• Conduct code reviews, architectural reviews, and solution design sessions.
• Deliver training sessions to elevate Power BI capabilities across business units.
• Collaborate closely with data engineers, cloud architects, security teams, and business stakeholders to deliver aligned and scalable solutions.

• Define and drive the Power BI and Microsoft Fabric roadmap.
• Evaluate new platform features and assess enterprise impact to support adoption strategies.
• Provide guidance on tool selection, licensing strategy, and capacity planning.

• Seven or more years of experience with Power BI, including enterprise semantic model development.
• Strong expertise in DAX, data modeling, and Power Query.
• Deep understanding of Microsoft Fabric, Azure Synapse, and modern data architecture principles.
• Hands‑on experience with Power BI Deployment Pipelines and Azure Dev Ops or Git integration.
• Knowledge of enterprise security, governance, and compliance frameworks.
• Proven experience mentoring and guiding BI teams.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.

• Experience with Databricks, Lakehouse architectures, and Delta tables.
• Microsoft certification in Power BI Data Analyst or equivalent credentials.
• Experience establishing or leading a BI Center of Excellence.
• Background supporting large‑scale enterprise analytics environments.