Principal/Lead Microsoft Fabric Data Engineer

Principal/Lead Microsoft Fabric Data Engineer

Location : Bangalore (On-site preferred)

Experience Level : 8+ years (with 3+ years in leadership/architect roles)

About the Role :

We are seeking a highly experienced Principal/Lead Microsoft Fabric Data Engineer to spearhead our enterprise-wide initiative to modernize our legacy BI platform to Microsoft Fabric. This is a strategic, greenfield implementation requiring a technical leader who can architect enterprise-scale data solutions, define best practices, lead technical teams, and drive the overall data modernization roadmap leveraging the complete Microsoft Fabric ecosystem.

Key Responsibilities :

Technical Leadership & Strategy :

- Lead the overall technical vision for Microsoft Fabric adoption and enterprise data architecture

- Define architectural standards, design patterns, and best practices for the Fabric platform

- Evaluate and recommend Fabric components, configurations, and integration patterns for optimal performance

- Drive technical decision-making across data engineering, analytics, and BI teams

- Mentor and coach junior and mid-level data engineers on Fabric technologies and best practices

- Act as the subject matter expert (SME) for Microsoft Fabric across the organization

Enterprise Architecture & Solution Design :

- Design enterprise-scale Lakehouse and Data Warehouse architectures using Microsoft Fabric

- Architect multi-workspace, multi-domain data mesh patterns with proper governance boundaries

- Define and implement medallion architecture (Bronze, Silver, Gold) with enterprise data standards

- Design capacity planning strategies and optimize Fabric compute and storage resources

- Create reference architectures and technical blueprints for different use cases

- Establish data integration patterns for complex enterprise systems and real-time analytics

- Design disaster recovery, high availability, and business continuity strategies for Fabric

Legacy Platform Migration & Modernization :

- Lead the assessment of current legacy BI/DW platforms and create comprehensive migration roadmap

- Define migration strategies (lift-and-shift, re-architecture, hybrid approaches) for different workload types Architect transition states to ensure zero-downtime migrations and backward compatibility

- Establish migration frameworks and accelerators for repeatable migration patterns

- Oversee pilot migrations and validate architectural approaches before full-scale rollout

- Define success metrics and KPIs for migration quality, performance, and user adoption

Advanced Data Engineering & Optimization :

- Architect and oversee development of complex data pipelines using Fabric Data Factory, Dataflows Gen2, and Notebooks

- Design real-time and near-real-time analytics solutions using Eventstreams, KQL Database, and Real-Time Intelligence

- Implement advanced optimization techniques: partition pruning, Z-ordering, liquid clustering, data skipping Establish performance benchmarking frameworks and optimize query performance across the platform

- Design incremental processing patterns, CDC mechanisms, and SCD implementations at scale

- Architect data quality frameworks with automated validation, profiling, and monitoring

Data Governance, Security & Compliance :

- Design and implement enterprise data governance frameworks using Microsoft Purview integration

- Establish comprehensive security models: workspace security, item-level permissions, RLS, OLS, CLS

- Define data classification taxonomies, sensitivity labels, and DLP policies Ensure compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, SOC2, ISO 27001, and industry-specific regulations Implement data lineage tracking, impact analysis, and metadata management

- Design auditing and monitoring frameworks for security and compliance reporting

- Establish data retention and archival policies

DevOps, Automation & CI/CD :

- Architect and implement CI/CD pipelines for Fabric artifacts using Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions

- Establish Git integration patterns and branching strategies for Fabric development

- Design deployment automation using Fabric APIs, PowerShell, and Python

- Implement infrastructure-as-code (IaC) for Fabric workspace and resource provisioning

- Create monitoring and alerting frameworks using Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and custom dashboards

- Establish incident response and troubleshooting procedures

Stakeholder Management & Collaboration :

- Partner with senior leadership, architects, and business stakeholders to align technical solutions with business objectives Translate business requirements

into scalable technical architectures and roadmaps Present architectural designs and technical strategies to executive stakeholders

- Lead cross-functional teams including data engineers, Power BI developers, analysts, and business users Conduct architecture review boards and technical design reviews

- Build centers of excellence (CoE) for Fabric adoption and best practices Drive change management initiatives and user adoption strategies

Innovation & Continuous Improvement :

- Stay current with Microsoft Fabric roadmap and emerging features

- Evaluate and pilot new Fabric capabilities (Copilot, AI/ML integrations, new connectors)

- Identify opportunities for automation, optimization, and innovation

- Establish feedback loops for continuous platform improvement Drive technical thought leadership

through documentation, presentations, and knowledge sharing

Required Skills & Experience :

- Microsoft Fabric Leadership (Must-Have)

- 3+ years hands-on experience with Microsoft Fabric (including preview/early adoption experience)

- Deep expertise in Fabric architecture : Lakehouse, Data Warehouse, Data Factory, Real-Time Analytics

Skills

Data Engineering, Business Intelligence, Azure Data Factory, Data Governance, Microsoft Purview, DataLake, Data Warehousing