PowerBI Architect

Job Title: Power BI Architect

Location: [Hybrid) – Hyderabad
Engagement: 6+ Months Contract to Hire
Domain: Enterprise Data & Analytics Platform Modernization

About the Role

We are seeking a Power BI Architect to design, build, and scale a unified analytics ecosystem leveraging Power BI as a strategic enterprise platform. The ideal candidate will architect and operationalize a governed, high-performance BI environment spanning semantic modeling, CI/CD pipelines, advanced security, automation, and AI-powered insights.

This role is central to our modernization initiative—establishing Power BI as the single source of truth across business domains through enterprise dataflows, reusable semantic models, and automated deployment pipelines.

Key Responsibilities

1. Platform Architecture & Governance

• Architect and implement Power BI workspace and app architecture for secure, scalable, and organized content management across Dev, Test, and Production.
• Define governance frameworks for dataset certification, role-based access, and content lifecycle management.
• Establish semantic models and shared datasets to enable reusability and enterprise consistency.
• Integrate Power BI with enterprise data gateways (on-prem, VNet, and cloud) ensuring encrypted, audit-ready connectivity.

2. Deployment Pipelines & CI/CD

• Design and manage Power BI Deployment Pipelines for automated content promotion (Dev → Test → Prod).
• Configure parameterized data connections for seamless environment switching.
• Implement validation workflows and approval gates for controlled releases and data accuracy assurance.

3. Data Modeling & Performance Engineering

• Lead model design for Import, DirectQuery, Composite, and Live Connection modes.
• Optimize performance using query folding, partitioning, and computation pushdown to source systems.
• Establish DAX modeling best practices, calculation groups, and measures for high-performance analytics.

4. Security & Compliance

• Implement Row-Level Security (RLS) and Object-Level Security (OLS) across datasets.
• Collaborate with IT Security to enforce encryption, tenant-level governance, and usage monitoring.
• Oversee data lineage, metadata tagging, and compliance with regulatory frameworks (GDPR, SOX, etc.).

5. Automation & Integration

• Integrate Power BI with Power Apps, Power Automate, and Azure Data Factory for analytics-to-action workflows.
• Implement dataflows and shared ETL logic to enable reusable and self-service data preparation.
• Automate report scheduling, distribution, and monitoring for production-grade reliability.

6. AI & Copilot Enablement

• Leverage Power BI Copilot and natural-language Q&A capabilities for business-user-driven insights.
• Drive AI-assisted visualization, auto-report generation, and semantic search adoption.

7. Stakeholder Leadership

• Partner with business units, data engineers, and governance leads to ensure alignment between data, reporting, and analytics goals.
• Mentor Power BI developers, analysts, and business teams on advanced DAX, modeling, and performance tuning.
• Define KPIs for adoption, data trust, and report performance.

Required Skills & Experience

• 8+ years of experience in BI/Analytics with at least 4+ years in Power BI architecture and enterprise deployment.
• Strong expertise in:
  • Power BI Service, Desktop, and Premium capacities
  • Dataflows, Gateways (Enterprise/VNet/Personal), and workspace governance
  • Semantic modeling (Import, DirectQuery, Composite, Live)
  • DAX, performance tuning, and query optimization (Query Folding, Storage Mode design)
  • CI/CD via Deployment Pipelines and parameterized environments
  • RLS, OLS, tenant-level governance, and security configuration
  • Integration with Azure ecosystem and Power Platform (Power Apps, Automate)
• Proficiency in data visualization design principles, accessibility, and storytelling.
• Working knowledge of AI features (Copilot, Q&A, auto-insights) and report distribution automation.
• Familiarity with Snowflake, Synapse, Databricks, or other enterprise data warehouses is a plus.

Preferred Qualifications

• Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate or Power BI Architect Expert
• Experience leading BI modernization or SSOT (Single Source of Truth) initiatives
• Background in data governance, MDM, or metadata management tools (e.g., Atlan, Collibra, CDGC)

What You'll Deliver

• A scalable, secure, and automated Power BI ecosystem aligned with enterprise data strategy
• Standardized semantic models and certified datasets powering cross-domain reporting
• Optimized performance through query folding and DAX tuning
• Seamless Dev/Test/Prod CI/CD pipeline for governed BI releases
• Adoption of AI-driven analytics and self-service enablement