Senior Data Engineer

This is a contract the Role:The Senior Data Engineer provides architectural direction technical leadership and execution oversight for our core database modernization initiative. This role is responsible for shaping and guiding the migration strategy including environment assessment data validation reconciliation monitoring and quality controls required to support a controlled transition from legacy SQL Server environments to Azure SQL Managed Instance. Combining deep expertise in legacy database platforms with modern Azure data technologies this individual will help reduce migration risk improve confidence in data quality and establish the foundation for future business intelligence and data platform Responsibilities:Architecture & Migration ExecutionLead the architectural design and structural execution of our migration from a 30-year-old on-premises SQL Server 2017 setup to Azure SQL Managed extensive legacy assessments on decades-old schemas to isolate compatibility gaps remediate depreciated items and clear performance blocks for Azure PaaS enforce and test rigorous migration fallback and rollback procedures alongside active live data flows to safeguard enterprise and lead database cutover activities to support a controlled transition to Azure with minimal business Ownership & Pipeline OptimizationLead the technical stewardship evolution and operational success of our established Azure Data Factory (ADF) ETL framework and active data synchronization refactor and scale existing ADF data pipelines to confidently meet high-throughput requirements and strict data latency directly with our Business Intelligence (BI) team to design build and optimize net-new ETL pipelines optimized for Power BI semantic models and Monitoring & IntegrityEstablish advanced alerting schema drift detection error-handling and automated recovery scripts within the ADF systematic monitoring validation and reconciliation controls to assess data consistency between on-premises and cloud environments during dual-run internal stakeholders on pipeline health metrics and run regular post-migration data audits to ensure permanent operational Requirements:Expert-level proficiency in Azure Data Factory (including Mapping Data Flows Self-Hosted Integration Runtimes and CDC mechanisms).Expert-level database administration and engineering depth with Microsoft SQL Server (specifically SQL Server 2017 and legacy paradigms).Deep hands-on experience deploying sizing performance-tuning and maintaining Azure SQL Managed Instance grounding in BI data modeling concepts star/snowflake schemas and data warehouse formatting tailored for Power BI understanding of hybrid network infrastructure configurations required for secure cloud data streaming (VPN gateways ExpressRoute and VNet isolation).Non-Technical Requirements:Excellent communication skills; able to clearly explain migration logic cutover risks and architectural compromises to business leadership presence with the ability to confidently steer cross-functional technical teams without direct organizational skilled at navigating decades-old undocumented database logic providing clear structure out of systemic strong ownership accountability and technical leadership in maintaining reliable well-governed data pipelines and migration processes.