Senior data architecture, a fraction of the time.
Most organizations need a data architect's judgment a few days a month — not a salary's worth. A fractional architect owns your data blueprint, reviews every build against it, and keeps each project pointed at the same foundation.
Architecture is a continuous role. The workload isn't.
Decisions about platforms, models, and governance arrive in bursts — a migration here, a new reporting request there. Between bursts, the role is oversight: keeping changes consistent with the blueprint. Paying full-time for burst-shaped work is where the money leaks.
A fractional arrangement matches cost to the actual shape of the work — and because the same architect stays with you, the context never resets.
What the architect owns
The blueprint
One documented target architecture — platforms, data flows, modelling standards — that every project builds toward instead of around.
Decision records
Why each significant choice was made, written down. New hires and new vendors inherit reasoning, not folklore.
Design review
Proposed changes and vendor deliverables checked against the blueprint before they harden into technical debt.
Governance guardrails
Access, classification, and quality rules defined once at the architecture level — so each project doesn't reinvent them.
Platform choices
Fabric, Azure, Databricks, or something else — evaluated against your workload and team, not against a vendor's roadmap.
Team capability
Your engineers and analysts learn the reasoning behind the design, so dependence on the architect goes down over time.
Three ways it typically runs
The cadence flexes with the work. Most clients start with one shape and move between them as projects ramp up and down.
Advisory cadence
1–2 days / weekSteady-state oversight. The architect reviews changes, keeps the blueprint current, and joins the decisions that matter.
- Monthly architecture review
- Decision records maintained
- On call for design questions
Embedded sprint
2–3 days / week, time-boxedFor a migration, platform selection, or major build. The architect works inside the project team until the design is landed.
- Target design produced
- Build reviewed as it lands
- Handover to advisory cadence
Design authority
standing roleWhen multiple vendors or teams build in parallel, the architect acts as the single gate their designs must pass through.
- Review gate for all designs
- Cross-team consistency
- Vendor accountability
When it fits — and when it doesn't
A good fit when
- Data decisions are being made project-by-project, with no one holding the whole picture.
- Vendors or contractors deliver work no one on your side can properly review.
- You're heading into a platform decision — Fabric, Azure, Databricks — and want judgment that isn't selling one.
- A full-time architect isn't justified yet, but the mistakes of not having one are getting expensive.
Probably not when
- You already have a strong architect in-house — they may just need a sounding board, which is a smaller engagement.
- The work is sustained heavy build for a year or more; at that volume a full-time hire is usually the better economics, and we'll say so.
- What's actually missing is engineering hands, not architectural judgment.
Start with one review of your current architecture.
A short working session on where your data estate stands and what an architect would tackle first. No commitment to a cadence.