---
title: 'Data Architect at Black Canyon Consulting'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/data-architect-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-kfkc991q2xne'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-28'
---

# Data Architect at Black Canyon Consulting

- **Company:** Black Canyon Consulting
- **Location:** Bethesda, MD
- **Posted:** 2026-09-25
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-28
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/blackcanyonconsulting/jobs/8005681003

## Job description

## Overview

We are seeking a Data Architect to lead the data architecture for a federal modernization initiative supporting permitting and natural resource management systems.

The Data Architect will define and guide implementation of a modern AWS lakehouse that consolidates structured, document, geospatial, and event-driven data from multiple source systems into a governed canonical model. The role will establish architectural patterns for metadata-driven and agentic data engineering, data quality, document processing, GIS integration, and governed data products.

The environment includes Amazon S3, Apache Iceberg, AWS Glue Catalog, DuckDB, Kafka/Amazon MSK, OpenSearch, GeoParquet, and PostGIS.

This position is remote with periodic travel as required.

Duties & Responsibilities

- Serve as the primary architecture authority for the data workstream.
- Define the end-to-end data architecture spanning ingestion, bronze/silver/gold processing, document pipelines, GIS processing, analytical data products, and downstream services.
- Design the lakehouse architecture using Amazon S3, Apache Iceberg, AWS Glue Catalog, and DuckDB.
- Define reusable patterns for batch, API, file, database, CDC, and event-driven ingestion.
- Establish a metadata-driven architecture that supports configuration-based source onboarding and source-to-canonical mappings.
- Define and govern the common canonical data model used to harmonize information across source systems.
- Establish data contracts and standards for lineage, provenance, reconciliation, schema evolution, auditability, and data quality.
- Define architecture patterns for agentic solutions supporting source analysis, mapping, pipeline generation, testing, reconciliation, and quality assurance.
- Establish controls for agentic workflows, including validation, observability, security, deterministic execution, and human review where required.
- Coordinate architecture across structured data, OCR/document processing, vector search, and geospatial data.
- Provide architectural direction and design review across the data engineering, data science, GIS, and content pipeline teams.
- Work with Government stakeholders and technical teams to translate business and domain requirements into scalable data models and services.
- Maintain architecture standards, technical decisions, interface specifications, and implementation guidance.
- Support technical handoff and knowledge transfer to Government and operations teams.

Educational Requirements

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.

## Requirements

- 10+ years of experience in data architecture, data engineering, or software engineering, including leadership of modern data platform initiatives.
- Demonstrated experience designing cloud-based data lakehouse or analytical platforms.
- Hands-on experience with DuckDB, Apache Iceberg, SQL, Python, and AWS data services including Amazon S3 and AWS Glue.
- Experience designing medallion-style architectures, canonical data models, and metadata-driven ingestion and transformation frameworks.
- Experience integrating databases, APIs, files, streaming/event sources, and enterprise SaaS applications.
- Experience architecting or implementing agentic or AI-enabled solutions, including orchestration, tool integration, validation, observability, security, and human-in-the-loop controls.
- Strong understanding of data contracts, schema evolution, lineage, provenance, reconciliation, and data quality.
- Experience providing architectural leadership to multidisciplinary technical teams and translating business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Bonus Skills

- Experience with Kafka or Amazon MSK and CDC architectures.
- Experience with OpenSearch, vector databases, embeddings, or document retrieval systems.
- Experience with agentic frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, or similar orchestration frameworks.
- Experience designing geospatial data architectures using GeoParquet and PostGIS.
- Experience with Salesforce, ServiceNow, Microsoft Dataverse, or similar enterprise platforms.
- Experience working in the U.S. Federal Government space.
- Experience with permitting, land management, environmental, energy, or natural-resource datasets.

## Benefits and Salary

We attract the best people in the business with our competitive benefits package that includes medical, dental and vision coverage, 401k plan with employer contribution, paid holidays, vacation, and tuition reimbursement.

If you enjoy being a part of a high performing, professional service and technology focused organization, please apply today!

## About Black Canyon Consulting

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Black Canyon Consulting (BCC) is a privately held, woman-owned small business that delivers innovative program and IT management support services to federal research and development programs.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Woman-Owned Small Business, SBA-certified WOSB)
- **Headquarters**: Fairfax, Virginia, United States
- **Founded**: 2017 [bccdc.net](https://www.bccdc.net/)
- **Founders**: Manish Salhotra (Managing Director, Co-Founder) and Haley Esser (Principal / CEO) [sba.gov](https://dsbs.sba.gov/search/dsp_profile.cfm?SAM_UEI=WB3LFMA4KM45) | [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/black-canyon-consulting-llc)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Federal IT consulting and program management support for life sciences, bioinformatics, tool development, and environmental sciences.
- **Target customers**: U.S. federal government agencies (e.g., NIH, HHS) and other R&D-focused organizations.
- **Mission/purpose**: “Integrity, Impact, Innovation” – providing agile, adaptive, customer-focused support to advance national missions. [bccdc.net](https://www.bccdc.net/)

## Products & Services
- **Program Management Support**: Strategic and tactical program oversight, administrative management, and consulting for federal R&D initiatives.
- **IT Management Support**: Custom computer programming, systems design, cloud engineering, DevOps, data engineering, AI/ML, and cybersecurity services.
- **Proprietary Technologies**: BCC leverages its own IT system tools, workflows, and a distributed network of consulting resources to deliver turn-key enterprise solutions. [bccdc.net](https://www.bccdc.net/)
- **GSA Schedule Holder**: Contract #47QTCA18D00JA, providing a streamlined procurement vehicle for federal clients. [gsaelibrary.gsa.gov](https://www.gsaelibrary.gsa.gov/ElibMain/home.do/contractorInfo.do?contractNumber=47QTCA18D00JA&contractorName=BLACK+CANYON+CONSULTING+LLC&executeQuery=YES)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly available (private company).
- **Key Metric**: Annual revenue not disclosed; total funding not applicable (bootstrapped / organic growth).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: No external investors; key certifications include WOSB, ISO 9001:2015, ISO 20000-1:2018, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, FISMA compliance, and SOC readiness. [bccdc.net](https://www.bccdc.net/)
- **Growth Signals**: LinkedIn reports 42 employees (+75% year-over-year growth), 65 active job postings on Greenhouse, and a +50% increase in job postings monthly/quarterly. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/black-canyon-consulting-llc) | [greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/blackcanyonconsulting)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Certified Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB)**: Provides set-aside contracting advantages in the federal market.
- **Deep Federal R&D Focus**: Over 125 years of combined experience in supporting NIH and other research programs.
- **Compliance & Security**: Holds multiple ISO certifications and FISMA, NIST, and PCI-DSS compliance, enabling work on sensitive government systems.
- **Agile Delivery**: Proprietary workflows and IT tools allow rapid, high-value execution for complex program needs. [bccdc.net](https://www.bccdc.net/)

## Strategic Focus
- **Current priorities**: Expanding support for NIH bioinformatics, data platforms (e.g., DailyMed, RxNorm, SRA), and AI/LLM initiatives. Actively hiring for roles like AI/ML Specialist, FHIR API SME, and Platform DevEx Engineer. [greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/blackcanyonconsulting)
- **Growth direction**: Continuing to secure federal contracts, growing the consulting workforce, and deepening capabilities in cloud, DevOps, and data science.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Emphasizes “Integrity, Impact, Innovation” with a collaborative, mission-driven environment focused on supporting national research priorities. [bccdc.net](https://www.bccdc.net/)
- **Work location**: Most roles are based in Bethesda, Maryland (NIH campus) or Fairfax, Virginia. Remote/hybrid policy not explicitly stated but likely on-site or hybrid given federal client requirements.
- **Notable perks**: Opportunity to work on high-impact federal R&D programs (e.g., NIH’s National Library of Medicine), professional growth in a rapidly expanding company (75% YoY headcount growth), and exposure to cutting-edge technologies (AI, cloud, bioinformatics). [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/black-canyon-consulting-llc)
- **Engineering culture**: Strong focus on software development, DevOps, data engineering, and AI/ML. Teams are organized into divisions like Software Engineering, Platform & DevOps, and Information Engineering. [greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/blackcanyonconsulting)

## Sources
1. [bccdc.net](https://www.bccdc.net/)
2. [greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/blackcanyonconsulting)
3. [sba.gov](https://dsbs.sba.gov/search/dsp_profile.cfm?SAM_UEI=WB3LFMA4KM45)
4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/black-canyon-consulting-llc)
5. [gsaelibrary.gsa.gov](https://www.gsaelibrary.gsa.gov/ElibMain/home.do/contractorInfo.do?contractNumber=47QTCA18D00JA&contractorName=BLACK+CANYON+CONSULTING+LLC&executeQuery=YES)

## Other roles at Black Canyon Consulting

- [User Engagement Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/user-engagement-lead-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-j0r2y9akc0tw) — Bethesda, MD
- [Health Informatics / Terminology SME](https://feeny.ai/job/health-informatics-terminology-sme-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-b5aqt8djsnyb) — Bethesda, MD
- [User Engagement Support Analyst](https://feeny.ai/job/user-engagement-support-analyst-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-4y9yc368rke5) — Bethesda, MD
- [HR Administrative Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/hr-administrative-specialist-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-z8b2t9yxe70k) — Bethesda, MD
- [Content Pipeline Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/content-pipeline-engineer-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-jem9rt1z42nq) — Bethesda, MD
- [Account Backend Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/account-backend-engineer-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-dnf2ty4m5ysb) — Bethesda, MD
- [Junior Data Scientist](https://feeny.ai/job/junior-data-scientist-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-qvd3bjg2npje) — Bethesda, MD
- [Production Quality Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/production-quality-engineer-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-75tmzynwqe8c) — Bethesda, MD
- [Mid-Level C++ Developer](https://feeny.ai/job/mid-level-c-developer-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-a8cvj9qhehx4) — Bethesda, MD
- [Workforce Management Analyst](https://feeny.ai/job/workforce-management-analyst-black-canyon-consulting-raleigh-3t1xg6xp127n) — Raleigh, NC