Open to opportunities

Junaid Raza

@junaidraza1

Data Architect and Senior Data Engineer designing scalable cloud data platforms with lakehouse, ETL/ELT, and governance.

United States

Message

What I'm looking for

I’m looking for a role where I can lead modern cloud data architecture—lakehouse platforms, scalable ETL/ELT, and strong governance—partnering closely with engineering, product, and analytics to deliver high-performance, reliable data for analytics and ML.

I’m a Data Architect and Senior Data Engineer with 12 years of experience designing, building, and scaling cloud data platforms across AWS, Azure, and GCP. I specialize in data modeling, lakehouse design, and reliable ETL/ELT pipelines that power analytics and machine learning workloads.

In my current role as DataArchitect at Effectual, I lead end-to-end data architecture modernization initiatives for enterprise clients. I architect distributed pipelines with Spark, Python, Airflow, and dbt, implement enterprise data governance and metadata management with Collibra, Purview, and Atlan, and design high-availability models to support BI, ML, and operational reporting.

Previously at Samsung, I built and optimized large-scale ETL/ELT on AWS (Glue, Lambda, Kinesis, EMR, Redshift), improving processing performance by 5% and reducing monthly compute costs through better cluster sizing and job orchestration. I also supported ML-ready feature-rich datasets and strengthened pipeline reliability with observability using Datadog and CloudWatch.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Data Architect

Current

Effectual

Feb 2022 - Present (4 years 3 months)

Led end-to-end data architecture modernization for enterprise clients, designing scalable lakehouse-based data platforms on AWS/Azure. Architected Spark/Python/airflow/dbt pipelines and implemented governance and lineage with Collibra/Purview/Atlan to support BI, ML, and real-time analytics workloads.

AWS Azure Spark Airflow DBT Delta Lake Data Lineage

Senior Data Engineer

Samsung

May 2020 - Feb 2022 (1 year 9 months)

Built and optimized large-scale AWS ETL/ELT pipelines using Glue, Lambda, Kinesis, EMR, and Redshift for analytics across device telemetry and mobile services. Refactored pipelines to improve processing performance by 5% and reduce monthly compute cost through better orchestration and cluster sizing.

AWS Glue AWS Lambda Kinesis EMR Redshift Spark ETL ELT CI CD Data Pipeline Testing

Data Engineer

Klarity

Jun 2019 - Feb 2020 (8 months)

Designed ingestion frameworks and automated pipelines using Python, Airflow, and BigQuery for a document intelligence platform. Prepared training datasets and built semantic layers/dashboards, improving maintainability by streamlining SQL transformations and introducing structured testing for reliable daily runs.

Python Airflow BigQuery SQL Pyspark Dashboarding API Integration

Data Engineer

Analytics8

Sep 2014 - May 2019 (4 years 8 months)

Developed and maintained enterprise data warehouses and operational data stores using SQL Server, Oracle, and Snowflake, supporting finance, operations, supply chain, and customer analytics. Built ETL pipelines with Informatica/SSIS, implemented validation/audit frameworks with automated error handling, and supported early cloud migration efforts.