Power BI Technical Architect (Life Sciences Analytics)
Role Overview
We are seeking an experienced Power BI Technical Architect to lead the design, development, and delivery of enterprise-scale reporting and analytics solutions within the Life Sciences domain. The role will be responsible for end-to-end architecture, solution governance, and delivery leadership across multiple greenfield Power BI initiatives.
The candidate will act as a bridge between business stakeholders, data engineering teams, and reporting developers, ensuring scalable, high-performance, and compliant analytics solutions.
Key Responsibilities
1. E2E Solution Architecture & Design
- Define and govern the end-to-end Power BI architecture, including data ingestion, transformation, semantic modeling, and reporting layers.
- Lead architecture blueprinting, solution design, and technical decision-making across multiple reporting workstreams.
- Ensure alignment with enterprise data warehouse (DWH), ETL pipelines, and integration layers.
- Design scalable, reusable semantic models and datasets to support multiple dashboards and reporting use cases.
2. Power BI Solution Development Oversight
- Oversee development of interactive dashboards, KPI scorecards, and advanced analytics reports using Power BI.
- Ensure adherence to best practices in:
- Data modeling (star/snowflake schemas)
- DAX optimization
- Performance tuning and scalability
- Drive standardization of templates, datasets, and visualization guidelines across reports.
3. Delivery Leadership & Team Management
- Lead and manage cross-functional teams (Power BI developers, data engineers, testers, UX designers).
- Coordinate onsite/offshore delivery and ensure adherence to sprint goals and timelines.
- Provide technical guidance, mentoring, and governance to development teams.
4. Business Engagement & Requirement Alignment
- Collaborate with business stakeholders to:
- Define KPIs and reporting requirements
- Validate business logic and visualization outcomes
- Translate business requirements into functional specifications and technical design artifacts.
- Drive KPI standardization and cross-report consistency across domains.
5. Data Quality, Validation & Testing Governance
- Establish frameworks for:
- Data validation and reconciliation
- UAT coordination and sign-offs
- Ensure consistency between source data, transformation logic, and Power BI outputs.
- Oversee test planning, defect management, and release readiness.
6. Performance Optimization & Scalability
- Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks in:
- Data models
- Queries and report rendering
- Data refresh strategies
- Drive optimization strategies including:
- Aggregation layers
- Efficient data models and query folding
7. Governance, Risk & Compliance
- Establish and enforce architecture standards, security, and access controls.
- Ensure compliance with life sciences data regulations and enterprise policies.
- Perform risk identification and mitigation from a technical standpoint.
8. Program & Stakeholder Management
- Act as a technical liaison between client leadership and delivery teams.
- Support governance forums, status reporting, and executive updates.
- Align solution delivery with overall program milestones and go-live timelines.
Required Skills & Experience
Technical Skills
- Strong expertise in:
- Power BI (Desktop, Service, Fabric)
- DAX, Power Query (M), SQL
- Hands-on experience in:
- Data warehousing (Snowflake/Azure/Synapse)
- ETL/ELT pipelines and data integration
- Semantic modeling and data marts
- Expertise in performance tuning and large-scale reporting systems
Domain Experience
- Experience in Life Sciences / Pharma analytics preferred:
- Commercial analytics
- Sales & marketing reporting
- KPI-driven dashboards
Leadership & Delivery
- Proven experience as:
- BI Architect / Reporting Architect
- Delivery Lead managing multi-stream reporting programs
- Experience managing distributed (onsite-offshore) teams
Methodologies
- Agile/Scrum delivery model
- SDLC, DevOps, release and change management
Preferred Qualifications
- Prior experience in greenfield analytics implementation
Key Success Metrics
- Scalable and performant report delivery
- On-time delivery of reporting releases
- Stakeholder satisfaction and business adoption
- Data accuracy and KPI consistency across reports
- Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
- Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
- 401(k) plan and contributions
- Long-term/Short-term Disability
- Paid Parental Leave
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan
About Cognizant:
Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) is an AI Builder and technology services provider, bridging the gap between AI investment and enterprise value by building full-stack AI solutions for our clients. Our deep industry, process and engineering expertise enables us to build an organization’s unique context into technology systems that amplify human potential, drive tangible outcomes and keep global enterprises ahead in a fast-changing world. See how at cognizant.ai or @cognizant.
Additional employment information
Compensation information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.
Language requirements vary depending on roles, but we ask that all candidates have basic English proficiency for company-wide communications purposes. For roles based in Quebec, professional English proficiency is required, as you’ll deliver services to and collaborate with stakeholders outside the province who may not speak French.
Cognizant is an equal opportunity employer. Your application and candidacy will not be considered based on race, color, sex, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, provincial or local laws.
If you have a disability that requires reasonable accommodation to search for a job opening or submit an application, please email [email protected] with your request and contact information.
