GCP Data Lead

About Ascendion

Ascendion is a leading provider of AI-Native software engineering services. Our applied AI, software engineering, cloud, data, experience design, and talent transformation capabilities help accelerate innovation for Global 2000 clients. Ascendion is headquartered in New Jersey. Alongside our remote/hybrid workforce, we have a presence in 12 countries and 40+ global offices across North America, Europse, and APAC. We are dedicated to building technology powered by Generative AI, supported by an inclusive workforce, service to our communities, and a vibrant culture. For more information, please visit www.ascendion.com.

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Role Overview: Ascendion is looking for a hands-on Data Architect – GCP to spearhead the modernization and migration of legacy data workloads from Oracle, Informatica PowerCenter, Pro*C, PL/SQL, and SQL-based applications to Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

This position blends hands-on knowledge of legacy data technologies with GCP architecture, data engineering, migration strategy, governance, modernization, and production delivery. The ideal candidate will be comfortable tackling complex migration challenges in a hands-on manner while also delivering technical leadership to distributed engineering teams and partnering with client stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Evaluate and analyze Oracle schemas, PL/SQL programs, Informatica mappings/workflows, Pro*C programs, SQL scripts, schedules, dependencies, data volumes, interfaces, and data lineage to develop migration and modernization strategies.
• Design scalable and secure GCP target architectures using BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Dataflow, Dataproc, Cloud Composer, Pub/Sub, Datastream, Cloud SQL, AlloyDB, and other relevant GCP services.
• Analyze and translate Oracle data types, partitioning, indexing, constraints, sequences, stored procedures, packages, triggers, and embedded business logic into GCP-native solutions, identifying opportunities for refactoring and modernization.
• Drive modernization of Informatica PowerCenter mappings, sessions, and workflows into GCP-native patterns using SQL, Dataflow/Apache Beam, Dataproc/Spark, and Cloud Composer.
• Design and implement bulk and incremental data migration, CDC, orchestration, restartability, idempotency, error handling, auditability, lineage, observability, security, and cost/performance optimization.
• Assess and modernize Pro*C and embedded SQL workloads, including host variables, cursors, transaction handling, file processing, and batch processing patterns.
• Create durable data reconciliation and traceability frameworks that include record counts, control totals, balances, transformations, data integrity, and critical business rules.
• Lead migration testing, data validation, performance testing, cutover planning, rollback strategy, production readiness, and hypercare.
• Define and enforce data engineering standards, coding practices, architecture patterns, security controls, and CI/CD practices across the migration program.
• Assess and integrate Agentic AI capabilities and industry-standard agentic implementation platforms when they can accelerate migration, modernization, testing, documentation, or operational processes.
• Share architecture decisions, technical risks, dependencies, assumptions, and delivery readiness with client stakeholders, architects, and distributed engineering teams.
• Provide hands-on technical support and troubleshoot complex migration and production issues across the data platform.
  
  

Required Experience & Skills

• 10+ years of experience in data engineering, ETL, database migration, data architecture, or data modernization, including 5+ years in a senior technical leadership or architect role.
• Strong experience in data migration and modernization initiatives, ideally including large-scale Oracle and Informatica environments.
• Expertise in Oracle SQL and PL/SQL, including schemas, packages, procedures, triggers, execution plans, partitioning, indexing, bulk processing, performance tuning, and large-volume data migration.
• Strong understanding of Informatica PowerCenter, including repository objects, mappings, sessions, workflows, parameterization, dependencies, troubleshooting, performance tuning, and migration assessment.
• Working knowledge of Pro*C and embedded SQL, including host variables, cursors, transaction control, file processing, and modernization/refactoring approaches.
• Hands-on experience with GCP data services, including:
• BigQuery
• Cloud Storage
• IAM and security
• VPC Service Controls
• Cloud Composer
• Dataflow / Apache Beam
• Dataproc / Spark
• Pub/Sub
• Datastream
• Cloud SQL / AlloyDB
• Cloud Logging and Monitoring
• Strong proficiency in BigQuery data modeling, partitioning, clustering, SQL optimization, batch and streaming ingestion, governance, metadata, lineage, reconciliation, security, and cost optimization.
• Proficiency in Python, SQL, Shell scripting, Git, CI/CD, and Terraform or comparable Infrastructure-as-Code tools.
• Experience with production deployment, monitoring, troubleshooting, and operational support for enterprise data platforms.
• Knowledge of Agentic AI implementation and experience working with industry-standard agentic platforms is preferred.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to translate complex legacy business logic into secure, scalable, maintainable, and supportable GCP solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to lead distributed/global engineering teams and collaborate effectively with client stakeholders.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Google Professional Data Engineer or Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect certification.
• Experience with Oracle-to-BigQuery migration programs.
• Experience modernizing Informatica PowerCenter workloads to cloud-native data engineering platforms.
• Experience with database conversion and migration assessment tools.
• Experience with Terraform, dbt, and data-quality frameworks.
• Experience with automated data reconciliation, validation, and migration testing frameworks.
• Domain experience in Retail, Supply Chain, Inventory, Pharmacy, or Enterprise Reporting/Analytics.
• Experience with large-scale legacy modernization and transformation programs.
  
  

Join Ascendion

Be part of a team building next-generation AI solutions and helping enterprises accelerate innovation through Generative AI.