Microsoft Fabric Architect in Manchester

Salary: £(Apply online only) per day – Outside IR35

Location: UK – Hybrid with requirement to attend the Office as needed

Work Type: 6 Month Contract

Role: Join a manufacturing business making a significant investment in its Microsoft data estate as it builds a modern, scalable data platform around Microsoft Fabric. This is an opportunity to take genuine architectural ownership, shaping the end-to-end Fabric landscape rather than simply delivering individual workloads. You’ll define the architecture, standards and migration roadmap that underpin how data is managed and consumed across the organisation, working across complex ERP, manufacturing and operational data sources. With visibility across engineering, BI, enterprise architecture and senior leadership, you’ll have the influence to make strategic decisions while remaining close enough to the technology to drive successful delivery.

Responsibilities:

• You’ll own the end-to-end Microsoft Fabric architecture, designing the approach across Fabric, OneLake, Lakehouse and Data Warehouse technologies.
• You’ll define data ingestion and transformation patterns across ERP, manufacturing and operational systems, including Fabric Data Factory, pipelines and notebooks.
• You’ll shape Power BI architecture and semantic models alongside data modelling and medallion architecture principles.
• Security, governance, lineage and Microsoft Purview will form a key part of the platform strategy, alongside capacity planning, performance and cost optimisation.
• You’ll establish robust Dev/Test/Prod environments and CI/CD practices, ensure effective integration with the wider Azure and Microsoft estate, and define the roadmap for migrating existing data workloads into Fabric.
• Throughout the engagement, you’ll work closely with Data Engineers, BI teams, enterprise architects and senior stakeholders to turn business requirements into a scalable enterprise data architecture.

Required Skills:

• Strong commercial Microsoft Fabric architecture experience within complex enterprise environments is essential.
• You’ll need hands-on architectural knowledge of Fabric, OneLake, Lakehouse, Data Warehouse, Fabric Data Factory, pipelines and notebooks, alongside a strong background in Azure data architecture, Power BI, SQL and data modelling.
• Experience designing medallion architectures, semantic models, security frameworks, governance, data lineage and Microsoft Purview is required, as is knowledge of Fabric capacity planning, performance and cost optimisation.
• You should also understand CI/CD, environment management and integration across the wider Azure/Microsoft ecosystem.
• Experience architecting Fabric platforms and migration strategies at enterprise scale is key, while exposure to manufacturing, supply chain, ERP or operationally complex environments would be particularly valuable.

Why should I apply?

This is a high-impact contract where you’ll have the opportunity to shape a Microsoft Fabric platform at a pivotal stage of its journey. Rather than inheriting a finished architecture, you’ll influence how the platform is designed, governed, scaled and adopted across the business, leaving behind a roadmap and architecture with genuine long-term value. You’ll gain exposure to complex enterprise and manufacturing data challenges, work directly with senior technical and business stakeholders, and play a central role in a major Microsoft data transformation. With an initial 6-month engagement, a £600–£700 per day rate and Outside IR35 status, this is an excellent opportunity for a Fabric Architect looking for meaningful ownership, technical depth and strategic influence.