Every AI project is a data project with a deadline.
FERG Search is a specialist recruiter for data architects and Azure database engineers on the Microsoft stack in Australia and New Zealand, permanent and contract: Microsoft Fabric and OneLake, Azure SQL, Cosmos DB and Dataverse. Every search is run by the founder, Fintan Ferguson.
An agent can only be as right as the data it reads. In the programmes we see, the AI timeline slips the week someone asks which customer table is the real one and three people give three answers. A data architect settles that before the agent ships, and it is the hire most AI budgets forget.
First shortlist within 48 hours of an agreed brief.
The people who decide which number is right.
- Data architects on Microsoft Fabric, OneLake, Azure Data Factory and Synapse.
- Enterprise and solution data architects for Microsoft estates.
- Azure database engineers: Azure SQL, SQL Managed Instance and Cosmos DB.
- Dataverse and Dynamics 365 data architects.
- Data governance and data platform leads working with Microsoft Purview.
Checked technically and commercially, before you meet them.
- The data model they designed that other teams now depend on.
- How they decided what lives in Fabric, what stays in the operational database and what stays in Dataverse.
- Who can see what, and how they enforced it.
- The migration that did not go to plan, and what they did next.
What the seat pays.
Data architecture briefs stall when the seat is budgeted as a senior data engineer and the job is deciding the model everyone else builds on.
Data architect and Azure database engineer bands are not in the first edition of the FERG Search Salary Guide. Until then, ask: we will give you the band we are seeing accepted, declined and countered for the seat you are briefing.
AI reads everything. Including the mess.
Copilot and agents surface whatever they are allowed to see, so the data estate that was good enough for monthly reporting is suddenly in front of every user. The architects who can fix the model and the permissions at the same time are the seat AI budgets most often leave out.
Straight answers on data architects.
Who recruits data architects in Australia and New Zealand?
FERG Search recruits data architects and Azure database engineers on Microsoft Fabric, Azure SQL, Cosmos DB and Dataverse for Microsoft partners and end users across Australia and New Zealand, permanent and contract. The founder, Fintan Ferguson, runs every search from Melbourne.
Do I need a data architect or a Fabric engineer?
A Fabric engineer builds the pipelines, lakehouses and models. A data architect decides how they fit together across Fabric, your operational databases and Dataverse, and who can see what. If nobody has made those decisions yet, the architect comes first.
Should the data architect come before the AI hire?
If the data the agent will read is not trusted yet, yes. An AI engineer working on data nobody trusts spends the first months fixing it, and the agent inherits every gap they miss.
Do you recruit data architects in New Zealand?
Yes, anywhere in New Zealand, including Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, permanent and contract, with the same founder running the search.
Brief a data architect role.
Tell us which number nobody agrees on, and which agent is waiting for it.