Role Overview
We are seeking a highly experienced Power BI Performance Architect to partner closely with our BI team as we undertake a major redesign of our semantic layer, data models, and dataset architecture. The ideal candidate will provide technical leadership, consult on performance best practices, validate our current design approach, and help establish a scalable, future-proof Power BI platform.
This role requires deep expertise in Power BI performance optimization, large dataset management, semantic model design, and enterprise BI architecture. The candidate will act as both a hands-on expert and an architectural advisor, ensuring our solutions follow industry best practices and can scale as data volumes and reporting demands grow.
Key Responsibilities
Power BI Performance & Optimization
- Analyze existing Power BI datasets, models, and reports to diagnose performance bottlenecks.
- Optimize dataset refresh performance, DAX measures, query folding, indexing, and incremental refresh strategies.
- Recommend and validate approaches such as dataset chunking, aggregation tables, composite models, and DirectQuery vs Import trade-offs.
- Ensure best practices for semantic model design, relationships, cardinality, star schema modeling, and efficient DAX.
Architectural Review & Advisory
- Review and validate the current redesign approach of the semantic layer and dataset structure.
- Establish architecture guidelines for semantic models, dataflows, pipelines, and workspace governance.
- Evaluate the end-to-end Power BI platform setup (Gateways, Premium capacity, dataflows, lineage, refresh strategies).
- Provide recommendations for a scalable, maintainable, and secure Power BI architecture aligned with long-term business needs.
Collaboration & Leadership
- Work directly with BI leads, data engineers, and analysts to support ongoing design and performance improvement initiatives.
- Mentor the BI team on Power BI optimization techniques and architectural patterns.
- Lead technical discussions, design reviews, and solution walkthroughs.
- Drive adoption of Power BI best practices and enforce governance standards.
Technical Hands-On
- Redesign or refactor semantic models where necessary; build performance-optimized datasets and measures.
- Validate dataflows, SQL transformations, and ETL pipelines feeding Power BI.
- Provide debugging support for refresh failures, gateway/connectivity issues, and large model optimization.
Required Skills & Experience
Core Expertise
- 7–10+ years of BI experience with strong focus on Microsoft BI stack.
- 5+ years hands-on with Power BI, including dataset design, performance tuning, DAX, and large model optimization.
- Proven experience diagnosing and fixing complex model performance issues.
- Strong understanding of semantic layer architecture, star/snowflake schemas, and modeling best practices.
- Experience with Power BI Premium, XMLA endpoints, large models, incremental refresh, and dataflows.
Technical Skills
- Advanced DAX and query optimization
- SQL performance tuning (M/Power Query and database-side)
- Understanding of Power BI Gateway, capacity planning, security models
- Experience with composite models, aggregation tables, and DirectQuery
- Familiarity with enterprise BI governance, workspace management, and deployment pipelines
