Data Architect

About the Role

Working for the City of McKinney is more than a job. It is an opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others and contribute to the development of one of the fastest-growing communities in the nation. Recognized on the Top Workplaces USA list by USA TODAY, our team is dedicated to making McKinney one of the best places to work, live, and raise a family.

The Data Architect is a senior IT professional responsible for designing, developing, and managing the organization’s data infrastructure to ensure efficient, secure, and scalable data storage, processing, and retrieval. This role involves creating data models, defining data architecture frameworks, and aligning data systems with business objectives to support decision-making, analytics, and compliance. The Data Architect collaborates with cross-functional teams, including data engineers, analysts, and business stakeholders, to translate business requirements into technical solutions, ensuring data integrity, accessibility, and security.

Responsibilities

• Develops and maintains conceptual, logical, and physical data models to support business needs, ensuring scalability and performance.
• Creates and implements database solutions, data warehouses, and data lakes to store, retrieve, and manage City information.
• Ensures data quality and consistency for reliable decision-making.
• Optimizes data structures to improve reporting and dashboard performance.
• Designs and executes data migration strategies, ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes, and integration workflows to ensure seamless data flow across systems.
• Establishes data lineage, cataloging, and data stewardship practices.
• Produces architecture artifacts such as target state diagrams, data flow maps, data contracts, and decision records.
• Leads enterprise-wide data strategy initiatives, including governance, lifecycle management, and innovation alignment.
• Architects scalable platforms that support advanced analytics, machine learning, and AI-driven decision-making.
• Drives cross-departmental data integration to unify disparate sources and enable a single source of truth.
• Mentors junior data professionals and provides architectural guidance on modeling, security, and performance optimization.
• Evaluates and introduces emerging technologies (e.g., data mesh, real-time streaming) to enhance agility and scalability.
• Establishes and enforces data governance policies, ensuring data accuracy, security, and compliance with industry regulations (e.g., PCI-DSS, HIPAA, CJIS).
• Monitors and optimizes database performance, troubleshoots issues, and implements improvements to enhance efficiency and reliability.
• Provides technical guidance to support system maintenance and upgrades.
• Collaborates and communicates with stakeholders with various technical skill levels.
• Leads cross-functional teams in data stewardship and literacy.
• Assesses and recommends tools, technologies, and platforms to support data architecture needs.
• Maintains awareness of new technologies and advances in the profession through professional literature, workshops, and training sessions.
• Produces detailed, consistent, error-free work based on defined parameters.
• Adheres to assigned work schedule and department attendance policies and procedures.
• Travels to meetings, trainings, and City events as necessary.
• Complies with all written City policies and procedures.
• Performs other duties as assigned or directed.

General Expectations for All Employees

• Learn and demonstrate an understanding of how team, department, and City goals are interconnected.
• Contribute to a positive work culture.
• Maintain regular and reliable attendance.
• Assess your work performance or the work performance of the team.
• Contribute to the development of others and/or the working unit or overall organization.
• Work as part of a team, demonstrate team skills, and perform a fair share of team responsibilities.
• Continuously learn and develop through a mix of internal and external training opportunities.

Skills

• Ability to embrace and embody the City’s core values of Respect, Integrity, Service, and Excellence (R.I.S.E.).
• Effective communication with peers, supervisors, subordinates, and service recipients.
• Produce desired work outcomes, including quality, quantity, and timeliness.
• Plan and organize work, time, and resources, including those of subordinates.
• Forge strong professional relationships with internal staff in an outgoing and friendly way.
• Advanced proficiency with relational and NoSQL databases (e.g., SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MongoDB).
• Strong expertise in data modeling tools (e.g., Erwin, ER/Studio).
• Working knowledge of cloud platforms (e.g., Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud) and their data services.
• Experience with ETL/ELT tools and data integration platforms (e.g., Synapse, Redshift, Apache Airflow, Mulesoft, Snowflake).
• Proficiency in scripting languages (e.g., SQL, Python, Scala, YAML, Shell, Terraform, JSON).
• Skilled and proactive project manager with the ability to independently plan, coordinate, and organize work; set priorities, and meet critical deadlines.
• Identify and resolve problems in a timely, efficient, and effective manner.
• Summarize complicated technical issues in a brief, common-sense manner.
• Technical writing experience in relevant areas, including queries, reports, and presentations.
• Quickly gain job knowledge and technical competency through independent learning, collaborative training, and supportive coaching.
• Learn and effectively communicate about professional fields outside previous experience.
• Exercise independent judgment, decisiveness, and creativity in evaluating data against measurable or verifiable criteria.
• Facilitate discussions and interaction with large groups of individuals.
• Work in a team environment; contribute as a team member and treat co-workers, subordinates, and customers with respect.
• Multi-task in a high-activity/energy professional environment with multiple and concurrent projects and deadlines.
• Exhibit flexibility and adaptability, especially during times of change.
• Proven expertise in data observability and lineage solutions (Monte Carlo, Collibra, Alation, DataHub).
• Advanced proficiency in infrastructure-as-code (IaC) for Snowflake and cloud-native data platforms using Terraform, Pulumi, or AWS CloudFormation.
• Hands-on experience architecting and deploying containerized data services with Kubernetes, Docker, and Helm.
• Working knowledge of graph databases and semantic modeling (Neo4j, Amazon Neptune).

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software/Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• Five (5) years of experience in data architecture, data warehousing/modeling, cloud platform architecture, and enterprise database design.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Enterprise/Information Architecture, or a related field.
• Industry-recognized certifications such as Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP); TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework); Cloud Data Architect Certificates (Azure Solutions Architect Expert, AWS Solutions Architect – Professional, or Google Professional Cloud Architect).
• Four (4) years of experience with data lakehouse architectures and tools (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks).
• Experience with Snowflake data integration and orchestration (Snowpipe, Streams, Tasks).
• Performance optimization and query tuning in Snowflake.
• Data modeling and schema design tailored for Snowflake.
• Snowflake security features (RBAC, masking, encryption).
• Four (4) years of experience implementing data mesh or distributed data architecture concepts.
• Eight (8) years of experience in data architecture, with a focus on cloud-based solutions or large-scale enterprise systems.

Conditions of Employment

• Must pass a drug screen and background check.
• Must have a Class C Texas Driver’s License.
• Must have or obtain CJIS Certification within 30 days of hire.
• Must obtain Snowflake SnowPro Core within 6 months of hire.
• Must obtain SnowPro Advanced: Architect within 12 months of hire.

Physical Demands

Tasks involve the ability to exert light physical effort in sedentary to light work, which may involve some lifting, carrying, pushing, and/or pulling of objects and materials of light weight (5-10 pounds). Tasks may involve extended periods of time at a keyboard or workstation. Some tasks require visual and sound perception and discrimination and oral communications ability.