Data Architect

The Lead Data Architect

The Lead Data Architect provides strategic and hands-on leadership across divisional data initiatives, guiding delivery teams in building scalable data solutions within a modern cloud-based data ecosystem. This role balances high-level architecture with practical execution, ensuring data solutions align with business needs, performance requirements, and long-term architecture goals.

• Provide architectural guidance to two or three concurrent data delivery teams, typically consisting of 45 engineers per team, across data initiatives.
• Design and evolve data architecture across a Databricks-first lakehouse within a broader Azure ecosystem.
• Understand both target-state architecture and appropriate technical trade-offs.
• Lead without direct reporting authority by influencing teams through expertise and collaboration.
• Partner with engineering teams to support detailed solution design and implementation through design reviews, guidance, and targeted hands-on contribution where needed.
• Specify data solutions that meet non-functional requirements, including scalability, performance, and reliability.
• Assess technical challenges and problems, provide options, and make recommendations.
• Perform technology evaluations in support of delivery teams, providing appropriate recommendations and reasoning.
• Guide ingestion and integration strategies, including API-based data exchange.
• Support data initiatives involving structured and unstructured data.
• Apply knowledge of relational and non-relational solutions to data architecture decisions.
• With support from the team, ramp to a high degree of independence within the first six months.
• Know when to make independent decisions and when to circle back to the broader team with appropriate questions.
• Work within a new domain by identifying gaps in knowledge and actively seeking answers.

Requirements

• 710 years of progressive experience in data engineering, pipeline development, and data architecture roles developing data lakes and data warehouses.
• Background progressing from developer through at least team lead.
• Strong experience designing and working with the full lifecycle of data-centric architectures.
• Hands-on experience with cloud development in Databricks.
• Experience with structured and unstructured data, such as JSON, files, and media.
• Understanding of relational and non-relational solutions.
• Understanding of APIs and data integration patterns.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong stakeholder influence skills.
• Ability to make independent decisions when appropriate.
• Ability to identify knowledge gaps and actively seek answers when working within a new domain.
• Experience with Guidewire InsuranceSuite data.
• Azure Solutions Architect certification.
• Experience working in Property and Casualty insurance data domains.
• Understanding of London and international markets.