Principal Data Architect

Job Description

Russell Investments is seeking a hands-on Principal Data Architect to design and build modern data platforms across their enterprise. This role is focused on practical architecture, data modeling, and platform implementation in a hybrid (on-prem + cloud) environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement scalable data architectures, models, and pipelines for analytics and operational use cases.
• Build and optimize data warehouse and lakehouse solutions using modern cloud platforms (Snowflake, Databricks, Azure).
• Lead hands-on data modeling (3NF, dimensional, Data Vault) to ensure performance, consistency, and reuse.
• Execute migration of legacy systems (SQL Server, on-prem) to cloud-based architectures, including hybrid patterns.
• Implement data quality, MDM, and governance standards directly within data pipelines and models.
• Enable AI/ML use cases by designing reliable, well-structured, and observable data pipelines.
• Collaborate with engineering and analytics teams to deliver production-ready data solutions and guide technical design.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of hands-on experience in data architecture or data engineering.
• Strong expertise in SQL and relational databases (SQL Server preferred).
• Experience building data pipelines using DBT (3+ years preferred).
• 5+ years of proven experience designing and implementing cloud data platforms (Azure preferred).
• Deep knowledge of data modeling (3NF, dimensional, Data Vault).
• Hands-on experience with data migration and hybrid architectures.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management across technical and business domains with a demonstrated ability to translate architecture into business outcomes.

Preferred

• Experience with Snowflake, Databricks, Spark, or Python.
• Familiarity with data quality, observability, and governance tools.
• Exposure to AI/ML data pipelines or MLOps frameworks.
• Financial services or investment domain experience.

Benefits

At Russell Investments, salary is just one part of their compensation package. Their total rewards approach includes an annual performance bonus (subject to eligibility criteria) in addition to participation in their competitive benefits programs including healthcare, retirement, vacation, and wellbeing programs.