Data Architect

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable, secure, and high-performance data architectures leveraging Apache Spark and distributed systems
• Define reference architectures and blueprints for data ingestion, transformation, and reporting to guide engineering teams
• Define data models, pipelines, and frameworks to ensure quality, consistency, and scalability

Technical Leadership & Implementation

• Lead the adoption of streaming technologies (Kafka, Spark Structured Streaming, Delta Live Tables) to enable real-time data processing
• Support both batch and streaming use cases for business-critical applications
• Implement and enforce governance, security, and compliance principles to meet enterprise and regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, DORA)
• Optimize ETL/ELT workflows for scalability, resilience, and cost efficiency across cloud environments (Azure, AWS, GCP)

Governance & Standards

• Define and promote golden sources of trusted data as the foundation for analytics and decision-making
• Establish best practices for data lineage, metadata management, and monitoring to provide visibility and trust in the data ecosystem
• Define and maintain monitoring and alerting frameworks to ensure platform reliability

Collaboration & Leadership

• Partner with engineering, analytics, and product teams to deliver robust and business-aligned data solutions
• Act as a champion for treating data as a product, ensuring adoption and trust across the organization
• Mentor and guide data engineers and analysts on architectural best practices

Innovation & Strategy

• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend improvements to strengthen the organisation s data ecosystem
• Provide strategic insights to senior leadership on leveraging data and analytics for competitive advantage

Requirements

Experience with Real World Data Platforms

• Proven experience of developing and running a data platform at scale
• Expert-level proficiency in Apache Spark and distributed data processing systems
• Strong experience with streaming technologies (Kafka, Spark Structured Streaming, Delta Live Tables)
• Deep knowledge of both batch and real-time data processing architectures
• Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP) and their data services
• Proficiency in designing and optimizing ETL/ELT workflows

Data Management & Governance

• Strong understanding of data governance, security, and compliance frameworks (GDPR, DORA, etc.)
• Experience with data modeling, metadata management, and data lineage tools
• Knowledge of data quality frameworks and monitoring systems

Leadership & Communication

• Excellent stakeholder management and collaboration skills across technical and business teams
• Proven mentorship and coaching abilities for data engineering teams
• Strong strategic thinking with ability to provide insights to senior leadership
• Ability to champion initiatives and drive organizational adoption