Lead Data Architect

About the Company

About the Role

Responsibilities

• Develop and own the long-term strategic roadmap for WPP Open's enterprise data architecture, anticipating future challenges and opportunities.
• Directly lead a central team of senior data architects while providing strategic oversight and technical governance for all distributed data engineering and architecture talent across WPP Open.
• Harmonise data architecture practices and technology choices across disparate workstreams to ensure interoperability, reusability, and efficiency.
• Establish and enforce enterprise-wide data governance policies, data quality standards, and best practices across all teams and projects to ensure data integrity and security.
• Drive process improvements and introduce new, innovative approaches to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of data management and consumption.
• Serve as the primary subject matter expert and final point of escalation on data architecture, providing thought leadership to resolve highly complex, cross-functional issues.
• Manage the budget and resource allocation for the central data architecture function, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities.

Key Shared Accountabilities:

• Partner with executive leadership and workstream leads globally to ensure the data architecture strategy supports and aligns with broader organisational goals.
• Act as the primary architectural liaison between various workstreams, fostering a community of practice and ensuring alignment with the central data vision across different time zones.
• Actively share best practices and foster a culture of data literacy and collaboration across the organisation.
• Ensure the team's contributions and architectural decisions align with the commercial and operational models of WPP Open.

Critical Knowledge and Experience:

• Typically requires a University Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience. A graduate-level degree is preferred.
• Minimum of 12 years of prior relevant experience in data architecture, data engineering, or a similar field, with a proven track record of operating at a strategic level.
• Deep, mastery-level knowledge of data architecture principles, data modeling, and database design in complex, large-scale environments.
• Proven ability to lead and influence effectively in a global, distributed, and multi-time-zone environment.
• Demonstrated experience leading and influencing in a complex, matrixed, or federated organisational structure, driving consensus and enforcing standards across distributed teams.
• Extensive experience with cloud data platforms (e.g., Google Cloud, AWS, Azure) and modern data stack technologies (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery).
• Strong conflict resolution, change management, and senior stakeholder management skills.

Qualifications

• Typically requires a University Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience. A graduate-level degree is preferred.
• Minimum of 15 plus years of prior relevant experience in data architecture, data engineering, or a similar field, with a proven track record of operating at a strategic level.

Equal Opportunity Statement