Data Architect III

Electronic Arts (EA); Vancouver; Hybrid; CAD 179,000 - 238,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading gaming company is looking for a Data Architect III in Vancouver. You will architect and optimize data platforms and lakes to enhance gaming services and analytics across multiple titles. The role requires a strong background in data architecture and a collaborative spirit to work with cross-functional teams. Ideal candidates have over 7 years of experience and expertise in large-scale database systems.

Benefits

Paid time off (3 weeks per year)

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) plan

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional experience in data architecture, data engineering, or related fields.
• Deep expertise in large-scale database systems.
• Strong background in batch ETL and streaming data architectures.
• Familiarity with AI/ML data pipelines and supporting infrastructure.
• Has shipped an analytics platform that solved key business decisions.

Responsibilities

• Define data models and implement centralized metadata solutions.
• Design and optimize batch ELT/ETL and real-time streaming pipelines.
• Lead selection and implementation of cloud data warehouses.
• Establish data governance standards and quality frameworks.
• Serve as liaison to Product, Engineering, Analytics, and Operations.

Skills

Data architecture

Data engineering

Python

Communication

Collaboration

Tools

BigQuery

Snowflake

Spark

Kafka

Flink

Job description

Overview

Data Architect III — location: Kirkland or Vancouver. The IPS (Infrastructure, Platform, and Services) organization provides the essential platforms and infrastructure solutions that power EA's live services and titles. Our mission is to ensure EA's games and services are available to all players, anytime and anywhere. We focus on high availability, scalability, and reliability of infrastructure and services, enabling rapid development and experimentation for our studios in the cloud and in the data center.

The IPS organization designs and implements large-scale data solutions to support EA’s live services and analytics needs. This role will architect and optimize data platforms, data lakes, and data warehouses, enabling advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning capabilities across hundreds of games and millions of players. You will report directly to a Senior Director IPS. We offer a collaborative environment in our Kirkland, WA facility, located near Caroline Point, with a distributed team across multiple regions.

Responsibilities

• Data Modeling & Catalog: Define logical and physical data models, implement a centralized metadata / catalog solution (e.g. DataHub, Glue Data Catalog) and enforce a semantic layer for self‑service analytics.
• Modern Pipelines: Design, build and optimize both batch ELT / ETL and real‑time streaming pipelines (using tools like Airflow, dbt, Spark Structured Streaming, Kafka, Flink or Materialize) for high throughput and low latency.
• Database & Warehouse Strategy: Lead selection, implementation and tuning of cloud data warehouses, lakehouses, and NoSQL (Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Hadoop, Cassandra), including performance‑ and cost‑optimizations.
• ML / AI Enablement: Collaborate with Data Science / ML Engineering to provision feature stores, experiment tracking, and MLOps pipelines—ensuring data is discoverable, versioned, and lineage‑tracked.
• Governance & Security: Establish and enforce data governance standards, data‑quality frameworks (Great Expectations, Deequ), access controls (IAM, RBAC), encryption, and compliance (GDPR, HIPAA) across all environments.
• Technology Evaluation: Continuously research, prototype, and recommend emerging technologies (lakehouse architectures, serverless analytics, data mesh patterns) to improve agility, performance, and TCO.
• Cross‑Functional Partnership: Serve as the data‑infrastructure liaison to Product, Engineering, Analytics, and Operations—translating business requirements into robust data solutions and troubleshooting production issues.
• Leadership & Mentorship: Coach and guide data engineers on best practices (code reviews, CI / CD, testing), foster documentation culture, and evangelize data‑driven decision making across the organization.

The Next Great EA Data Architect Also Needs

• 7+ years of professional experience in data architecture, data engineering, or related fields.
• Deep expertise in large-scale database systems (BigQuery, Snowflake, Spark, or similar).
• Strong background in batch ETL / ELT and streaming data architectures (e.g., Kafka, Spark, Flink).
• Familiarity with AI / ML data pipelines and supporting infrastructure.
• Proficiency in Python
• Has shipped an analytics platform that solved key business decisions with data driven insights.
• Experience with data governance, security, and compliance in large organizations.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with a track record of working in distributed teams.

Compensation And Benefits

The ranges listed below are what EA in good faith expects to pay applicants for this role in these locations at the time of this posting. If you reside in a different location, a recruiter will advise on the applicable range and benefits. Pay offered will be determined based on a number of relevant business and candidate factors (e.g. education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, or business needs).

PAY RANGES

• Washington (depending on location e.g. Seattle vs. Spokane)
• 129,500 - $171,800 USD

In the US, we offer a package of benefits including paid time off (3 weeks per year to start), 80 hours per year of sick time, 16 paid company holidays per year, 10 weeks paid time off to bond with baby, medical / dental / vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and 401(k) to regular full-time employees. Certain roles may also be eligible for bonus and equity.

About Electronic Arts

We’re proud to have an extensive portfolio of games and experiences, locations around the world, and opportunities across EA. We value adaptability, resilience, creativity, and curiosity. From leadership that brings out your potential, to creating space for learning and experimenting, we empower you to do great work and pursue opportunities for growth.

We adopt a holistic approach to our benefits programs, emphasizing physical, emotional, financial, career, and community wellness to support a balanced life. Our packages are tailored to meet local needs and may include healthcare coverage, mental well-being support, retirement savings, paid time off, family leaves, complimentary games, and more. We nurture environments where our teams can always bring their best to what they do.

Electronic Arts is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, religion, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, family status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We will also consider employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. EA also makes workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law.