Senior Data Architect

ODAIA; Toronto; On-site; CAD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Royal Bank of Canada is seeking a Senior Data Architect to design enterprise data architectures and data products to support analytics, regulatory reporting, and operational excellence. You will architect Snowflake-based platforms, establish governance, and lead data product development in a regulated banking environment.

You will provide technical leadership, collaborate with product and business teams, and guide strategic data initiatives across the organization, including AI/ML integrations

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of data architecture, data engineering, or enterprise data management.
• 6+ years designing enterprise data architectures across multiple domains.
• 6+ years with data warehouses, data lakes, and analytics platforms.
• 6+ years with data modeling and relational/NoSQL design.
• 6+ years designing, optimizing ETL/ELT and data integration solutions.
• 5+ years with Snowflake or similar cloud data platforms.
• 3+ years designing or building data products.
• Strong governance, data quality, and metadata management knowledge.
• Experience in highly regulated industries (banking/financial services).
• Excellent communication for translating complex concepts to leadership.
• Experience with Agile, CI/CD, and DevOps; strong SQL skills.

Responsibilities

• Design enterprise data architectures on Snowflake and cloud platforms.
• Define data architecture standards, governance and design patterns.
• Architect end-to-end data pipelines and enable data sharing and security models.
• Lead data products from ingestion to serving layers and APIs.
• Provide technical leadership, code reviews, and strategic guidance.
• Collaborate with product/business teams to define data product metrics.

Skills

Enterprise data architecture

Cross-domain leadership

SQL optimization

Agile/CI-CD/DevOps

Communication to leadership

Data governance knowledge

Modeling relational/NoSQL

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Tools

Snowflake

Informatica IICS

Cloud data platforms

Job description

Job Description

What is the Opportunity?

We are seeking a Senior Data Architect to design enterprise-wide data architectures and data products enabling analytics, regulatory reporting, and operational excellence across Royal Bank of Canada. You will architect cloud and on-premises data platforms primarily on Snowflake, establish architecture standards including AI & ML, lead data product development, and provide technical leadership on mission-critical initiatives in a highly regulated banking environment. This role offers deep technical influence across the enterprise, with a focus on architecting the data infrastructure and data products that power RBC's data-driven transformation.

What will you do?

Strategic Architecture & Platform Design

• Design enterprise data architectures on Snowflake and cloud data platforms that are scalable, secure, and aligned with enterprise standards.
• Define data architecture standards, best practices, design patterns, and establish governance frameworks across the organization.
• Evaluate emerging data technologies and provide recommendations for adoption.

Data Architecture & Design

• Design enterprise data warehouses, data lakes, cloud analytics platforms, and integrated data solutions on Snowflake.
• Define data modeling strategies, logical and physical designs, and schema optimization approaches.
• Design advanced Snowflake features including clustering strategies, data sharing, security models (RBAC, dynamic masking), and cost optimization.
• Architect end-to-end data pipelines using modern integration platforms and cloud-native services.

Data Integration & Governance

• Architect scalable, secure, and high-performance data integration solutions using modern ETL/ELT platforms.
• Design comprehensive data governance frameworks, policies, and controls.

Data Products Architecture & Development

• Design and architect data products that deliver business value to internal and external stakeholders.
• Define data product strategies, requirements, and metrics success in collaboration with product and business teams.
• Architect data product pipelines, including ingestion, transformation, serving layers, and APIs.
• Establish data product governance frameworks, versioning, and lifecycle management practices.

AI/ML & Advanced Analytics Support

• Architect data platforms that support machine learning pipelines and advanced analytics.
• Design solutions integrating Snowflake with AI/ML tools (Snowpark, Python, Spark) for model development and feature engineering.
• Support the development and deployment of predictive models and real-time analytics solutions.

Cloud & Technical Leadership

• Architect solutions on Snowflake and cloud data platforms aligned with enterprise strategy.
• Provide technical guidance, mentorship, and code reviews to the team.
• Communicate architectural decisions and trade-offs to senior leadership and stakeholders.

What do you need to succeed?

Must have:

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of experience in data architecture, data engineering, or enterprise data management.
• 6+ years designing enterprise data architectures across multiple domains.
• 6+ years with data warehouses, data lakes, and analytics platforms.
• 6+ years with data modeling and relational/NoSQL database design.
• 6+ years designing and optimizing ETL/ELT and data integration solutions.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience with Snowflake or other similar cloud data platforms.
• 3+ years of experience designing, architecting, or building data products.
• Strong understanding of data governance frameworks, data quality methodologies, and metadata management.
• Experience in highly regulated industries (banking, financial services) with compliance requirements.
• Proven ability to design scalable, secure, and high-performance data solutions.
• Excellent communication skills with ability to translate complex technical concepts for business leadership.
• Agile, CI/CD, and DevOps experience; strong SQL optimization skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with attention to detail.

Nice to have:

• Snowflake or cloud data platform certifications.
• Experience with Informatica IICS, IDMC, MDM platforms, data governance tools (Collibra, Alation), or data quality platforms (Informatica IDQ/CDQ).
• Experience with event-driven architectures, API design, domain-driven design (DDD), or data mesh patterns.
• Containerization, streaming frameworks (Kafka, Spark), or data lakehouse architectures.

What’s in it for you?

We thrive on the challenge to be our best, progressive thinking to keep growing, and working together to deliver trusted advice to help our clients thrive and communities prosper. We care about each other, reaching our potential, making a difference to our communities, and achieving success that is mutual.

• A comprehensive Total Rewards Program including bonuses and flexible benefits, competitive compensation, commissions, and stock where applicable.
• Leaders who support your development through coaching and managing opportunities.
• Ability to make a difference and lasting impact.
• Work in a dynamic, collaborative, progressive, and high-performing team.
• A world-class training program in financial services.

#LI-POST

#TECH PJ

Job Skills: Architectural Modeling, Critical Thinking, Data Architecture Development, Data Warehousing (DW), Enterprise IT Architecture, ETL Processing, Information Technology Consulting, Logical Data Modeling, Multi-Level Communication, Physical Database Design

Additional Job Details

Address: 180 WELLINGTON ST W:TORONTO

City: Toronto

Country: Canada

Work hours/week: 37.5

Employment Type: Full time

Platform: TECHNOLOGY AND OPERATIONS

Job Type: Regular

Pay Type: Salaried

Posted Date: 2026-07-14

Application Deadline: 2026-08-31

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the application deadline date above

Our Employment Opportunities

At RBC, we are guided by living shared values of Client First, Integrity, Collaboration, Respect and Excellence and winning together as One RBC. We believe an inclusive workplace that has diverse perspectives is core to our continued growth as one of the largest and most successful banks in the world. Maintaining a workplace where our employees feel supported to perform at their best, effectively collaborate, drive innovation, and grow professionally helps to bring our Purpose to life and create value for our clients and communities. RBC strives to deliver this through policies and programs intended to foster a workplace based on respect, belonging and opportunity for all.

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RBC is presently inviting candidates to apply for this existing vacancy. Applying to this posting allows you to express your interest in this current career opportunity at RBC. Qualified applicants may be contacted to review their resume in more detail.