Lead Data Architect

Virta Ltd; Helsinki; Hybrid; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Virta Ltd is seeking a Lead Data Architect to own and evolve Virta's data platform. You will set standards for core entities, lead data modeling, and drive governance across operational and analytical systems. The role blends architecture with hands-on coding and team leadership.

You will define the data team structure, recruit where needed, and lead 3–5 colleagues as they scale. The position requires deep Snowflake expertise and strong SQL/Python skills, with hybrid work from Helsinki, Finland.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience designing enterprise data models.
• Proven track record leading data teams.
• Strong collaboration with domain teams and product/engineering.

Responsibilities

• Own the target architecture: Set warehouse layers, modeling standards, and ingestion patterns for domain teams to build on.
• Harmonize the core entity model across systems.
• Design governance for data ownership, definitions, quality, and access.
• Write reference implementations and critical-domain dbt models.
• Own the semantic layer for BI and internal reporting.
• Define roles and structure, build and grow the data team.
• Advise product, engineering, and business teams on data design and usage; run data-literacy training.
• Partner across the company on data-heavy initiatives and due diligence for integrations and acquisitions.

Skills

Data architecture

Snowflake expertise

SQL

Python

Leadership

Data governance

AI tooling awareness

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

Liikennevirta is seeking for a Lead Data Architect who will own Virta's data platform and report to the VP of Engineering. This is not a greenfield: Snowflake and several other data platforms are already in place, built up over years of fast growth. Your job is to take ownership of what exists, decide what stays and what changes, and set the direction for what comes next.

The first priority is one shared model for core business entities, such as customers, legal entities, and commercial relationships, used consistently across our systems. You will lead the key decisions on how data is modeled across the company, working closely with the domain teams that own our operational systems. In short, you will build the foundation for how we scale.

This is a hands-on role that combines architecture and leadership. You will start as an individual contributor, building parts of the platform yourself, proving patterns with working code, and reviewing implementations in detail. If you are looking for a role that produces diagrams and delegates the rest, this is not it.

Within your first 12 months, you will define the roles we need and form a data team of 3–5 people, bringing together colleagues who already work with our data and new hires. You will lead the decisions on how the team is shaped, and lead it as it grows.

What You'll Do

• Own the target architecture: Set warehouse layers, modeling standards, and ingestion patterns for domain teams to build on
• Harmonize the core entity model: Unify organizations, legal entities, contracts, and commercial relationships across operational and analytical systems
• Make data trustworthy: Design governance for data ownership, definitions, quality, and access
• Build hands-on: Write reference implementations, critical-domain dbt models, data contracts, and reusable patterns
• Own the semantic layer: Shape the layer feeding our BI, from embedded product analytics to internal reporting
• Build the data team: Define roles and structure, build the team from internal talent and new hires, and lead it as it grows
• Be the internal data authority: Advise product, engineering, and business teams on data design and use, and run data-literacy training
• Partner across the company: Work with product and engineering on data-heavy initiatives and support architecture due diligence for integrations and acquisitions

What We're Looking For

• 8+ years in data engineering or data architecture, with at least 3 years owning architecture decisions that others built on
• Proven track record in team leadership and developing talents
• Proven ability to collaborate in matrix and translate business reality into data structures
• Deep, current Snowflake expertise: modeling, performance, cost management, security, and access design
• Strong dimensional and domain modeling skills. You have harmonized an established data model across multiple systems before and can describe how you approached it
• Production-level SQL and Python, or another language of your choice for data work. You still write code weekly and expect to keep doing so.
• Experience with modern transformation, orchestration tooling, designing governance that works in practice: ownership models, data contracts, quality monitoring
• Competence using AI tools in your own work, with judgment about where they help and where they don't
• Hybrid from Helsinki, Finland.

Why Join Us

Founding roles like this are rare. You will build Virta's data foundation: the architecture, the team, and the way the company uses data. All on a platform that sits at the intersection of mobility and energy. Real ownership: you own the data platform, report to the VP of Engineering, and lead the decisions that shape how we scale across markets. The EV charging market in Europe is regulated, fast-moving, and data-hungry: smart charging, energy flexibility, and new regulatory regimes all depend on the foundation you will design.