Data Architect

NatWest Group; Gogar; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading banking institution in the United Kingdom is seeking an experienced Data Architect to define strategic target data architecture and align it with business objectives. You will play a key role in leading architecture reviews, driving technology innovation, and fostering collaborative decision-making processes. Candidates should have expert knowledge in data architecture frameworks, cloud technologies, and DevOps practices. Strong communication and relationship-building skills with stakeholders are essential in this role.

Qualifications

• Experience in defining strategic target data architectures that align with business objectives.
• Extensive background in overseeing the quality of architecture designs focusing on risk management.
• Proven ability to engage partners and stakeholders to deliver architectural outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Define strategic target data architecture and roadmap.
• Lead architecture and design reviews for significant solution data architectures.
• Drive technology innovation and contribute to investment programmes.

Skills

Expert knowledge of data architecture frameworks

Knowledge of Cloud and microservices

Experience with AI

Agile architecture and DevOps practices

Leadership in collaborative decision-making processes

Creating compelling business cases

Job description

Join us as a Data Architect

• We’ll look to you to define the strategic target data architecture and roadmap, aligning them with business strategy, data strategy and objectives
• You’ll be facilitating collaborative architecture decision making, partnering and engaging with key business and digital leaders to continually evolve the bank’s long term architectural direction
• With valuable exposure, you’ll cultivate strong relationships and proactively engage with key stakeholders, including business and technology leaders, vendors and data partners, and industry thought leaders

What you’ll do

As a Data Architect, you’ll architect customer centric, high performance, secure, robust and sustainable end to end digital products, solutions, and services that deliver business value while aligning to the bank’s strategic target architecture and data strategy.

You’ll be actively contributing to the growth of architecting capability and the community across the bank through thought leadership, knowledge sharing, contributing to the community of practice, and building capability in others through coaching, mentoring and teaching.

As well as this you’ll be:

• Leading architecture and design reviews of solution data architectures within delivery programmes of high architectural significance or risk
• Inspecting and verifying that proposed designs meet business needs, and are compliant with Architecture Council approved architecture principles, standards, and patterns
• Driving technology innovation by identifying and evaluating emerging technologies and their potential impact on the bank
• Actively shaping and contributing to strategic investment programmes, identifying opportunities for simplification or reuse, and guiding programme design to build and adopt the key data architecture enablers
• Promoting a DevOps mindset by working as part of development teams to embed data architecture principles

The skills you’ll need

To succeed in this role, you’ll need expert knowledge of data architecture frameworks, modern technologies such as Cloud, microservices and AI, agile architecture and DevOps practices, including a deep understanding of business use cases and emerging trends that drive organisational success.

You’ll bring extensive experience of defining and developing strategic target data architectures that align with organisational objectives. This will include experience of engaging with partners across the organisation to define architectures that deliver tangible business outcomes.

You’ll also demonstrate:

• Experience of leading collaborative decision-making processes, partnering with senior business and technology colleagues to articulate and evolve architectural direction
• Experience of identifying and advocating for strategic investment opportunities that enhance the organisation's architecture goals
• The proven ability to craft compelling business cases and influence senior stakeholders to secure investment for architecture initiatives
• Extensive experience of overseeing and assuring the quality of architecture designs, with a focus on risk management and governance
• Experience of conducting comprehensive architecture and design reviews to validate that solutions meet business needs and comply with architecture standards
• A proven track record of fostering a culture of architectural excellence through mentorship and knowledge sharing