Data Architect

NatWest Group; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial institution in the UK is seeking a Data Architect to define strategic target data architecture and align it with business objectives. The role involves leading architecture reviews, promoting technology innovation, and fostering a DevOps mindset. Ideal candidates should have expert knowledge of data architecture frameworks and a solid background in modern technologies. This position requires extensive experience in collaborative decision-making and stakeholder engagement, ensuring the architecture achieves tangible business outcomes.

Qualifications

• Expert knowledge of data architecture frameworks and modern technologies.
• Extensive experience defining and developing strategic target data architectures.
• Proven ability to lead collaborative decision-making and influence stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Define strategic target data architecture and roadmap aligning with business strategy.
• Lead architecture and design reviews for significant solutions.
• Drive technology innovation by evaluating emerging technologies.
• Shape strategic investment programmes and identify opportunities for simplification.
• Promote a DevOps mindset within development teams.

Skills

Data architecture frameworks

Cloud technologies

Microservices

AI technologies

Agile architecture

DevOps practices

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 goalsThe 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