Data Architect (Fabric)

Methods

Greater London

On-site

GBP 80,000 - 110,000

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

Autonomy to grow

Challenging projects

Pension salary exchange

Private medical insurance

Life assurance

Travel insurance

25 days annual leave

Job summary

Methods is seeking a Data Architect to lead Fabric-based data architecture across the programme, ensuring alignment with business objectives. The role combines senior technical authority, roadmap ownership and mentorship across architects and engineers, with a public-sector-leaning client base and remote-first delivery.

You will define data standards, drive end-to-end data solutions, and guide complex migration to cloud-native platforms, leveraging Azure, Parquet/Delta Lake and real-time

Qualifications

Be the senior technical authority for the programme, responsible for defining technical direction, priorities, standards and decision-making.
Be accountable for creating and maintaining the Data Transformation Programme roadmap and ensuring all workstreams align to the target architecture and business objectives.
Set priorities and guide technical workstreams.
Identify incorrect or low-value activities and redirect effort towards programme outcomes.
Uplift the capability of the existing team and mentor architects and engineers.

Responsibilities

Chair or lead architecture reviews, design authorities, technical governance forums and data platform standards reviews.
Advocate business benefits of data standards and govern those standards across projects.
Demonstrate an overall perspective on business issues, defining patterns, standards, policies and roadmaps.

Skills

Fabric architecture

Azure data stack

Data modelling

Data warehousing

Real-time data streaming

Power BI integration

Leadership

Architectural governance

Tools

Kafka

Event Hubs

Kinesis

Azure Data Factory

CosmosDB

SQL Server

PostgreSQL

Power BI

Job description

About Methods:

Methods is a £100M+ IT Services Consultancy who has partnered with a range of central government departments and agencies to transform the way the public sector operates in the UK. Established over 30 years ago and UK-based, we apply our skills in transformation, delivery, and collaboration from across the Methods Group, to create end-to-end business and technical solutions that are people-centred, safe, and designed for the future.

Our human touch sets us apart from other consultancies, system integrators and software houses - with people, technology, and data at the heart of who we are, we believe in creating value and sustainability through everything we do for our clients, staff, communities, and the planet.

We support our clients in the success of their projects while working collaboratively to share skill sets and solve problems. At Methods we have fun while working hard; we are not afraid of making mistakes and learning from them.

Predominantly focused on the public-sector, Methods is now building a significant private sector client portfolio.

Methods was acquired by the Alten Group in early 2022. Alten is a global engineering firm with approximately 57,000 employees specializing in engineering and IT services.

Description

Job title:

Data Architect

Team:

Delivery

Methods is recruiting for a Data Architect with deep knowledge of Fabric architecture to join our team a permanent basis.

This role will be mainly remote but require flexibility to travel to client sites, and our offices based in London, Sheffield.

What You'll Be Doing as a Data Architect:

Be the senior technical authority for the programme, responsible for defining technical direction, priorities, standards and decision-making.
Be accountable for creating and maintaining the Data Transformation Programme roadmap and ensuring all workstreams align to the target architecture and business objectives.
Setting priorities
Guiding technical workstreams
Identifying incorrect or low-value activities
Redirecting effort towards programme outcomes
Uplift the capability of the existing team
Mentor architects and engineers
Establish good engineering practices
Develop Fabric knowledge within both Methods and the customer team

Chair or lead: Architecture reviews. Design authorities, Technical governance forums and Data platform standards reviews
Advocate the business benefit of data standards, championing and governing those standards across projects and the organisation

Demonstrate an overall perspective on business issues and activities, determining patterns, standards, policies, roadmaps and vision statements

Make and guide effective decisions, explaining clearly how decisions have been reached and resolving technical disputes across varying levels of complexity and risk

Communicate effectively across organisational, technical and political boundaries, making complex technical information accessible for non-technical audiences

Design how to expose data from systems (APIs, real-time streams), link data from multiple systems, and deliver modern data services

Ensure that risks associated with deployment are adequately understood and documented

Design end-to-end data solutions from requirements through implementation, including technical documentation and architecture blueprints

Lead complex data migration projects from legacy systems to modern cloud-native platforms

Evaluate and recommend appropriate technologies across the modern data stack to meet specific client needs

Your Impact:

Enable transformative business decisions through robust, scalable data architectures

Drive adoption of modern data platforms and AI-enabled analytics solutions

Establish technical standards and architectural patterns that ensure quality, security, and maintainability

Help cultivate a data-driven culture within client organisations and internally

Deliver architectures that seamlessly integrate traditional and modern data systems

You Will Demonstrate:

Deep knowledge of Fabric architecture, governance, OneLake, Real-Time Intelligence, Data Engineering, Warehousing and Power BI integration

Capability to influence senior stakeholders, programme sponsors and project boards.

Ability to communicate technical decisions to non-technical executives and secure agreement on technical direction.

Deep knowledge of the Azure data stack (Azure SQL Server, CosmosDB, Azure Data Factory, Purview, Synapse, Event Hub, Azure Databricks/Fabric)

Extensive data modelling experience: both normalised relational models and de-normalised Star Schema/dimensional models

Excellent relational database design skills with expertise in diagnosing and optimising performance across SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and cloud databases

Proven track record with complex data migration projects (terabyte+ datasets, multiple legacy source systems, structures and unstructured data)

Proficiency with Parquet/Delta Lake or other modern data storage formats

Experience with streaming architectures using Kafka, Event Hubs, or Kinesis for real-time data processing

Knowledge of data architectures supporting AI/ML workloads, including vector databases, feature stores and MLOps pipelines

Experience processing and managing unstructured data types (text, images, logs, sensor data)

Understanding of Lambda and Kappa architectural patterns and when to apply each

You May Also Have:

Exposure to high-performing, low latency or large volume data systems

Knowledge of and/or experience with Government Digital Service practices across Discovery/Alpha/Beta/Live phases

Understanding of vector databases and similarity search for AI applications

Experience with Infrastructure as Code and modern DevOps practices

Knowledge of how to design and analyse operational logs for data processing, and triage incidents

Awareness of advances in AI technologies, data services, and architectural practices

Industry specialisation in specific sectors (Engineering, Manufacturing, Healthcare etc.)

Public sector or defence experience

Understanding of data mesh or data fabric architectural approaches

Relevant industry certifications such as TOGAF 9, CDMP (Certified Data Management Professional), or Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305)

Security Clearance:

UKSV (United Kingdom Security Vetting) clearance is required for this role, with Security Check (SC) as the minimum standard, either already held or with a willingness to undergo the process. As part of the onboarding process candidates will be asked to complete a Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS); details of the evidence required to apply may be found on the government website GOV.UK – Government baseline personnel security standard. If you are unable to meet this and any associated criteria, then your employment may be delayed, or rejected. Details of this will be discussed with you at interview.

Working at Methods:

Methods exists to improve society by helping people make better decisions with data. Combining passionate people, sector-specific insight, and technical excellence to provide our customers an end-to-end data service.

We use a collaborative, creative and user centric approach to data to do good and solve difficult problems. Ensuring that our outputs are transparent, robust, and transformative. We value discussion and debate as part of our approach. We will question assumptions, ambition, and process – but do so with respect and humility.

We relish difficult problems, and overcome them with innovation, creativity, and technical freedom to help us designoptimumsolutions. Ethics, privacy, and quality are at the heart of our work, and we will not sacrifice these for outcomes.

We treat data with respect and use it only for the right purpose. Our people are positive, dedicated, and relentless. Data is a vast topic, but we strive for interactions that are engaging, informative and fun in equal measure. Butmaintaina steely focus on outcomes and delivering quality products for our customers.

We are passionate about our people; we want out colleagues to develop the things they are good at and enjoy.

By joining us you can expect