Data Platform Architect

Formula Recruitment Limited; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 68,000 - 108,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working from London office

Competitive pension

Bonus scheme

Job summary

Formula Recruitment Limited is seeking an experienced Enterprise Data Platform Architect to own the architecture of a growing data platform in a hybrid London setting. The role requires deep Databricks Lakehouse knowledge and strong cloud-native architectural skills across cost models, security, and governance.

You will shape platform strategy, set architectural standards, and collaborate with delivery squads while guiding non-functional requirements and data privacy initiatives.

Qualifications

• 7 to 10+ years experience in data platform architecture, data engineering or cloud data infrastructure.
• Deep expertise in Databricks (Unity Catalog, Delta Lake, Spark, Databricks SQL) or an equivalent Lakehouse platform, including administration, cost management and performance optimisation
• Strong understanding of cloud native architecture principles, cost models and CI/CD pipelines
• Proven experience implementing data security including encryption, RBAC, column and row level security and data masking
• Experience with SAP data landscapes is highly desirable
• Experience defining architectural standards that engineering teams implement, comfortable setting direction without hands on delivery
• Experience working within a centralised architecture function that engages flexibly with delivery squads
• Strong communication skills, able to translate architectural decisions for both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Responsibilities

• Own the technical architecture of our enterprise data platform, including compute and storage design, ingestion frameworks, access control, performance tuning and capacity planning
• Define and maintain architectural standards and guardrails covering naming conventions, environment management, deployment pipelines, partitioning strategies and cost optimisation
• Own platform cost modelling and FinOps governance, identifying optimisation opportunities and defining cost allocation patterns
• Design data ingestion architecture across batch, micro-batch and streaming, with clear boundaries for system to system integration
• Define the architecture for the semantic layer and self-serve analytics infrastructure
• Define non-functional standards covering resilience, backup and restore, disaster recovery, observability and operational readiness
• Define platform security and privacy architecture in partnership with Cyber Security and Data Governance, including PII handling, access recertification and audit logging
• Own the data platform roadmap from an architectural perspective, including legacy system transition planning and platform maturation
• Represent data platform considerations in enterprise architecture governance forums
• Maintain comprehensive documentation of design decisions, patterns, standards and trade offs

Skills

Data platform architecture

Databricks / Lakehouse

Cloud architecture

Data security

SAP data landscapes

Architectural standards

Central architecture function

Stakeholder communication

Tools

Databricks

SAP

SQL

CI/CD

Job description

Salary: £68,000 - 108,000 per year

Requirements:

• 7 to 10+ years experience in data platform architecture, data engineering or cloud data infrastructure
• Deep expertise in Databricks (Unity Catalog, Delta Lake, Spark, Databricks SQL) or an equivalent Lakehouse platform, including administration, cost management and performance optimisation
• Strong understanding of cloud native architecture principles, cost models and CI/CD pipelines
• Proven experience implementing data security including encryption, RBAC, column and row level security and data masking
• Experience with SAP data landscapes is highly desirable
• Experience defining architectural standards that engineering teams implement, comfortable setting direction without hands on delivery
• Experience working within a centralised architecture function that engages flexibly with delivery squads
• Strong communication skills, able to translate architectural decisions for both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Responsibilities:

• Own the technical architecture of our enterprise data platform, including compute and storage design, ingestion frameworks, access control, performance tuning and capacity planning
• Define and maintain architectural standards and guardrails covering naming conventions, environment management, deployment pipelines, partitioning strategies and cost optimisation
• Own platform cost modelling and FinOps governance, identifying optimisation opportunities and defining cost allocation patterns
• Design data ingestion architecture across batch, micro-batch and streaming, with clear boundaries for system to system integration
• Define the architecture for the semantic layer and self-serve analytics infrastructure
• Define non-functional standards covering resilience, backup and restore, disaster recovery, observability and operational readiness
• Define platform security and privacy architecture in partnership with Cyber Security and Data Governance, including PII handling, access recertification and audit logging
• Own the data platform roadmap from an architectural perspective, including legacy system transition planning and platform maturation
• Represent data platform considerations in enterprise architecture governance forums
• Maintain comprehensive documentation of design decisions, patterns, standards and trade offs

Technologies:

• AI
• Architect
• CI/CD
• Cloud
• Databricks
• RBAC
• SAP
• SQL
• Security
• Spark
• Unity
• GameDev

More:

We are a globally recognised consumer brand investing heavily in our enterprise data platform as part of a wider technology transformation. Our data estate is growing quickly, and we are seeking an experienced architect to own the next phase of platform strategy. This is a specialist architecture role within a central architecture function that works flexibly across several data and engineering teams. We offer hybrid working from our London office, a competitive pension and bonus scheme, and genuine influence over a major enterprise data transformation. This role gives you the autonomy to set technical direction across a mature but evolving data estate and help shape how the platform supports the next generation of AI and analytics use cases.