Lead Specialist Data Architect

NatWest Group; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

NatWest Group is seeking a Lead Specialist Data Architect for People & Other Functions Data Management. You will guide strategic target architecture for multiple business functions, align with the bank's standards, and promote shared capabilities across teams.

With a focus on collaboration, you will lead architecture reviews, drive governance, and advocate for investment in architecture initiatives to deliver measurable business value.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in defining and developing strategic target architectures
• High proficiency engaging with partners across the business to deliver architectures with tangible outcomes
• Experience leading collaborative decision-making with senior business and technology colleagues
• Ability to craft business cases to influence investment in architecture initiatives
• Extensive people capability development experience and promoting best practices

Responsibilities

• Leading the definition of strategic target architecture and roadmap for value areas, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture
• Promoting shared capabilities by creating playbooks, educating stakeholders, and identifying adoption use cases
• Realising enterprise and solution architectures across development lifecycles
• Providing architectural guidance, resolving impediments, and championing architecture patterns and DevOps practices
• Partnering with stakeholders to evolve architectures delivering business value
• Engaging with EDT and Data Product Factory teams to shape data products and ensure alignment with standards

Job description

Join us as a Lead Specialist Data Architect, People & Other Functions Data Management

• We’ll look to you to provide deep expertise to guide the development of complex architectures, including advising on process design, technology selection and integration approaches
• You’ll contribute to defining the overall architectural vision, strategy, principles, standards and patterns, aligning them with business objectives, and acting as a thought leader for the bank
• This is a chance to actively contribute to the growth of the architecting capability and community across the bank, including thought leadership and sharing knowledge such as best practices, proven solutions and key learnings, and contributing to the community of practice
• You’ll mainly work from home, staying connected with your team digitally, and spend at least one day per week in the office

What you'll do

As a Lead Specialist Data Architect, you’ll be leading the definition of the strategic target architecture and roadmap for the People, Marketing, LG&RA and Corporate Affairs functions, assuring it’s aligned with the strategy and the bank’s strategic target architecture.

You’ll also be promoting and driving the adoption of the shared capabilities available by creating playbooks, educating stakeholders, and collaborating with peers on identifying use cases for adoption.

Your other key responsibilities will include:

• Leading the realisation of enterprise and solution architectures, working as part of development teams throughout the engineering development lifecycle
• Providing technical guidance, resolving architectural impediments, and championing the adoption of architecture patterns and practices
• Partnering and engaging with key stakeholders to define and evolve architectures that deliver business value
• Promoting a DevOps mindset by working as part of development teams to embed architecture guidance in CI/CD pipelines
• Leading with specialism subject matter expertise to assure the quality of solution architecture within delivery programmes of high architectural significance or high architectural risk
• Identifying opportunities and threats to current and target architectures, escalating to the Architecture Council for consideration or decision making
• Partnering with the Enterprise Data Transformation (EDT) programme and Function Data Product Factory teams to shape, support and govern the development of Data Products, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture standards, data management policies and strategic objectives

The skills you’ll need

To make an impact with us, you’ll need expert knowledge in an area of specialism, including a deep understanding of business use cases and emerging trends that drive organisational success. You’ll also need expert knowledge of modern technologies such as Cloud, microservices and AI, along with agile architecture and DevOps practices.

You’ll bring extensive experience of overseeing and assuring the quality of architecture designs, including conducting comprehensive architecture and design reviews to validate that solutions meet business needs and comply with architecture standards, with a focus on risk management and governance.

Furthermore, you’ll need:

• Extensive experience of defining and developing strategic target architectures
• High proficiency in engaging with partners from across the business to define architectures that deliver tangible business outcomes
• Experience of leading collaborative decision‑making processes, partnering with senior business and technology colleagues to articulate and evolve architectural direction while ensuring adherence to key architecture principles and alignment with strategic goals
• Experience of identifying and advocating for strategic investment opportunities that enhance the organisation's architecture goals
• Experience of crafting compelling business cases to influence senior stakeholders to secure investment for architecture initiatives
• Extensive people capability development experience, including mentoring, supporting professional development, encouraging knowledge sharing across architecture teams and promoting best practices