Principal Data Architect - Databricks & AI

Wolters Kluwer; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Wolters Kluwer in the United Kingdom seeks a Principal Data Architect to define and own the target data architecture and standards for a strategic data capability. You will prototype, review designs and guide complex engineering challenges, with potential leadership of a small team as the capability grows.

You will design a modern Databricks lakehouse, establish scalable medallion patterns, and implement governance, security, lineage and cost controls while collaborating with product,

Qualifications

• Significant experience as a Data Architect, Lead Data Architect, Principal Data Engineer or comparable senior technical leader.
• Advanced, hands-on Databricks experience in production environments, including lakehouse architecture, Delta Lake and governance, workflow, SQL and optimization.
• Proven ownership of modern data platforms or data products from architecture through production delivery and operation.
• Strong experience in data privacy and security, including data masking, anonymisation, tokenisation or comparable privacy-preserving patterns for sensitive data.
• Strong data-modelling expertise across conceptual, logical, physical, dimensional and canonical models.
• Experience with batch and real-time integration, including APIs, CDC, streaming or event-driven pipelines.
• A strong data-engineering or software-development foundation using Python, SQL, Scala, Java and/or Spark.
• Deep experience with Azure data services; AWS experience is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the target data architecture, standards, reference patterns and technical roadmap for a strategic enterprise data capability.
• Design a modern Databricks lakehouse foundation that enables secure, scalable use of data across a complex product landscape.
• Establish scalable medallion patterns across Bronze, Silver and Gold layers, including ingestion, transformation, storage, serving and consumption.
• Design canonical, dimensional and semantic data models that enable consistent exchange and reuse across product domains.
• Architect secure data integration using batch, streaming, APIs, change data capture and event-driven patterns.
• Design privacy-preserving data capabilities for AI and analytical workloads.
• Design AI-ready data capabilities, including governed model-data pipelines, vector search and retrieval-augmented generation patterns where relevant.
• Create prototypes and proof-of-concepts, review technical designs and code, guide performance optimisation, and resolve complex technical issues.
• Build production-ready solutions with governance, lineage, quality, observability, security, reliability and cost control.
• Partner with product, engineering, AI, security, platform and business leaders to translate needs into architecture and delivery plans.
• Mentor data engineers and architects and promote reusable platform capabilities and engineering standards.

Skills

Data architecture leadership

Databricks lakehouse

Data governance & security

Data modelling

Batch/Streaming data integration

Python/SQL/Scala/Java/Spark

Azure data services

Tools

dbt

Kafka

Airflow

Terraform

Power BI

Tableau

Collibra

Microsoft Purview

Job description

The opportunity

We are investing in the next generation of our data and technology capabilities to create more connected, intelligent experiences for customers. Data is central to this ambition. This is an opportunity to define the architecture, standards and delivery patterns for a modern data platform that will enable trusted data use across products and support advanced analytics and AI.

The Principal Data Architect will be the senior technical authority for data architecture within this strategic transformation. The role is architecture-led while remaining practically engaged through prototyping, proof-of-concepts, technical reviews and the resolution of complex engineering challenges. As the capability grows, the remit may expand to include leadership of a small team.

What you will do

• Define and own the target data architecture, standards, reference patterns and technical roadmap for a strategic enterprise data capability.
• Design a modern Databricks lakehouse foundation that enables secure, scalable use of data across a complex product landscape.
• Establish scalable medallion patterns acrossBronze, Silver and Goldlayers, including ingestion, transformation, storage,servingand consumption.
• Designcanonical,dimensionaland semantic data models that enable consistent exchange,interoperabilityand reuse across product domains.
• Architect secure data integration using batch, streaming, APIs, change datacaptureand event-driven patterns.
• Design privacy-preserving data capabilities, including data masking,anonymisationor equivalent controls for customer data used in AI and analytical workloads.
• Design AI-ready data capabilities, including governed model-data pipelines, vector search and retrieval-augmented generation patterns where relevant.
• Create prototypes and proof-of-concepts, review technical designs and code, guide performanceoptimisation, and help resolve complex technical issues.
• Build production-ready solutions with strong governance, lineage, quality, observability, security,reliabilityand cost control.
• Partner with product, engineering, AI, security,platformand business leaders to translate customer and product needs into architecture and delivery plans.
• Mentor data engineers and architects and promote reusable platform capabilities and engineering standards.

What you bring

• Significant experienceas a Data Architect, Lead Data Architect, Principal DataEngineeror comparable senior technical leader.
• Advanced, hands-on Databricks experience in production environments, includinglakehousearchitecture, Delta Lake and relevant governance, workflow,SQLandoptimisationcapabilities.
• Proven ownership of modern data platforms or data products from architecture through production delivery and operation.
• Strong experience in data privacy and security, including data masking,anonymisation,tokenisationor comparable privacy-preserving patterns for sensitive or customer data.
• Strong data-modellingexpertiseacross conceptual, logical, physical,dimensionaland canonical models.
• Experience with batch and real-time integration, including APIs, CDC,streamingor event-driven pipelines.
• A strong data-engineering or software-development foundation using Python, SQL, Scala,Javaand/or Spark.
• Deep experience with Azure data services. AWS experience isadvantageousas the platform expands.
• Experience with governance, cataloguing, lineage, quality, metadata, access control and secure multi-tenant or customer-data environments.
• Credibility with hands-on engineers and senior stakeholders, with strong judgement across speed, scale, governance,costand usability.

Valuableadditionalexperience

• Production AI/ML or generative-AI data architecture, including RAG, embeddings, vectorsearchormodel-datapipelines.
• Knowledge graphs, ontologies, RDF, linkeddataor advanced semantic technologies.
• Databricks or cloud architecture/data-engineeringcertification.
• Tools such asdbt, Kafka, Airflow, Terraform, Power BI, Tableau,Collibraor Microsoft Purview.
• Architecture across multiple products,domainsor business units in B2B software, information services,consultingor regulated environments.

Why join

This is a rare opportunity to shape a strategically important data foundation from the beginning. You will have the mandate to make high-impact architectural decisions, work on complex technical challenges and influence how trusted data powers better customer experiences, advanced analytics and AI. The role offers meaningful visibility, broad collaboration and the chance to create capabilities that will scale across an evolving product landscape.

Our Interview Practices

To maintain a fair and genuine hiring process, we kindly ask that all candidates participate in interviews without the assistance of AI tools or external prompts. Our interview process is designed to assess your individual skills, experiences, and communication style. We value authenticity and want to ensure we’re getting to know you—not a digital assistant. To help maintain this integrity, we ask to remove virtual backgrounds and include in-person interviews in our hiring process. Please note that use of AI-generated responses or third-party support during interviews will be grounds for disqualification from the recruitment process.

Applicants may be required to appear onsite at a Wolters Kluwer office as part of the recruitment process.