Sr. Snowflake Architect

W3Global; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

W3Global seeks an experienced Senior Data Architect to lead enterprise data platforms on Snowflake, driving migrations from legacy systems and implementing robust governance. You will design scalable lakehouse solutions, craft secure data architectures, and partner with engineering, analytics, and governance teams to maximize business value.

The role requires deep Snowflake expertise, strong data modeling, and hands-on implementation of pipelines, with a focus on security, compliance, and

Qualifications

• 20+ years in data architecture and engineering, including lead/enterprise architect roles.
• 8-10+ years in lead/enterprise architect roles delivering large-scale data platforms.
• At least 5+ years hands-on Snowflake architecture experience.
• Experience migrating legacy EDW to Snowflake and modern platforms.
• Strong data modeling (dimensional, Data Vault, 3NF) and semantic design.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and delivery of enterprise data warehousing and lakehouse solutions on Snowflake.
• Architect Snowflake migrations from legacy systems (Teradata, Oracle, SQL Server) to modern platforms.
• Define and enforce governance, security, and data classification policies.
• Develop Snowflake-native pipelines and maintain CI/CD for data assets.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align architecture with business goals.

Skills

Snowflake architecture

Data modeling

ETL/ELT

Cloud platforms

SQL

Python

CI/CD

IaC

Security and governance

Streaming/CDC

Regulatory compliance

Stakeholder management

Snowflake certifications

Tools

dbt

Airflow

Azure Data Factory

Informatica

Terraform/CloudFormation

Job description

• 20+ years in data architecture and engineering, including 8-10+ years in lead/enterprise architect roles delivering large-scale data platforms, with at least 5+ years of hands‑on Snowflake architecture experience.
• Proven track record architecting and delivering enterprise data warehousing and lakehouse solutions on Snowflake, including migrations from legacy EDW (Teradata, Oracle, SQL Server, etc.) and modern platforms (BigQuery, Redshift, Synapse, etc.).
• Deep data modeling expertise (dimensional, Data Vault, 3NF) and semantic design, including Snowflake semantic views and Horizon Context.
• Strong ELT/ETL and orchestration background - Snowflake-native pipelines (Snowpipe, Dynamic Tables, Streams, Tasks), dbt (including dbt Projects on Snowflake), Airflow, Azure Data Factory, Informatica, or similar.
• Hands‑on experience with major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) - including Snowflake deployment, networking (Private Link), and cloud storage integration (S3, ADLS, GCS); familiarity with lakehouse stacks (Databricks, Delta Lake, Apache Iceberg) is a plus.
• Mastery of Snowflake security and governance: RBAC, tag‑based governance, dynamic data masking, row access policies, column‑level security, Tri‑Secret encryption, network policies, Horizon Catalog, access history, and data classification.
• Streaming and CDC patterns (Kafka, Kinesis, Snowpipe Streaming) and event‑driven architectures for near real‑time use cases.
• Data governance and metadata management (catalogs, lineage, MDM, data quality frameworks) with familiarity in regulatory regimes (e.g., GDPR/CCPA/HIPAA/PCI‑DSS/SOX).
• Proficiency in SQL and at least one programming language for data engineering (Python preferred), plus CI/CD and IaC (Git, pipelines, Terraform/CloudFormation) - including declarative, version‑controlled Snowflake object management.
• Proven ability to assess legacy estates, create pragmatic Snowflake migration roadmaps, and deliver phased outcomes with measurable business value.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management; ability to influence architecture decisions and align cross‑functional teams.
• Snowflake certifications (SnowPro Core, SnowPro Advanced: Architect) are strongly preferred