Principal - Data Architecture
National Bank of Kuwait
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Job summary
National Bank of Kuwait is seeking an Enterprise Data Architect to define and drive the bank’s data architecture across data platforms, integration, ETL/ELT, analytics, and AI initiatives. You will translate business needs into scalable, secure designs and own end-to-end delivery from concept to deployment.
You will lead architecture workshops, mentor teams, and ensure designs meet governance, security, and regulatory standards while collaborating with enterprise teams across the bank.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Data, or related discipline.
- Postgraduate qualification in technology, business, or a related field is advantageous.
- Typically 10-14 years of relevant experience, including significant experience in data architecture and complex solution design.
- Demonstrated experience leading architecture across multiple domains or major transformation programs.
- Architecture certifications such as TOGAF are advantageous.
Responsibilities
- Define and evolve the bank’s enterprise data architecture, standards, reference architectures, data models, and technology roadmap.
- Lead end-to-end architecture for major data-intensive initiatives across applications, data, integration, security, and operations.
- Architect, design, and contribute to robust ETL/ELT and data integration solutions with standards for ingestion and error handling.
- Embed data quality, lineage, metadata, ownership, retention, privacy, access control, and auditability into designs.
- Review and approve solution designs, establish reusable patterns, and drive standardization and modernization.
- Partner with security, infrastructure, governance, vendors, and stakeholders; mentor teams and translate architectures into implementation.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
The role will define and drive the bank's enterprise data architecture while providing hands‑on technical and architecture leadership across data platforms, data integration, ETL/ELT development, data engineering, analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and broader technology solutions.
The role requires a strong combination of data architecture, solution architecture, and hands‑on data engineering and ETL development expertise. The successful candidate will translate business and regulatory requirements into scalable, secure, resilient, and maintainable technology solutions, providing end‑to‑end ownership from conceptual architecture and detailed design through to hands‑on development, implementation, and production deployment.
The role will actively contribute to the design, development, optimization, and troubleshooting of ETL/ELT solutions, including data ingestion, transformation, integration, data quality, reconciliation, and performance optimization. The individual will be expected to develop and review ETL components, SQL and data transformation logic, particularly for complex, strategic, or technically challenging initiatives, while ensuring adherence to established architecture and engineering standards.
The role will also contribute to the bank's adoption of AI and Generative AI, including opportunities to leverage these technologies within data engineering and analytics, while ensuring appropriate data architecture, integration patterns, governance, security, and controls.
The role will work closely with Enterprise Architects, Solution Architects, Data Engineers, ETL Developers, Application Teams, Information Security, Infrastructure, Data Governance, Analytics and AI teams, and business stakeholders across the bank.
Data Architecture: Define and evolve the bank’s enterprise data architecture, principles, standards, reference architectures, data models, and technology roadmap across operational, and data warehouse and analytical platforms.
Solution Architecture: Lead end‑to‑end architecture for major data‑intensive initiatives, covering applications, data, integration, security, and operational requirements. Evaluate technology choices and trade‑offs, Translate business and non‑functional requirements into scalable, secure, and maintainable solution designs. Lead and contribute to high level assessment (HLA) and detailed solution design (DSD) workshops.
ETL & Data Integration: Architect, design, and actively contribute to the development of robust ETL/ELT and data integration solutions. Develop and optimize complex data pipelines, transformations, and integration components, while defining and enforcing standards for ingestion, reconciliation, error handling, monitoring, recovery, performance, and reusability..
Data Governance & Security: Embed data quality, lineage, metadata, ownership, classification, retention, privacy, access control, and auditability into solution designs, ensuring compliance with banking security and regulatory requirements.
Architecture Governance: Review and approve solution and detailed designs, establish reusable architecture patterns, evaluate technology choices and trade‑offs, identify technical debt, and drive standardization, simplification, and modernization.
Technical Leadership: Partner with Solution Architects, security, infrastructure, data governance, vendors, and business stakeholders. Lead architecture workshops, mentor technical teams, challenge designs constructively, and ensure approved architectures are successfully translated into implementation.
- Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Data, or related discipline.
- Postgraduate qualification in technology, business, or a related field is advantageous.
- Typically 10-14 years of relevant experience, including significant experience in data architecture and complex solution design.
- Demonstrated experience leading architecture across multiple domains or major transformation programs.
- Architecture certifications such as TOGAF are advantageous.
- Strong database development capabilities, with hands‑on experience designing and developing stored procedures, views, functions, partitioning strategies, and other database objects.
- Strong ETL development and data integration capabilities, with experience designing, developing, testing, debugging, and optimizing ETL solutions, including translating complex business requirements into robust technical solutions and validating designs against business specifications.
- Strong production support and troubleshooting capabilities, with experience diagnosing and resolving ETL, data processing, and database‑related issues in production environments, applying structured analytical and problem‑solving approaches to ensure operational stability and timely resolution.
- Strong understanding of database hosting, administration, performance, and operational management, with experience managing online databases to ensure availability, reliability, performance, and effective ongoing operation.
- Expert‑level data architecture and data modelling capabilities, with extensive experience in relational, dimensional, and analytical data modelling.
- Strong business and financial acumen, with the ability to translate business requirements into pragmatic data and technology solutions.
- Advanced stakeholder management, communication, and influencing skills, with experience engaging senior business and technology stakeholders.
- Strong understanding of data governance, risk, security, privacy, and regulatory requirements, particularly within a banking or financial services environment.
- Demonstrated technical leadership, facilitation, presentation, and mentoring capabilities, with the ability to lead architecture and design discussions across multidisciplinary teams.
- Deep understanding of enterprise data integration architecture and patterns, including cross‑domain integration, incremental processing, data synchronization, reconciliation, lineage, dependency management, resilience, and scalability.
- Expert‑level knowledge of SQL, ETL/ELT architecture and design, performance optimization, and Change Data Capture (CDC) techniques.
- Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills, with the ability to diagnose and resolve complex data integration, data processing, and performance issues.
- Ability to review and challenge large‑scale data processing and integration architectures, identify architectural risks and design gaps, and recommend effective solutions.
- Good understanding of banking data domains, products, processes, and associated data flows, with the ability to apply this knowledge to enterprise and solution architecture.
- Oracle Data Integrator (ODI)
- PL/SQL
- Knowledge of financial services industry data models such as OFSAA FSDF or equivalent will be advantageous
- Role may involve on‑call production support for ETL batch loads
- OFSA/ODI Application Server Configuration
- OFSAA Infrastructure (OFSAAI) knowledge will be advantageous
- Participating in production deployments, post‑release validation, environment health checks and incident tracking
- PL/SQL
- Experience developing ETLs in SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
- Role may involve on‑call production support for ETL batch loads
- People Management: May operate as a senior individual contributor; may lead architects or multidisciplinary teams on strategic initiatives.
- Functional Complexity: Leads highly complex, multi‑domain, and strategically significant initiatives.
- Decision‑Making: Makes significant architectural decisions with broad business and technology impact.
- Communication: Engages senior management and senior business stakeholders.
- Impact: Influences investment decisions, delivery outcomes, risk, operational efficiency, and long‑term data capability.
- Innovation: Leads evaluation and adoption of modern architectural approaches where they provide measurable business value.
- Leadership: Leads through enterprise influence, expertise, vision, and cross‑functional collaboration.
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