Data Architect

Plan A Digital LTD; United States; Remote; USD 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Plan A Digital LTD, a United States–based insurance data practice, seeks a senior Principal Data Architect to own the enterprise data architecture and modern data platform strategy. You will drive architectural direction, define standards and deliver scalable, secure data platforms using Snowflake, Python, dbt and cloud services.

The role requires hands-on leadership, collaboration with stakeholders, and a focus on data governance, AI-ready foundations and regulated data handling.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in enterprise data architecture or related field.
• Hands-on architect who can make independent technical decisions.
• Experience owning architecture standards and leading data initiatives.
• Proven Snowflake expertise including security, RBAC and optimization.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end architecture for enterprise data platforms from design to production.
• Evaluate technologies, set technical standards and guide engineering teams.
• Design scalable cloud data platforms using Snowflake, Python, dbt and orchestration tools.
• Define data modelling strategies (dimensional, Data Vault, Medallion).
• Architect ingestion frameworks using APIs, CDC, event streaming and batch jobs.
• Establish Snowflake standards for security, performance, cost control.
• Develop data governance, lineage and quality frameworks.
• Build secure, restartable ETL/ELT pipelines and mentor engineers.
• Support AI/ML readiness, semantic search and enterprise AI initiatives.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to align architecture with business needs.

Skills

Snowflake

Python

SQL

dbt

Airflow

Dagster

Prefect

AWS

Azure

GCP

Data modelling

Data governance

RBAC

Cost optimisation

Data Vault

Data Warehouse

Kafka

Event streaming

Security

AI/ML foundations

Job description

Location: Remote - USA

Contract: 12 Months | C2C | Must have work authorisation

Industry: Property & Casualty (P&C) Insurance

Start: ASAP

About the Opportunity

Our Insurance client is seeking an experienced Principal Data Architect to own its enterprise data architecture and modern data platform strategy.

This is a senior, hands-on position requiring someone who can independently make architectural decisions, define technical direction and take full ownership of complex data solutions.

The successful candidate will be expected to establish architecture standards, guide engineering teams and take responsibility for delivering scalable, secure and production-ready data platforms.

The role combines strategic architecture ownership with hands-on technical expertise across Snowflake, Python, dbt, cloud technologies and modern data engineering.

Previous P&C insurance industry experience is essential.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end architecture for enterprise data platforms, from initial design through implementation and production.
• Independently evaluate technologies, make architectural decisions and establish technical standards.
• Design and implement scalable cloud data platforms using Snowflake, Python, dbt and modern orchestration technologies.
• Define data modelling strategies, including dimensional modelling, Data Vault, Medallion and enterprise semantic models.
• Architect ingestion and integration frameworks using APIs, CDC, event streaming, batch processing and cloud storage.
• Establish Snowflake architecture standards covering security, performance, workload management and cost optimisation.
• Design data governance, metadata management, lineage and data quality frameworks.
• Develop secure, reliable and restartable ETL/ELT pipelines.
• Guide engineers, review technical designs and code, and resolve complex production architecture issues.
• Define data foundations supporting AI/ML, semantic search and enterprise AI applications.
• Work closely with business and technology stakeholders to ensure architecture aligns with business requirements.
• 12+ years of experience in enterprise data architecture, data engineering or related technical disciplines, including significant architecture ownership.
• Proven experience operating at Principal Data Architect, Lead Data Architect or Enterprise Data Architect level.
• Hands-on experience within the Property & Casualty insurance industry.
• Demonstrated ability to independently own architecture decisions and lead complex enterprise data initiatives.
• Strong hands-on expertise with Snowflake, including architecture, security, RBAC, performance tuning and cost optimisation.
• Strong experience with Python, SQL and dbt.
• Experience with orchestration technologies such as Airflow, Dagster or Prefect.
• Cloud architecture experience across AWS, Azure or GCP.
• Advanced data modelling experience, including dimensional modelling, Data Vault and modern data warehouse/lakehouse patterns.
• Experience designing ingestion frameworks involving APIs, CDC, Kafka/event streaming and batch processing.
• Strong understanding of data governance, security, lineage, metadata management and data quality.
• Experience defining reusable architecture patterns, technical standards and engineering best practices.
• Ability to remain technically hands-on while providing leadership and mentoring to engineering teams.
• Guidewire PolicyCenter, BillingCenter or DataHub experience.
• Databricks, Spark and cloud-native lakehouse architectures.
• Experience with AI-ready data platforms, RAG, vector search, semantic modelling or natural-language-to-SQL.
• Experience working with sensitive or regulated enterprise data.
• Snowflake advanced capabilities including Streams, Tasks, Snowpipe, Dynamic Tables and data sharing.

What We're Looking For

The ideal candidate is a technically authoritative, hands-on Principal Architect who can operate independently and take accountability for architecture decisions.

You should be comfortable:

• Making critical technical decisions without relying on a committee or wider architecture team.
• Challenging existing designs and recommending better solutions.
• Moving between high-level enterprise architecture and detailed technical implementation.
• Reviewing code, troubleshooting production issues and guiding engineers.
• Taking ownership of architecture standards, scalability, security and long-term platform direction.

This is not a purely managerial, governance or advisory position. We need someone who has personally designed and delivered complex enterprise data platforms.