Director of Enterprise Data Architecture (Hybrid)

Ookla; Dallas (TX); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Ookla is seeking an Enterprise Data Architect to define and maintain the company’s data architecture, models, and design patterns, enabling trusted data and scalable analytics across the organization. You will translate priorities into scalable designs and guide modernization efforts across product, engineering, analytics, governance, and platform teams.

The role requires 10+ years in data architecture and related disciplines, strong communication, and hands-on leadership to mentor engineers and

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in enterprise data architecture, data modeling, data engineering, cloud platforms.
• Strong understanding of canonical modeling, reference data structures, metadata, lineage, APIs, integration patterns.
• Experience defining data architecture standards, reference architectures, and design guidelines in complex, data-heavy organizations.
• Proven ability to modernize data landscapes, simplify platforms, improve interoperability, and reduce technical debt.
• Familiarity with data governance, data quality, privacy, security, data lifecycle management, and enterprise architecture practices.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence both technical and business audiences.
• Strategic and pragmatic mindset with the ability to balance architectural rigor, delivery speed, operational reliability, and business value.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain enterprise data architecture principles, standards, reference architectures, and design patterns.
• Develop and steward enterprise data models, canonical definitions, schema standards, and reference data structures.
• Translate business, product, analytics, and engineering needs into scalable data designs and integration patterns.
• Support architecture reviews, solution design, and integration decisions to ensure interoperability, reliability, security, and performance.
• Modernize the data landscape by simplifying data structures, reducing technical debt, and retiring obsolete data patterns where appropriate.
• Guide technology choices related to data storage, processing, integration, APIs, metadata, and data services.
• Ensure data architecture aligns with governance, data quality, privacy, security, lifecycle management, and enterprise standards.
• Provide hands‑on architectural leadership, documentation, and mentorship to data engineers, modelers, analysts, and technical stakeholders.

Skills

Enterprise data architecture

Data modeling

Data engineering

Cloud platforms

Canonical modeling

Metadata

APIs

Data governance

Security

Stakeholder management

Strategic mindset

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Data Management

Advanced degree preferred

Cloud/enterprise architecture certifications preferred

Job description

Ookla is seeking an Enterprise Data Architect to define and maintain the company’s data architecture, models, and design patterns, enabling trusted data and scalable analytics across the organization. You will translate priorities into scalable designs and guide modernization efforts across product, engineering, analytics, governance, and platform teams.

The role requires 10+ years in data architecture and related disciplines, strong communication, and hands-on leadership to mentor engineers and