Enterprise Architecture Senior Principal – Data, APIs, and Integration Architecture

Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company; Morris Plains (NJ); On-site; USD 175,000 - 291,000; Full time

Job summary

The Cigna Group in Morris Plains, NJ is seeking an Enterprise Architecture - Data Architecture Senior Principal to define and drive the data and analytics strategy, roadmaps, and governance across the enterprise. This Band 5 Senior Contributor role influences senior stakeholders without direct reports and focuses on enabling data-driven decision making, AI-first innovation, and hyper-personalization.

You will lead data platforms, integration patterns, and governance, while collaborating with

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in enterprise architecture, data engineering, or analytics platforms.
• Proven success defining data/analytics strategies, target states, and roadmaps.
• Experience in large-scale, regulated environments (e.g., healthcare, financial services).
• Strong ability to influence senior stakeholders without direct authority.
• Expertise in modern data platforms (Lakehouse, Data Mesh, Data Fabric); cloud ecosystems; APIs, event-driven architectures; and data governance, security, and privacy.
• AI/ML and advanced analytics platforms.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve enterprise data & analytics architecture strategy, capability maps, and target-state designs with multi-year roadmaps.
• Architect modern data platforms (cloud-native databases, data lakehouse, streaming) and enable self-service analytics and AI/ML integrations.
• Lead enterprise API, data integration, and interoperability patterns across domains.
• Embed governance, privacy, and security by design into architecture.
• Drive innovation in AI/GenAI, agentic analytics, and intelligent automation through pilots.
• Partner with engineering, product, and data teams to ensure scalable, cost-efficient architectures.
• Mentor and lead the architecture community across the organization.

Skills

Enterprise architecture

Data engineering

Analytics platforms

AI/ML platforms

Stakeholder influence

Education

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

Azure

AWS

GCP

APIs

Event-driven architecture

Data governance tools

Job description

Position Overview

The Enterprise Architecture - Data Architecture Senior Principal is a Band 5 Senior Contributor responsible for defining and advancing the enterprise data and analytics architecture strategy, target states, and multi-year roadmaps across the organization. This role serves as a recognized architecture authority, setting the northstar vision for modern data platforms, analytics, and AI-enabled capabilities—translating business priorities into pragmatic, scalable, and future-ready architectures. Operating with high enterprise influence and no direct reports, this role requires strong executive presence, the ability to influence without authority, and a relentless focus on enabling data-driven decision making, hyper-personalization, and AI-first innovation.

Key Outcomes

• Enterprise Data & Analytics Vision: Define and publish a business-aligned data and analytics architecture strategy with a clear 3–5 year roadmap covering data platforms, governance, analytics, AI/ML, and integration layers.
• Scalable & Reusable Data Foundations: Establish modern, modular data architectures that reduce fragmentation, promote reuse, and enable enterprise-scale analytics and AI.
• Decision Velocity through Architecture Governance: Implement architecture principles, guardrails, and decision frameworksto improve speed, consistency, and quality of analytics and data platform decisions.
• AI-Ready & Insights-Driven Enterprise: Enable analytics-ready data, semantic layers, and AI capabilities that accelerate insights, automation, and intelligent decisioning.
• Cross-Domain Alignment: Act as a unifying architecture leader across Digital, Data, AI, Security, and Business domains to ensure alignment on key investment and design decisions.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategy & Architecture Leadership Define and evolve enterprise data & analytics architecture strategy, capability maps, and target-state designs. Develop and maintain multi-year roadmaps aligned to business outcomes, cost optimization, and innovation priorities. Establish a data-as-a-product and platform-based operating model.
• Data Platform & Analytics Architecture Architect modern data platforms (cloud-native databases, data lakehouse, streaming, real-time pipelines, semantic/ontology layers). Define patterns for data ingestion, transformation, storage, access, and consumption. Enable self-service analytics, BI, and advanced analytics capabilities across the enterprise. Lead architecture for AI/ML platforms, feature stores, and model lifecycle integration.
• Integration & API Architecture Define enterprise integration strategy spanning APIs, messaging, event streaming, data sharing, and intelligent orchestration. Establish architecture standards for API-led connectivity, event-driven architecture, service-mesh, and real-time integrations Define reusable integration patterns across digital channels, core platforms, data and AI platforms Lead architecture for enterprise interoperability including healthcare interoperability, FHIR ecosystem, and external data exchanges.
• Data Governance, Privacy & Compliance Embed data governance, quality, lineage, metadata, and stewardship frameworks into architecture design. Ensure architectures support regulatory, privacy, and security requirements by design. Establish patterns for trusted, secure, and compliant data usage.
• Innovation & Emerging Capabilities Drive innovation in AI/ML, GenAI, agentic analytics, and intelligent automation. Evaluate and guide adoption of emerging technologies (e.g., knowledge graphs, semantic models, real-time decisioning). Lead proof-of-concepts and pilot initiatives for next-generation analytics capabilities.
• Governance & Decision Enablement Provide architecture leadership for high-impact data and analytics initiatives. Establish reference architectures, reusable patterns, and standards for enterprise adoption. Drive alignment across portfolios to reduce duplication and optimize investments.
• Delivery Partnership & Enablement Partner with engineering, product, and data teams to ensure architectures are executable, scalable, and cost-efficient. Enable adoption of modern engineering practices (DataOps, MLOps, CI/CD for data). Support vendor/platform strategy (e.g., lakehouse, cloud, third-party integrations).
• Talent & Community Leadership Serve as a mentor and thought leader across the architecture and data community. Drive adoption of best practices, patterns, and architectural discipline.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or related field.
• 12+ years of experience in enterprise architecture, data engineering, or analytics platforms.
• Proven success defining data/analytics architecture strategies, target states, and roadmaps.
• Deep experience in large-scale, regulated enterprise environments (e.g., healthcare, financial services).
• Strong ability to influence senior stakeholders without direct authority.
• Expertise in: Modern data platforms (Lakehouse, Data Mesh, Data Fabric)
• Cloud ecosystems (Azure, AWS, GCP)
• APIs, event-driven architecture, and streaming
• Data governance, security, and privacy frameworks
• AI/ML and advanced analytics platforms

If you will be working at home occasionally or permanently, the internet connection must be obtained through a cable broadband or fiber optic internet service provider with speeds of at least 10Mbps download/5Mbps upload.

For this position, we anticipate offering an annual salary of 174,800 - 291,300 USD / yearly, depending on relevant factors, including experience and geographic location. This role is also anticipated to be eligible to participate in an annual bonus and long term incentive plan.

About The Cigna Group

Doing something meaningful starts with a simple decision, a commitment to changing lives. At The Cigna Group, we’re dedicated to improving the health and vitality of those we serve. Through our divisions Cigna Healthcare and Evernorth Health Services, we are committed to enhancing the lives of our clients, customers and patients. Join us in driving growth and improving lives.

Qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, age, disability, sex, childbirth (including pregnancy) or related medical conditions including but not limited to lactation, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, religion, national origin, ancestry, marital or familial status, genetic information, status with regard to public assistance, citizenship status or any other characteristic protected by applicable equal employment opportunity laws.

If you need a reasonable accommodation to complete the online application process, please email [e-mail] for assistance. Please note that this email inbox is dedicated to accommodation requests only and cannot provide application updates or accept resumes.

The Cigna Group has a tobacco‑free policy and reserves the right not to hire tobacco/nicotine users in states where that is legally permissible. Candidates in such states who use tobacco/nicotine will not be considered for employment unless they enter a qualifying smoking cessation program prior to the start of their employment. These states include: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Washington State.

Qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with all federal, state and local ordinances.

Doing something meaningful starts with a simple decision, a commitment to changing lives. At The Cigna Group, we’re dedicated to improving the health and vitality of those we serve. Through our divisions Cigna Healthcare and Evernorth Health Services, we are committed to enhancing the lives of our clients, customers and patients. Join us in driving growth and improving lives.