Lead Data Architect

Genworth; Richmond (VA); Hybrid; USD 121,000 - 187,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Comprehensive healthcare coverage

401(k) with employer contributions

Generous paid time off and holidays

Tuition reimbursement & training

Job summary

Genworth is seeking a Lead Solution Architect for Databricks to influence and communicate architecture decisions across data projects. You will act as a change agent to promote data architecture adoption, design reusable frameworks, and mentor teams on best practices.

The role requires hands-on experience with Databricks, Spark, and Kafka, plus strong collaboration with business stakeholders, data engineers, and cloud teams. A four-year degree and relevant certifications are preferred.

Qualifications

• 5+ years experience as a data architect or related roles.
• Hands-on experience with Databricks, Spark, Kafka and data pipelines.
• Masters or certifications relevant to the position preferred.
• Ability to lead architecture patterns and provide design guidance.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate project scope, timelines, trade-offs, costs, and value.
• Translate requirements into architectures aligned to reference architecture.
• Define phased implementation approaches delivering early value.
• Guide data engineering teams on design, build and test.
• Lead or support proofs of concept to validate patterns.
• Participate in SDLC to implement designs and meet requirements.
• Establish reusable design patterns across projects.

Skills

Databricks

Spark

Kafka

Data modeling

CI/CD

Cloud services

Education

Bachelor's degree

Masters preferred

Tools

Databricks

Spark

Kafka

Ingestion tools

Lakehouse

Job description

At Genworth, we empower families to navigate the aging journey with confidence. We are compassionate, experienced allies for those navigating care with guidance, products, and services that meet families where they are. Further, we are the spouses, children, siblings, friends, and neighbors of those that need care—and we bring those experiences with us to work in serving our millions of policyholders each day.

We apply that same compassion and empathy as we work with each other and our local communities. Genworth values all perspectives, characteristics, and experiences so that employees can bring their full, authentic selves to work to help each other and our company succeed. We celebrate our diversity and understand that being intentional about inclusion is the only way to create a sense of belonging for all associates. We also invest in the vitality of our local communities through grants from the Genworth Foundation, event sponsorships, and employee volunteerism.

Our four values guide our strategy, our decisions, and our interactions:

• Make it human. We care about the people that make up our customers, colleagues, and communities.
• Make it about others. We do what’s best for our customers and collaborate to drive progress.
• Make it happen. We work with intention toward a common purpose and forge ways forward together.
• Make it better. We create fulfilling purpose-driven careers by learning from the world and each other.

Lead Solution Architect, Databricks

This role is not eligible for employment visa sponsorship.

Position Location

This role is open to remote candidates residing in the following states: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia, as well as Washington, D.C. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States and be able to work primarily during Eastern Time Zone business hours. We will give preference to those within driving distance to Richmond with an expectation that some travel regardless of location will be required.

• Hybrid in-office would be required if you reside within 50 miles of our Richmond or Lynchburg, VA office. Required in-office days are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays with working hours targeting our core business hours of 9am-5pm EST.

Your Role

You will be influencing and communicating to business stakeholders how the proposed solution architecture implements the data architecture and balances time and cost to build the solution with business value. You will be acting as a change agent as business and IT stakeholders have not used a data architecture in the past, and you will need to create awareness and desire to implement the data architecture. Because the reference architecture and core technologies are already established, this solution architect position focuses on applying the data architecture to projects and data products to create solution architecture diagrams and patterns, defining and leading the creation of reusable frameworks and standards across projects, and mentoring teams on how to implement solutions effectively.

What You Will Be Doing

• Responsibilities
  • Evaluate proposed project and data product scope, including delivery timeline, functional trade-offs, cost considerations, and expected business value.
  • Translate business requirements into solution architectures aligned to the reference architecture, including infrastructure, data modeling, integration, and coding design considerations.
  • Build alignment on proposed solution architectures and define phased implementation approaches that deliver early business value.
  • Guide data engineering leads, data modelers, infrastructure specialists, and other team members on what must be designed, built, and tested to implement the solution successfully.
  • Lead or support proofs of concept to validate new design patterns, technical approaches, or product features before broader implementation.
  • Participate throughout the SDLC to help teams implement solution designs and meet business requirements and architecture objectives.
  • Use feedback from delivery teams and stakeholders to improve future designs, frameworks, and practices that accelerate delivery and business value realization.
  • Establish reusable detailed design patterns that can be adopted across multiple projects, including incubating new patterns through POCs or targeted design work.
• Deliverables / Results
  • Project estimates with assumptions and estimating factors
  • Solution architecture diagrams
  • Decision trees on what technology or feature to use based on use cases
  • High level data model diagrams
  • High level data pipeline architecture diagrams
  • Alignment on coding standards and re-usable functions that should be built and shared by a project
  • Best practices and materials that project teams can use to align their build to the architecture, designs and re-usable frameworks
• Impact / Value Add
  • Business users achieve the business value as a result of the solution design and build
  • Solutions align to the architecture so other projects can leverage the solution built by a previous project
  • Integration of enterprise data so more insights can be produced
• Ownership
  • Ownership will be assigned to a business unit, function or set of common data products so your influence on driving architect adoption can be measured.
• Collaboration
  • This role collaborates with business stakeholders, program and product leads, architects, data engineering leads, infrastructure and cloud teams, and other delivery partners.

What You Bring

• Perspective
  • Desire to be a change agent in a data transformation program.
  • Desire to be current on technology and solution approaches including the application of AI in data solutions.
  • Desire to make Genworth the leader in the long-term care marketplace.
• Qualities
  • Communicate clearly with technical teams, business stakeholders, and leadership to explain architecture decisions, trade-offs, and implementation direction.
  • Influence cross-functional stakeholders by building shared understanding, resolving ambiguity, and gaining alignment on solution approaches.
  • Provide vision leadership by proactively engaging business leaders, recommending strategic data solutions, and supporting scalable data self-service capabilities.
  • Likes to mentor technical resources on how to use the architecture, design patterns and frameworks including the production of written documentation.
  • Explain and personalize communication on concepts to others ranging from business to technical audiences.
  • Navigate ambiguity by providing clarity, direction, and decision support for teams and partners.
• Education
  • Four year college degree or equivalent experience with Masters preferred
  • Demonstrated on the job learning with certifications relevant to this position
• Skills
  • One or more hands skills from data modeling, coding, CI/CD implementation, and other components of a solution.
  • Using various software programs to produce the deliverables outlined above.
• Competencies
  • Architecture competency including architectural models, principles, levels of architecture, and business relevant application.
  • Strong knowledge of analytical and operational databases, data modeling, data pipeline design, coding frameworks, and programming languages used in modern data platforms.
  • General knowledge of cloud services, networking, security practices, and hardware configurations, and how they are integrated into a solution.
• Experience
  • Five years or more years experience as a data architect and other related roles such as data engineer, data modeler, and other hands on build roles for analytical and operational systems.
  • The role requires both strategic architecture leadership and practical, hands‑on data solution experience.
  • Strategic leadership includes identifying the need for a new design pattern, leading alignment to implement new design patterns that improve the solution architecture, and
  • Hands on experience includes participating in POCs and showing others how to use the architecture and technology to implement the solution architecture.
  • Experience designing ingestion solutions that use change data capture, event streaming, and batch processing for structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data sources.
  • Hands‑on experience with Databricks, Spark, Kafka, ingestion tools, Lakehouse architectures, and related technologies that enable trusted, consumable business data.

Additional Information

National Range: $120,900 - $187,000

Disclaimer

This role is aligned to a national market-based pay range. Actual compensation will vary based on geographic location, experience, skills, and other job-related factors. In addition to base salary, this role is eligible to participate in a bonus incentive plan. Incentive compensation is based on individual and company performance and is not guaranteed.

Employee Benefits & Well-Being

Genworth employees make a difference in people’s lives every day. We’re committed to making a difference in our employees’ lives.

• Competitive Compensation & Total Rewards Incentives
• Comprehensive Healthcare Coverage
• Multiple 401(k) Savings Plan Options
• Auto Enrollment in Employer-Directed Retirement Account Feature (100% employer-funded!)
• Generous Paid Time Off – Including 12 Paid Holidays, Volunteer Time Off and Paid Family Leave
• Disability, Life, and Long Term Care Insurance
• Tuition Reimbursement, Student Loan Repayment and Training & Certification Support
• Wellness support including gym membership reimbursement and Employee Assistance Program resources (work/life support, financial & legal management)
• Caregiver and Mental Health Support Services

This role is not eligible for employment visa sponsorship.