Lead Data Architect: Strategy & Governance

Caterpillar Inc.; East Peoria (IL); On-site; USD 128,000 - 193,000; Full time

Job summary

Caterpillar Inc. in East Peoria, IL, is seeking a Lead Data Architect to define the Power & Energy data vision and standards, guiding data ecosystem design with strong business engagement. You will shape current and future-state architectures, drive governance, and partner with engineering to deliver scalable data solutions.

The role emphasizes strategic thinking, data modeling expertise, and collaboration with executive leadership. onsite five days a week with a comprehensive rewards package.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, Data Engineering, Software Engineering, or related technical field (or equivalent experience)
• Progressive experience in data, analytics, information architecture, or enterprise technology roles.
• Experience leading enterprise-scale data architecture initiatives across multiple business domains.
• Deep expertise in enterprise data architecture, data warehousing principles and data modeling (conceptual, logical, physical)
• Proven experience defining and implementing enterprise data strategies, roadmaps, standards, and governance frameworks.
• Experience partnering with executive leadership, business stakeholders, and technology teams to translate business strategy into data architecture solutions.

Responsibilities

• Map the current-state data landscape related to critical business initiatives, including systems, flows, redundancies, and gaps.
• Define and maintain the future-state data architecture vision and roadmap aligned to business strategy.
• Establish guiding principles for scalable, reusable, and governed data ecosystems.
• Build and maintain conceptual data models that define core business entities and relationships.
• Guide the development of logical and physical data models in collaboration with engineering teams.
• Ensure consistent application of industry-standard modeling techniques (e.g., dimensional, data vault).
• Define canonical data definitions and promote reuse across domains.
• Partner closely with the Lead Data Engineer to translate architecture into implementable solutions.
• Provide oversight and guidance on end-to-end data solution design, from ingestion through consumption.
• Ensure architecture decisions support performance, scalability, and extensibility.
• Review and validate solution designs to ensure alignment with architectural standards.
• Build collaborative relationships with business stakeholders and cross-functional teams, ensuring requirements are accurately understood.
• Possess strong verbal and written communication skills essential for presenting findings and driving alignment between technical solutions and business outcomes.
• Function as a trusted advisor on data-related decisions and trade-offs.
• Ensure the right data sources are identified and leveraged for each use case.
• Enforce alignment with enterprise data standards, governance policies, and security requirements.
• Promote data quality, consistency, and lineage across the data ecosystem.
• Define standards for metadata management, data classification, and access controls.

Skills

Data architecture

Data modeling

Programming languages (Python/Java)

Leadership & mentoring

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science / IS / Data Engineering / Software Engineering

Job description

Caterpillar Inc. in East Peoria, IL, is seeking a Lead Data Architect to define the Power & Energy data vision and standards, guiding data ecosystem design with strong business engagement. You will shape current and future-state architectures, drive governance, and partner with engineering to deliver scalable data solutions.

The role emphasizes strategic thinking, data modeling expertise, and collaboration with executive leadership. onsite five days a week with a comprehensive rewards package.