Principal Data Architect — Data Governance Lead

Allen Institute; Seattle, Northern (WA, KY); Hybrid; USD 168,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Visa sponsorship

Job summary

The Allen Institute is seeking a Principal Data Architect to lead data governance and metadata governance across neuroscience, cell science, and immunology data assets. This role focuses on establishing standards, improving data discoverability, and ensuring compliant, centralized cataloging and lifecycle management.

You'll collaborate with scientific programs and technology teams to enable open science while balancing governance, security, and operational efficiency, with a strategic advisory

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in data governance, data management, or related field.
• 7+ years in data governance, stewardship, or large-scale data environments.
• Deep expertise in metadata standards and data lifecycle management.
• Experience across complex multi-stakeholder environments, preferably scientific.
• Knowledge of NIST and HIPAA regulatory requirements.
• Understanding of cloud storage environments and data infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Establish Institute-wide data and metadata standards to improve discoverability.
• Own and advance data governance and stewardship programs and lifecycle practices.
• Develop guidance for data ETL, storage, archiving, and retirement of datasets.
• Drive adoption of data governance across programs with measurable impact.
• Ensure alignment with NIST, HIPAA and institutional data security standards.
• Lead the creation of a central metadata standard for large-scale multimodal data.
• Advise leaders on data management tradeoffs and long-term sustainability.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives to improve data accessibility, reuse and sustainability.

Skills

Data governance

Data stewardship

Metadata standards

Data lifecycle management

Cross-functional collaboration

HIPAA / NIST compliance

Cloud data infrastructure

Biological data awareness

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Information and Library Science, Data Management, Computer Science, or related field

Master’s degree or Ph.D. in Information Science, Data Management, or related field

Job description

The Allen Institute is seeking a Principal Data Architect to lead data governance and metadata governance across neuroscience, cell science, and immunology data assets. This role focuses on establishing standards, improving data discoverability, and ensuring compliant, centralized cataloging and lifecycle management.

You'll collaborate with scientific programs and technology teams to enable open science while balancing governance, security, and operational efficiency, with a strategic advisory