Data Architect

Woolworths; Wes-Kaap; On-site; ZAR 700,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in FMCG and retail seeks a Data Architect to enhance its enterprise data architecture. The role involves designing, implementing, and maintaining data frameworks to ensure scalability and efficiency, while collaborating with various teams for effective data management. Candidates should possess strong qualifications in data systems and architecture.

Benefits

Flexible working hours

Continuous learning opportunities

Health and wellness programs

Qualifications

• 5 years of experience in data architecture, data modeling, or data engineering.
• Experience with both on-premise and cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Strong understanding of data integration, ETL/ELT, and real-time data processing.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement enterprise data architecture that supports business objectives.
• Develop and maintain data models to align with business processes.
• Ensure alignment with data governance policies and optimize data storage.

Skills

Strategic Thinking

Collaboration & Communication

Problem-Solving

Continuous Learning

Education

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

Tools

AWS

Oracle DWH

SQL Server

PostgreSQL

Snowflake

BigQuery

Job description

Job category: FMCG, Retail, Wholesale and Supply Chain

Location: Western Cape

Contract: Permanent

Remuneration: Market Related

EE position: No

Introduction

The Data Architect is responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining the organisation’s enterprise data architecture to ensure scalability, security, and efficiency in managing structured and unstructured data. This role ensures that data models, integration strategies, and governance frameworks align with business needs while supporting analytics, AI/ML, and operational data usage. The Data Architect works closely with engineering, analytics, governance, and business teams to define and implement data architecture best practices that improve data accessibility, integrity, and performance across both on-premise and cloud-based (AWS, Azure) environments.

• Design and implement enterprise data architecture that supports business objectives and analytics capabilities.
• Develop and maintain data models (conceptual, logical, and physical) to align with business processes and analytics needs.
• Ensure alignment with organisational data governance policies by defining data standards, lineage, and metadata management practices.
• Support data integration across systems by defining best practices for ETL/ELT, APIs, and real-time data pipelines.
• Optimise data storage and retrieval mechanisms for structured and unstructured data across on-premise and cloud platforms.
• Collaborate with engineering, analytics, and business teams to ensure effective data-driven decision-making.
• Ensure data security and compliance with internal policies and external regulations (e.g., GDPR, POPIA).
• Evaluate and recommend new data technologies and solutions to enhance performance, scalability, and maintainability.
• Monitor data quality, consistency, and performance across all data assets.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.
• 5 years of experience in data architecture, data modeling, or data engineering.
• Experience working with both on-premise (Oracle DWH, OLAP) and cloud (AWS, Azure, or GCP) environments.
• Strong understanding of data integration, ETL/ELT, and real-time data processing techniques.
• Knowledge of data governance frameworks such as DAMA-DMBOK.
• Strong experience with conceptual, logical, and physical data models.
• Expert in RDBMS (Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL) and cloud-native solutions (Redshift, Snowflake, BigQuery, DynamoDB).
• Hands-on experience with AWS (S3, Glue, Redshift, Athena)
• Proficiency in ETL/ELT, API-based data exchange, and event-driven architecture (Kafka, Kinesis, Pub/Sub).
• Experience with data cataloguing, lineage tracking, and metadata management.
• Familiarity with data access controls, encryption, role-based access management (IAM), and compliance standards.

ADDITIONAL CRITERIA

• Strategic Thinking : Ability to define a long-term vision for enterprise data architecture.
• Collaboration & Communication : Strong ability to engage with business, IT, and governance teams to translate requirements into technical solutions.
• Problem-Solving : Ability to troubleshoot complex data challenges and implement scalable solutions.
• Continuous Learning : Keeps up with emerging technologies, frameworks, and best practices in data architecture.
• Cultural Fit: Aligns with the organisation’s values, demonstrating integrity, accountability, and a strong work ethic.