Senior AI Platform Architect & Strategy Lead

Gapp-Partners; South Africa; Hybrid; ZAR 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Job summary

NTT DATA in South Africa is seeking a Senior Data Architect Lead to act as a strategic technical advisor between Sales, Clients and Delivery, with a focus on Enterprise Data and AI. You will help shape data governance, AI adoption, and information architectures while translating complex strategies for executives.

You will also localise global offerings for the South African market and mentor sales teams to strengthen technical qualification and capability.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in enterprise architecture, consulting, solution strategy or technical pre-sales
• 8+ years operating in an applications landscape with focus on D&A technology solutions
• Strong understanding of enterprise applications, software engineering and modern digital platforms
• Solid understanding of data platforms, analytics tools, and AI/ML solution offerings
• Experience developing enterprise data strategies, AI adoption roadmaps and information governance models
• Knowledge of ontology-based information modelling, knowledge graphs, metadata management and semantic architectures
• Strong understanding of Microsoft Data & AI, AWS Data & AI, Snowflake and related ecosystems
• Ability to develop industry reference architectures for Financial Services, Manufacturing, Mining or Healthcare

Responsibilities

• Act as a strategic advisor to Sales and Client Managers, leading executive-level discovery and value-led conversations.
• Facilitate client discussions to understand business requirements related to data and applications estate (strategy, models, maturity, governance, direction).
• Help shape and inform client deals and develop opportunities with the Sales team.
• Define target-state architectures conceptually, capability roadmaps and investment priorities.
• Inform commercial models to support client opportunities.
• Validate architecture, security, integration, data governance, AI governance with clients and internal specialists.
• Review solution estimates, delivery assumptions, and risks.
• Translate complex technical strategies into executive narratives, proposals and statements of work.
• Localise global offers and develop industry-specific offerings for the SA market.
• Mentor sales teams to raise technical capability and qualification discipline.

Job description

NTT DATA in South Africa is seeking a Senior Data Architect Lead to act as a strategic technical advisor between Sales, Clients and Delivery, with a focus on Enterprise Data and AI. You will help shape data governance, AI adoption, and information architectures while translating complex strategies for executives.

You will also localise global offerings for the South African market and mentor sales teams to strengthen technical qualification and capability.