Senior Data Architect for AI-Driven Platforms

X, bigly labs; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Job summary

X, bigly labs in Dis-Chem's high-performance innovation hub is seeking a Data Architect to shape enterprise data architectures that support analytics, ML, and AI initiatives.

You will apply TOGAF and DAMA-DMBOK to establish robust, scalable data platforms, collaborating with engineers, modellers, and business teams to enable secure data exchange and governance across the organisation.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Engineering, or related field.
• 6+ years of experience in data architecture, data engineering, or enterprise data management.
• Certification in cloud platform: AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate (DEA-C01), Azure Data Engineer (DP-203/DP-700), or Databricks Certified Data Engineer.
• Certification or Strong Working Knowledge in TOGAF 10 architecture framework.
• Proven experience designing and governing enterprise data architecture and applying DAMA principles.
• Demonstrated ability to implement modern architectural design and principles in big data environments.
• Experience contributing to scalable data platforms that support data science and AI workloads.
• Familiarity with data privacy regulations (POPIA, GDPR) and compliance frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Design enterprise-wide data architecture using DAMA principles and modern design patterns.
• Input architectural requirements into scalable data platform development with engineers and modellers.
• Ensure proper integration into the data ecosystem with defined data flows and interfaces.
• Collaborate with business and technical teams through solution design sessions and architecture reviews.
• Document architecture decisions, data flows, and standards using version-controlled repositories.

Skills

Data architecture

Data modelling

Metadata management

Data governance

Distributed systems

APIs / ETL/ELT / streaming

Cloud data services

Data integration tools

Data privacy regulations

Big data environments

Education

Bachelor's degree: Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Engineering, or related field

TOGAF 10 architecture framework

DAMA-DMBOK certification

AWS Certified Data Engineer / DEA-C01

Azure Data Engineer / DP-203

Databricks Certified Data Engineer

Azure AI Engineer Associate

AWS Machine Learning Specialty

Tools

Azure Synapse

AWS Redshift

GCP BigQuery

SAP Business Data Cloud

Databricks

Snowflake Airflow

Job description

X, bigly labs in Dis-Chem's high-performance innovation hub is seeking a Data Architect to shape enterprise data architectures that support analytics, ML, and AI initiatives.

You will apply TOGAF and DAMA-DMBOK to establish robust, scalable data platforms, collaborating with engineers, modellers, and business teams to enable secure data exchange and governance across the organisation.