Enterprise Data Architect

Enterprise Data Architect – Insurance Enterprise Data Platform (EDP)

Location: Horsham, West Sussex (Hybrid Working)

Engagement Type: Long-Term Contract

IR35 Status: Inside IR35

Domain: Insurance (P&C / Life / Commercial Lines)

We are seeking an experienced Enterprise Data Architect to lead the strategic evolution of a large-scale Insurance Enterprise Data Platform (EDP) programme. This role will play a key part in defining and governing enterprise-wide data architecture across policy, claims, finance, actuarial, underwriting, and risk domains, enabling a scalable, compliant, and analytics-ready modern data ecosystem.

The successful candidate will bring strong experience within insurance or broader BFSI environments, with deep expertise in enterprise data modelling, modern cloud data platforms, governance, and transformation from legacy insurance systems to modern architectures.

Role Overview

As Enterprise Data Architect, you will own and evolve the target-state data architecture for the Insurance EDP, ensuring alignment between business strategy, regulatory obligations, and modern data platform capabilities.

You will work closely with business stakeholders, data engineering teams, governance functions, analytics teams, and delivery programmes to establish architecture standards, domain-aligned data models, and enterprise-wide data principles.

This is a strategic architecture role suited to someone comfortable operating across both business and technical domains within complex enterprise insurance environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and govern the enterprise-wide data architecture for the Insurance EDP across ingestion, storage, processing, governance, and consumption layers.
• Develop target-state architecture and transition roadmaps from legacy insurance systems, including PAS, claims platforms, and mainframe technologies, into modern cloud-based EDP architectures.
• Establish enterprise canonical data models and domain-driven data structures across:
• Policy
• Claims
• Underwriting
• Finance
• Actuarial
• Risk
• Define and maintain enterprise architecture standards, principles, guardrails, and best practices for:
• Data ingestion
• Integration
• Transformation
• Storage
• Data access and consumption
• Ensure data architecture aligns with regulatory, audit, security, privacy, retention, and lineage requirements including GDPR compliance.
• Collaborate with Data Engineering, Data Governance, Analytics, and business domain teams to ensure consistency, reuse, and alignment across programmes.
• Provide architecture assurance and governance across delivery teams and third-party vendors.
• Drive adoption and continuous improvement of EDP reference architectures and enterprise standards.
• Support strategic transformation initiatives including insurance modernisation and finance/actuarial platform evolution.
• Engage with senior stakeholders to communicate architectural direction, risks, and recommendations.

Required Skills & Experience

• Proven experience operating as an Enterprise Architect or Data Architect within Insurance or BFSI environments.
• Strong understanding of insurance data domains including:
• Policy lifecycle management
• Underwriting
• Endorsements and cancellations
• Claims processing (reserves, recoveries, payments)
• Finance and actuarial data structures
• Strong experience designing enterprise-scale data architectures using:
• Data Lake
• Data Warehouse
• Lakehouse patterns
• Deep knowledge of:
• Enterprise data modelling
• Canonical modelling
• Data integration patterns
• Master and reference data concepts
• Data governance frameworks
• Experience defining enterprise architecture standards and governance processes.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills with the ability to explain complex architecture concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience working within large-scale transformation programmes and multi-vendor delivery environments.

Desirable Experience

• Experience with Azure-based enterprise data platforms including:
• Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS)
• Azure Synapse
• Databricks
• Microsoft Fabric
• Familiarity with data governance, cataloguing, and lineage tooling.
• Experience supporting actuarial or finance transformation initiatives.
• Exposure to legacy insurance platforms such as Guidewire and core PAS environments.

Leadership & Behavioural Competencies

• Strategic thinker with strong enterprise-wide perspective.
• Strong systems thinking and problem-solving capability.
• Ability to influence and lead across matrix organisations without direct authority.
• Excellent documentation, governance, and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Comfortable operating across onshore/offshore teams and multi-supplier environments.
• Strong collaboration and relationship-building skills across business and technology functions.

Contract Details

• Long-term contract opportunity
• Based in Horsham with hybrid working arrangements
• Inside IR35 engagement
• Competitive day rate available