Data Architect - GCP and BigQuery

Cloud Data Architect/Data Platform Consultant - GCP

Contract | c3 months | Outside IR35 | London/Hybrid

We are recruiting an experienced Data Architect to undertake a focused data discovery and architecture assessment for a large retail organisation.

This is a short-term consulting assignment requiring someone who can quickly understand a complex data environment, assess existing platforms and information flows, and provide a clear picture of the current architecture, associated risks and opportunities for improvement.

Working across a predominantly Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and BigQuery environment, you will engage with technical and business stakeholders to establish how data is structured, managed and used across the organisation.

The Assignment

You will take ownership of an initial assessment of the existing data landscape, producing clear documentation and recommendations that can inform future architectural and technology decisions.

Key deliverables will include:

• Mapping the existing data estate, including key domains, source systems, integrations, transformations and downstream consumers.

• Assessing data quality, ownership, lineage and documentation across business-critical datasets.

• Reviewing the existing GCP architecture, particularly BigQuery, to identify technical debt, risks and improvement opportunities.

• Engaging with stakeholders to understand existing processes, dependencies and gaps in the current environment.

• Producing a prioritised set of recommendations and a practical roadmap for further investigation and improvement.

What We Are Looking For

You will bring significant experience in Data Architecture or Data Platform Consulting, with strong technical knowledge of Google Cloud Platform and BigQuery.

We are particularly interested in individuals who have experience assessing complex data environments, ideally involving multiple business systems and a broad range of data domains.

Experience working with retail datasets such as product, customer, sales, inventory, pricing or E-commerce would be highly advantageous.

You will need excellent stakeholder engagement, investigative and documentation skills, together with the ability to work independently and translate fragmented technical information into clear, actionable architectural findings.

This assignment would suit an experienced contractor who enjoys discovery-focused work and can deliver tangible outputs within a relatively short engagement.