Senior Data Architect
Role Overview
We are looking for a Senior Data Architect (15+ years experience) to design and own the entire data architecture for a financial services platform covering:
- Accounts / Real-Time Ledger (RTL)
- Payments Engine
- Foreign Exchange (FX)
- Enterprise Data Platform
The architect will be responsible for how data is stored, moved, governed, secured, and consumed across operational systems and the enterprise data warehouse (Snowflake).
Must-Have Keywords (High Priority)
Data Architecture
✅Data Architecture
✅ Enterprise Data Platform
✅ Data Modelling
✅ Data Governance
✅ Data Lineage
✅ Data Quality
✅ Data Dictionary
✅ ERD (Entity Relationship Diagrams)
✅ Data Flow Diagrams
✅ Data Contracts
✅ ADRs (Architecture Decision Records)
✅ Domain-Driven Design
Snowflake (Critical Skill)
✅ Snowflake Architecture
✅ Snowflake Data Warehouse
✅ Snowpipe
✅ Streams & Tasks
✅ Snowpark
✅ Dynamic Tables
✅ Cortex AI
✅ Dynamic Data Masking
✅ Row-Level Security
✅ Clustering Keys
✅ Materialized Views
✅ Cost Governance
✅ Query Optimization
Databases
✅ PostgreSQL
✅ Oracle Database
✅ Redis
✅ MongoDB
✅ TimescaleDB
✅ InfluxDB
Skills Required:
- Schema Design
- Indexing Strategy
- Replication
- Database Performance Tuning
- Data Lifecycle Management
Data Integration & Engineering
✅ CDC (Change Data Capture)
✅ Debezium
✅ Kafka Connect
✅ ETL / ELT
✅ Apache Spark
✅ AWS Glue
✅ Event-Driven Architecture
✅ NATS JetStream
✅ Real-Time Data Pipelines
Cloud & AWS
✅ AWS
✅ S3
✅ RDS
✅ Aurora
✅ Glue
✅ IAM
✅ VPC
✅ Lake Formation
✅ Redshift Migration
Governance & Compliance
✅ GDPR
✅ BCBS 239
✅ Data Classification
✅ Data Stewardship
✅ Data Ownership
✅ Data Retention Policies
✅ Master Data Management (MDM)
Tools:
- Apache Atlas
- Collibra
- Snowflake Horizon Catalog
AI / ML & Analytics
✅ Feature Stores
✅ ML Pipelines
✅ AI/ML Data Architecture
✅ Snowflake Cortex AI
✅ Vector Databases
✅ LLM Data Pipelines
✅ AI-Powered Data Cataloguing
Data Transformation
✅ dbt (Data Build Tool)
Key Areas:
- Data Modelling
- Testing Frameworks
- Documentation
- Incremental Models
- Analytics Engineering
Financial Services Domain Experience (Very Important)
Candidates should ideally have experience in:
Real-Time Ledger (RTL)
✅ Double-Entry Accounting
✅ Event-Sourced Ledger
✅ Balance Aggregation
✅ Reconciliation
Payments
✅ ISO 20022
✅ SWIFT
✅ Payment Processing
✅ Settlement Systems
✅ Payment Lifecycle
Foreign Exchange (FX)
✅ FX Trading Systems
✅ Trade Data Models
✅ Market Data Feeds
✅ Position Keeping
✅ P&L Attribution
Risk & Limits
✅ Exposure Management
✅ Limit Management
✅ Risk Aggregation
Regulatory Reporting
✅ BCBS 239
✅ EMIR
✅ MiFID
Client Onboarding
✅ KYC
✅ AML
✅ Client Master Data
Key Responsibilities
Data Architecture
- Define enterprise-wide data architecture.
- Design data models across multiple database technologies.
- Establish data standards and governance frameworks.
- Define data ownership, lineage, and quality controls.
Snowflake Leadership
- Design and optimize Snowflake architecture.
- Build ingestion frameworks and transformation standards.
- Implement security and compliance controls.
- Manage warehouse performance and costs.
Database Governance
- Review database schemas and performance.
- Define migration and versioning standards.
- Ensure consistency between transactional and analytical systems.
Data Governance
- Implement data quality rules and SLAs.
- Manage lineage and metadata.
- Support regulatory compliance requirements.
AI & Analytics
- Design data products for reporting and analytics.
- Build foundations for ML and AI workloads.
- Support feature stores and LLM use cases.
Stakeholder Management
- Work with Engineering, Risk, Finance, Operations, and Product teams.
- Mentor engineers and developers.
- Drive architecture decisions across the organization.
Ideal Candidate Profile
Mandatory
✔ 15+ years IT experience
✔ 5+ years as Data Architect
✔ Strong Snowflake Architecture experience
✔ Financial Services / Banking experience
✔ Data Governance and Data Quality expertise
✔ Real-time Data Pipelines experience
✔ AWS Cloud experience
✔ Strong SQL and Data Modelling skills
✔ Stakeholder Management experience
Preferred Certifications
✔ Snowflake SnowPro Core
✔ Snowflake SnowPro Architect
✔ AWS Solutions Architect
✔ AWS Data Analytics