Data Architect

Who you are

• Cloud-Native & Distributed Systems: Deep expertise in microservices, domain-driven design (DDD), bounded contexts, data ownership, event-driven integration, eventual consistency and distributed transactions
• Event Streaming: Hands-on experience designing and operating Kafka, Kinesis or equivalent platforms, including partitioning, ordering, event contracts, schema evolution, idempotency, replay, delivery guarantees, fault tolerance, security and operational support
• Data Modelling & Storage: Strong data modelling skills and the ability to select appropriate data stores—including relational, NoSQL, graph, time-series, distributed SQL and lakehouse technologies—based on business and technical requirements
• End-to-End Data Flows: Architect operational and analytical data pipelines across APIs, streaming, CDC, batch and ETL/ELT, embedding data quality, lineage, metadata, security, testing and observability throughout
• Technical Leadership & Delivery: Work closely with engineering and product teams in fast-paced agile environments, making pragmatic trade-offs and establishing lightweight guardrails, automation and architecture decision records
• Risk, Security & Resilience: Design secure, well-governed cloud data architectures that support sensitive data handling, operational resilience, traceable controls and regulatory obligations
• AI-Assisted Engineering: Practical experimentation with AI-assisted architecture and engineering tools, understanding their benefits and limitations across research, modelling, coding, testing and documentation
• UK wealth management, financial services or fintech experience; candidates from other complex, regulated industries will also be considered
• Legacy modernisation experience involving Oracle, Sybase, ISAM storage and SFTP/file-based integration, including migration, coexistence, reconciliation, CDC and progressive decoupling

What the job involves

• A hands-on Data Architect responsible for defining data strategy, architectural principles, guardrails and target/transition architectures within a complex, cloud-native environment
• Combines strategic leadership with deep technical expertise in data modelling, detailed design, distributed systems and engineering problem-solving
• Data Architecture & Strategy: Define and evolve data strategy, architecture principles, standards and target-state roadmaps, balancing scalability, resilience, security, cost and delivery speed