Principal Solution Architect - Data

Principal Solution Architect (Data)

Our client is a large, well-established New Zealand organisation currently going through significant transformation across its enterprise systems and data landscape.

This is a role within the client's Architecture function, created to give the business a clear design authority for its enterprise data estate as it modernises.

The role

As Principal Solution Architect (Data) you'll own the target-state data architecture, standards and governance frameworks spanning ingestion, lakehouse storage, master data, semantic modelling and data sharing. Rather than inheriting someone else's patterns, you'll set the architecture that major transformation programmes across the business get built against, with real sign-off authority through the Architecture Review Board rather than an advisory-only remit. You'll also shape how the organisation safely exposes curated data to AI and ML tooling as it expands its use of AI, giving you scope to define that capability from the ground up.

Key parts of the role:

• Set and own the enterprise data architecture roadmap, including ingestion, transformation, semantic and consumption layers
• Act as design authority for the data domain at the Architecture Review Board, including sign-off on semantic and data-model changes
• Define enterprise data governance, MDM and data-quality standards for adoption across delivery teams
• Design (with the Security function) the end-to-end data security and access architecture
• Define the AI-ready data foundation and governance guardrails as the business expands its use of AI and analytics

What you'll bring

• Strong background in data architecture or senior data engineering, with a track record of setting standards and patterns others adopt
• Hands-on exposure to cloud data platforms (Azure and/or AWS; Databricks a plus)
• Experience with governed lakehouse architectures, MDM and semantic modelling
• Comfortable operating as a design authority, or ready to step into that scope
• ERP-adjacent experience is an advantage, though not essential

We'll be in touch via email and/or phone regarding your application.

Please apply online.