Senior Data Architect

Data Architect (Contract)

Status - Inside IR35 - must be happy to work through an umbrella company.

Duration - 12 Months (Initial).

Location - London (Hybrid)

Working Pattern - Onsite in London 1 day per week, remote otherwise.

Tech Stack - Snowflake & GCP

We are working with a leading consultancy that is hiring a contract Data Architect to help shape and scale their modern data platform, built on Snowflake and Google Cloud Platform.

This is an opportunity to drive the adoption of Data Mesh principles across the organisation, defining Data Products and Data Contracts, building out self-serve platform capabilities and embedding governance into the way teams work.

You will be responsible for:

• Defining and evolving the data architecture across Snowflake and GCP, grounded in Data Mesh, Data Product and Data Contract principles.
• Designing data models and setting the standards that enable domain teams to own and publish high-quality Data Products.
• Shaping self-serve platform structures and solutions, applying computational governance so standards are automated rather than policed.
• Applying software and data engineering best practices to how Data Products are built, tested and maintained.
• Using Domain-Driven Design and Team Topologies to align data ownership with business domains and team structures.
• Diving into code when required and building small proofs of concept to test and validate approaches.
• Running workshops and driving collaboration across engineering, product and business teams.
• Communicating with stakeholders at all levels, from team engineers through to enterprise architecture and leadership.

Key Skills

• Strong grounding in data architectural principles, especially Data Mesh, Data Products, Data Contracts and Data Modelling.
• Hands-on experience with Snowflake and GCP.
• Experience with modern data tooling, especially dbt, Airflow, SQL and Tableau.
• Solid understanding of software and data engineering best practices and how they apply to Data Products.
• Experience designing self-serve platform structures and applying computational governance solutions.
• Working knowledge of Domain-Driven Design (DDD) and Team Topologies.
• Comfortable getting into the code when needed and building small PoCs.
• Confident running workshops and communicating with stakeholders at every level, from engineers to enterprise architecture and leadership.
• Good understanding of GDPR, the principle of least privilege and data governance approaches.
• Previous experience within the retail sector.