Senior IT Solution Architect

Purpose and Mission

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Data Architect to join our Customer and Commercial IT team. The successful candidate will play a pivotal role in designing, developing, and maintaining data solutions using Azure technologies including Synapse. The ideal candidate should possess a strong background in data architecture, exhibit expertise in Azure cloud services, and have a proven track record of delivering data solutions in an agile environment. The Data Architect will provide strategic direction, technical leadership, and hands-on expertise to drive the success of our data initiatives.

Key Activities and Responsibilities

• Possess a profound understanding of various commercial business processes, such as sales, marketing, finance, supply chain, and customer relationship management.
• Collaborate closely with business stakeholders to gather insights into data needs and contribute to strategic planning.
• Should be able to map and understand business processes, ensuring efficiency and accuracy to support business functions and operational processes.
• Translate business requirements into effective data architecture solutions that support and enhance commercial operations.
• Design and Build data driven AI power solutions that provide valuable insights and automation capabilities to meet the organizations analytical needs and hence driving Innovation and business outcomes
• Recommend and Implement performance Optimization techniques to ensure efficient data processing and query performance.
• Should enable Data Governance and compliance practices
• Develop and maintain a comprehensive data architecture strategy aligned with the organization's goals and requirements.
• Design and implement data models, data pipelines, data lakes, data warehousing and business intelligence solutions using Azure services such as Azure Data Factory, Azure Databricks, and Azure Synapse Analytics
• Leverage deep knowledge of Azure cloud services to architect scalable, reliable, and high-performance data solutions.
• Lead and participate in agile development teams, ensuring the successful delivery of data solutions within iterative and incremental cycles.
• Foster an agile mindset by promoting continuous improvement, adaptability, and effective collaboration across cross-functional teams.
• Define and enforce data governance best practices, ensuring data security, privacy, and compliance with industry standards and regulations.
• Implement data quality measures, data profiling, and data cleansing processes to maintain the accuracy and reliability of the data ecosystem.
• Design data integration strategies that enable real-time or near-real-time data synchronization, fostering accurate and up-to-date reporting and analytics.
• Provide technical guidance, mentorship, and training to junior data professionals within the team.
• Stay current with industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in data architecture and cloud computing.
• Create and maintain documentation for data architecture, design decisions, data flows, and integration processes.
• Drive innovation by identifying opportunities to leverage data for competitive advantage and process improvement in commercial operations.
• Champion the adoption of new technologies, tools, and best practices to enhance data architecture and analytics capabilities.

Requirements

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.
• Proven experience in architecture and design of data analytics solutions that services business needs with the balance of costs, capability, and risk to meet business objectives.
• Minimum of 10 years of professional experience in data architecture, data modelling and design, and data engineering.
• Extensive hands-on experience with Azure cloud services, including but not limited to Azure Data Factory, Azure Databricks, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure SQL Database, and Azure Cosmos DB.
• Experience in business processing mapping of data and analytics solutions.
• Ability to conduct data profiling, cataloguing, and mapping for technical design and construction of technical data flows.
• The ability to apply methods to solve business problems using one or more Azure Data and Analytics services in combination with building data pipelines, data streams, and system integration.
• Proficiency in data governance, data quality, and data security practices.
• Proven track record of successfully designing and delivering complex data solutions within an agile framework.
• People management responsibilities both directly and indirectly with globally dispersed teams.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to troubleshoot complex data issues.
• Effective communication skills with the ability to convey technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Relevant certifications in Azure cloud technologies (e.g., Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer, Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect) are a plus.
• Knowledge of DevOps processes (including CI/CD) and Infrastructure as code fundamentals.