Data Architect Job Description and Role Profile

This Data Architect job description explains the role, core responsibilities and who should apply. It is intended for candidates with strong experience in data modelling, enterprise data design, governance and stakeholder collaboration who can translate business requirements into scalable data solutions.

Data Architect Job Profile

The Data Architect is responsible for defining, designing and maintaining the organisation's data architecture to ensure data is available, consistent and secure for analytics and operational use. The role shapes data strategy, establishes standards and ensures alignment between business needs and technical implementation.

The post requires a strategic thinker able to lead architectural decisions, provide technical guidance to delivery teams and work with data governance functions to maintain data quality and compliance. The Data Architect must balance long term architecture goals with pragmatic delivery of usable data assets.

Data Architect Job Description

The Data Architect designs end-to-end data solutions, including data models, storage strategies and data integration patterns, to support reporting, analytics and business applications. They develop and communicate architecture roadmaps and standards, review designs produced by delivery teams and ensure adherence to data management principles.

This role operates in a cross-functional context, collaborating with business stakeholders, data engineers, analysts and security or compliance teams to define data requirements and resolve design trade-offs. The Data Architect is expected to document architectures, define interfaces and create governance artefacts that enable reliable and efficient data usage across the organisation.

The successful candidate will monitor data quality and performance, recommend optimisation measures and mentor technical teams on best practice. They will also contribute to data strategy, participate in project governance and support the implementation of change to improve data maturity.

Data Architect: Duties and Responsibilities

• Define and maintain the enterprise data architecture, including conceptual, logical and physical data models.
• Translate business requirements into scalable data designs and technical specifications.
• Establish data standards, naming conventions and modelling guidelines to ensure consistency.
• Design data storage, access and integration patterns to support analytics and operational systems.
• Develop and maintain architecture roadmaps that align with business strategy and delivery plans.
• Assess data quality issues and define remediation approaches in collaboration with data owners.
• Provide architecture review and assurance for projects and change initiatives.
• Ensure data security, privacy and compliance considerations are incorporated into designs.
• Document data flows, interfaces and metadata to improve transparency and reuse.
• Collaborate with governance functions to define data stewardship and ownership models.
• Support the implementation of data migration and integration activities during projects.
• Advise on performance, scalability and cost implications of data design decisions.
• Mentor engineers and analysts on data modelling and architecture best practice.
• Evaluate emerging data patterns and recommend appropriate adoption to improve capability.

Data Architect: Requirements and Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, data management or a related discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Typically 5 or more years of experience in data architecture, data engineering or related roles.
• Proven experience developing conceptual, logical and physical data models for enterprise solutions.
• Strong understanding of data integration, ingestion and transformation patterns.
• Knowledge of data governance principles, metadata management and data quality practices.
• Familiarity with security and privacy requirements relevant to data handling and storage.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders clearly and concisely.
• Experience producing architecture artefacts such as roadmaps, standards and interface definitions.
• Analytical problem-solving skills and the ability to assess trade-offs and risks in design choices.
• Experience working in cross-functional teams and supporting project delivery lifecycle activities.
• Attention to detail in documentation and a methodical approach to design and review.
• Continual learning mindset with the ability to evaluate and adopt appropriate data practices and patterns.