Lead Data Architect at Realtime Recruitment Ltd, Milton Keynes, 6 to 12 Months, £Contract Rate

Lead Data Architect

UK - Hybrid

6 - 12 Month Contract (Outside IR35)

Realtime is looking for an experienced Data Architect who will join one of the most exciting projects across the UK. Reporting to the Head of Data & AI, you will lead the enterprise data architecture capability during one of the project's most critical phases.

This role requires someone who has a proven track record of quickly assessing and understanding a complex landscape while working alongside key business stakeholders, conveying data architecture strategies, standards and designs.

Responsibilities:

• Set the principles, standards and models that shape the organisation's data architecture, and deliver a target-state design with a realistic transition roadmap tied to business capabilities
• Lead the architecture of Azure-based data and analytics platforms, setting patterns from ingestion through to consumption that are scalable, secure and cost-efficient, and that support reliable BI, AI and machine learning.
• Put practical governance controls in place, covering metadata, lineage, quality and retention, so that designs meet privacy, security and regulatory obligations
• Sit on design authorities to assess solutions against enterprise standards, offering pragmatic guidance to programmes and suppliers and influencing senior stakeholders by turning business priorities into strategic data investment decisions.

Experience Required:

• 10+ years' experience in senior or lead data architecture roles within complex transformation programmes.
• Strong hands-on experience with modern Azure data services and Microsoft data ecosystems.
• Deep expertise in data modelling, warehousing, data lakes and lakehouse patterns, as well as metadata, lineage, master data and data quality.
• Solid grasp of API, batch, event-driven and wider data integration architectures.
• Experience defining architecture standards, target states, roadmaps and governance processes.
• Comfortable working with executive stakeholders, delivery leaders, product teams and third-party suppliers.
• Able to think and act strategically while staying hands-on with models, designs, reviews and decisions.
• Enterprise architecture experience with Microsoft Fabric and Power BI.
• Architecting for AI, advanced analytics and machine learning use cases.
• Experience setting up data architecture or governance functions from scratch.
• Familiarity with TOGAF; better if TOGAF certified

For more information, please apply.