Senior Principal Enterprise Data & AI Architect

We are seeking an experienced Enterprise Architect with deep expertise in data architecture, analytics, and AI to lead the design and evolution of our enterprise data ecosystem. This role is a critical partner to our Business and Application architects, responsible for defining and executing the enterprise-wide data strategy, particularly in the context of a dynamic, M&A-driven environment.

The successful candidate will design a scalable, secure, and resilient data ecosystem that transforms data into a trusted enterprise asset. You will be responsible for aligning the company's data architecture with its overall business strategy, ensuring alignment with business goals, scalable digital transformation, and powering traditional and generative AI-driven outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain the enterprise data architecture strategy, including data platforms, integration patterns, and governance frameworks, with a focus on modern paradigms like Data Mesh and Data Fabric.

• Lead the architectural design and strategy to ensure all enterprise data is treated as a unified asset. This involves creating a seamless consolidation and rationalization strategy that applies to all major data-centric initiatives, whether driven by M&A or by the development of new internal applications and services.

• Establish architecture standards for data modeling, metadata management, and data quality.

• Align data architecture with overall enterprise architecture and business strategy.

• Partner with application development teams to provide data-centric design insights into core business applications, ensuring the data layers are designed for scalability, quality, and analytical use from the outset.

• Lead the architecture and adoption of a broad spectrum of AI solutions, from traditional machine learning to advanced Generative AI and Agentic systems.

• Define frameworks for the full ML/AI lifecycle (MLOps), model governance, and responsible AI.

• Collaborate with data scientists and AI engineers to productionize models and AI applications at scale.

• Identify and drive AI use cases that create measurable business value.

• Analyze and document the current-state data landscape, including data sources, data flow, lineage, storage, and consumption patterns to identify gaps, redundancies, and modernization opportunities.

• Collaborate with business leaders, data scientists, and engineering teams to define strategic goals and translate them into data, analytics, and AI requirements.

• Develop and govern the enterprise API strategy for data, defining standards for REST APIs and managing data access for internal and external applications through an API Gateway.

• Partner with product managers, solution architects, and business architects to ensure data solutions are designed for scalability, performance, and security while meeting business needs.

• Define and enforce enterprise-wide data governance standards, including data quality, metadata management, data security, and data privacy.

• Evaluate data-related requirements to assist in selecting the right data technologies, platforms, and tools that support a scalable, future-ready data ecosystem.

• 15-20 years of experience in data architecture, data management, or a related senior-level role.

• Proven, hands-on experience leading data platform consolidation and integration initiatives following corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

• Deep understanding of enterprise systems, data flow, and complex integration patterns between different systems.

• Demonstrated experience designing data integration and Reverse ETL patterns for major enterprise SaaS platforms, specifically Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365), MDM, and Oracle Eloqua.

• Hands-on experience with API design and management, including designing REST APIs and using API Gateways (e.g., Google Apigee, Kong) to secure and manage data access.

• Proven experience designing data architectures that support and enable advanced AI applications, including traditional machine learning, Generative AI, and Agentic AI.

• Expertise in modern data technologies and architectures, including practical experience with Data Mesh principles and turning 'data as a product' into reality.

• Experience designing, contributing to, or implementing an enterprise Data Marketplace or Data Catalog.

• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing robust data quality frameworks and data security controls within a cloud data platform.

• Excellent and proven communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• You love working on data systems and are obsessed with quality, consistency, and scale.

• You enjoy solving complex problems and have a deep-thinking, analytical mindset.

• You think of 'data as a product' and have experience designing data services and APIs for consumption by a wide range of applications and users.

• You gain gratification from seeing your ideas take shape and become real-world solutions used by a large number of users.

• You are proactive, detail-oriented, and motivated by impact at scale.

• You thrive in collaborative environments and enjoy bridging business and technology perspectives.

• You are an individual contributor who enjoys taking ownership and adding tangible value to the organization.

• You are a seasoned professional who can work independently with minimal guidance and assistance, while still driving outcomes effectively.

The pay range for this position is $145,600.00 to $209,300.00. The actual base pay offered may vary depending on skills, experience, job-related knowledge and work location. In addition to base pay, employees may be eligible to participate in a performance-based bonus plan and to receive restricted stock unit awards as part of total compensation. Learn more about UKG's benefits and rewards at https://www.ukg.com/about-us/careers/benefits

At UKG, the work you do matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform. Helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. That's what we do. We never stop learning. We never stop challenging the norm. We push for better, and we celebrate the wins along the way. Here, you'll get flexibility that's real, benefits you can count on, and a team that succeeds together. Because at UKG, your work matters-and so do you., UKG is the Workforce Operating Platform that puts workforce understanding to work. With the world's largest collection of workforce insights, and people-first AI, our ability to reveal unseen ways to build trust, amplify productivity, and empower talent, is unmatched. It's this expertise that equips our customers with the intelligence to solve any challenge in any industry - because great organizations know their workforce is their competitive edge. Learn more at ukg.com., UKG participates in E-Verify. View the E-Verify posters here (https://www.e-verify.gov/sites/default/files/everify/posters/EVerifyParticipationPoster.pdf) .