Principal Data Architect
Role details
Job location
Tech stack
Job description
We are seeking a Principal Data Architect to define and lead the enterprise data strategy, architecture, and operating model supporting our healthcare platform and analytics ecosystem.
This role will establish the target-state data architecture, governance frameworks, and cloud data platform strategy to enable scalable analytics, AI, and product innovation.
As a senior technical leader, this individual will drive enterprise-wide data standards, influence executive stakeholders, and guide cross-functional teams in delivering secure, compliant, and high-performing data solutions in a regulated healthcare environment.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
Data Architecture & Platform Design
· Define and own the enterprise data strategy aligned with business, product, and technology roadmaps.
· Establish the target-state architecture for data platforms, analytics, and AI enablement.
· Set architectural principles, standards, and guardrails across all data domains.
· Act as the highest-level technical authority for data architecture decisions and trade-offs.
· Drive long-term platform evolution, including cloud modernization and multi-tenant SaaS data architecture.
Data Modeling & Ecosystem Leadership
· Define the architecture for scalable, cloud-native data platforms leveraging AWS services (e.g., S3, Glue, Redshift, Athena, Kinesis, Lambda, RDS).
· Guide the design of systems supporting both operational and analytical workloads, including lakehouse and streaming architectures.
· Establish reusable patterns for ingestion, transformation, storage, and data access.
· Lead modernization of legacy data platforms to cloud-native, event-driven architectures.
Data Integration & Flow Optimization
· Define enterprise integration patterns, including API-driven, event-driven, and streaming architectures.
· Guide implementation of modern ETL/ELT and real-time data pipelines.
· Optimize data flow for scalability, performance, and cost-efficiency.
· Introduce flow-based prioritization models aligned with Agile practices such as SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) where applicable.
Data Governance & Operating Model
· Establish and institutionalize the enterprise data governance operating model.
· Define standards for metadata management, data lineage, data quality, and stewardship.
· Drive consistency in data definitions, semantic layers, and business metrics.
· Partner with business and technology leaders to enforce accountability for data ownership and quality.
Security, Privacy & Compliance
· Define architecture standards ensuring secure, compliant handling of healthcare data (HIPAA, PHI).
· Establish best practices for encryption, access control, data masking, and auditability.
· Partner with security and compliance teams to proactively mitigate risk and ensure regulatory adherence.
AI & Advanced Analytics Enablement
· Enable enterprise AI/ML capabilities through well-governed, high-quality data ecosystems.
· Define architecture for feature engineering pipelines, model-ready datasets, and experimentation platforms.
· Establish data readiness standards to accelerate adoption of advanced analytics and AI use cases.
Leadership & Influence
· Influence executive stakeholders on data strategy, investment decisions, and architectural direction.
· Partner with Data Engineering, Product, Analytics, and Platform teams to align execution with strategy.
· Mentor architects and senior engineers, elevating architectural maturity across the organization.
· Lead cross-functional initiatives and resolve complex architectural challenges spanning multiple domains.
Requirements
Do you have experience in Data model design?, Do you have a Bachelor's degree?, · Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Engineering, or related field required
· Master's degree or MBA with a technology focus preferred
Data Architecture
· 10+ years of experience in data architecture, data engineering, or analytics platform design.
· Proven experience designing modern cloud-based data architectures.
· Strong expertise in:
o Data modeling (dimensional, canonical, domain-based)
o Data lakes, warehouses, and lakehouse architectures
o ETL / ELT pipeline design
o Data integration and API-driven data ingestion.
AWS Data Platforms
Hands-on experience architecting data platforms using AWS services such as:
· Amazon S3, AWS Glue / Glue Catalog, Redshift, Athena, Kinesis, Lambda and RDS
Data Governance
· Experience implementing data governance frameworks including:
o Data quality
o Metadata management
o Data lineage
o Master Data Management (MDM).
Healthcare & Compliance (Preferred)
· Experience working with healthcare data environments.
· Familiarity with HIPAA and PHI data security requirements.
· Experience with healthcare data standards such as:
o FHIR, HL7, EDI/X12
Preferred Experience
· Background in enterprise or principal-level architecture roles
· Experience scaling multi-tenant SaaS or B2B platforms in regulated industries
· Proven success leading migrations (legacy to cloud, monolith to distributed systems, traditional BI to modern data platforms)
· Relevant certifications (e.g., TOGAF, AWS Solutions Architect) preferred
The expected base salary for this position ranges from $165,000 - $197,000 with a bonus target of up to 15% of the base salary. We do consider a wide range of factors when making offer decisions, including (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, a candidate's relevant skills, training, experience, education and where applicable, licensure and certifications obtained. We also consider organizational and market factors when making offer decisions.