Data Architect - Central Government

Overview

In this role you will lead the design and delivery of secure, cloud-based data platforms for UK Central Government departments, shaping target architectures and ensuring pragmatic implementation within regulated environments.

You will bridge traditional enterprise data practices with modern patterns such as lakehouse, streaming, and data mesh, emphasizing governance and technical rigour. You’ll influence senior stakeholders and mentor teams while aligning with government assurance and security standards.

This is a chance to shape scalable, compliant data platforms that enable data-driven government services.

Pay / Benefits

• flexible work options
• learning and development opportunities
• inclusive work environment
• commitment to diversity and inclusion networks
• disability confident employer
• equal opportunities employer

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end data platform design and delivery for secure cloud environments
• Shape target-state architectures and oversee pragmatic implementation in regulated contexts
• Advise on the use of traditional and modern data patterns (lakehouse, streaming, data mesh) and data product thinking
• Engage with senior stakeholders to influence architectural direction and trade-offs
• Mentor architects and engineers within programme governance structures
• Ensure compliance with governance frameworks, GDPR, and UK public sector data protection requirements
• Contribute to DevOps practices and CI/CD for data platforms
• Consider ML/AI workloads integration within data architectures

Key requirements

• Recent experience as Lead Data Architect / Data Solutions Architect or equivalent senior role
• Experience in government or government-affiliated organisations (UK Central Government or ALBs strongly preferred)
• Practical architecture experience across traditional and modern data patterns
• Multi-cloud experience (AWS, Azure, GCP) and familiarity with Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric, SageMaker
• Knowledge of data lake/lakehouse, event-driven architectures, data mesh or data fabric
• Strong understanding of distributed processing (Apache Spark) and Hadoop ecosystem
• SQL and NoSQL knowledge; ETL/ELT trade-offs; awareness of DevOps/CI/CD for data platforms; ML/AI integration familiarity
• Hands-on coding ability beneficial (Python, Java, R)
• Experience with governance, data management, GDPR, and security in regulated cloud environments
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and lead architectural discussions
• SC clearance eligibility (existing clearance desirable)
• Stakeholder influencing and clear communication
• Mentorship and leadership
• Structured, risk-aware decision making
• Cloud platforms: AWS, Azure, GCP
• Snowflake
• Microsoft Fabric

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