Data Architect

What you'll be responsible for:

• Define and own the architectural principles, standards and policies governing SBG's data estate from the landing zone through to the Gold layer.
• Design and govern the Medallion Architecture (Bronze / Silver / Gold), ensuring every layer is built for analytics, AI/ML and self-service consumption.
• Own data modelling standards — conceptual, logical and physical — and ensure models are fit for both regulatory reporting and AI-driven insight.
• Define Unity Catalog structure, metadata standards and data lineage governance across the estate. 

• Define ingestion standards and data contracts for data arriving from the landing zone into the Bronze layer, working in partnership with the Development and Application Management team. 
• Design and optimise ETL/ELT pipeline frameworks using Databricks, Delta Lake and Azure Data Factory. •    Ensure Silver and Gold layer data products are fit for purpose for analytics, pricing, AI and ML model consumption. 
• Optimise data pipelines for efficiency, cost-effectiveness and high performance, leveraging Databricks for big data processing and machine learning. 

• Act as the architectural authority for the data estate — reviewing designs, enforcing standards and preventing platform fragmentation as SBG scales. 
• Ensure all data architecture decisions align with regulatory requirements — FCA, GDPR, Solvency II, IFRS 17 and BCBS 239. 
• Define and maintain data architecture policies and guidelines ensuring long-term scalability and sustainability. 

• Design the Gold layer to ensure data products are structured, documented and accessible for self-service analytics and AI/ML model consumption. 
• Collaborate with ML Ops and Data Science teams to define data product standards and feature engineering patterns. 
• Evaluate and lead adoption of emerging Azure and Databricks capabilities — including Microsoft Fabric, OneLake and DirectLake — where they advance the data architecture.
• Drive innovation by evaluating and implementing emerging cloud-based data technologies to enhance SBG's competitive advantage. 

• Proactively identify, manage and mitigate architectural and data risks encountered in day-to-day delivery. 
• Act with integrity, adhering to FCA regulatory frameworks and ensuring best possible outcomes for customers.

What you'll need:

•  Strong stakeholder management across business, IT and compliance teams.
•  Excellent communication, collaboration and influencing skills at all levels of an organisation.
• Experience leading data architecture and engineering teams in an enterprise environment.
• Ability to define and implement a data strategy aligned with business objectives.
• Proven track record of delivering enterprise-scale data solutions with a focus on performance, security and scalability.
• Experience in regulated financial services, ensuring compliance with industry standards.
• Deep expertise in data modelling — conceptual, logical and physical.
• Data warehousing and data lake architecture for high-performance analytics.
• ETL/ELT pipeline development and optimisation to support large-scale data processing.
• Data integration across structured and unstructured sources, ensuring high availability.
• Metadata management and governance to maintain data quality and lineage.
• Experience defining data contracts and ingestion standards between source delivery teams and the data estate.
• Deep expertise in Microsoft Azure cloud services — ADF, ADLS, Synapse, Purview.
• Databricks — Delta Lake architecture, optimisation and advanced data processing.
• Apache Spark for large-scale distributed computing and performance tuning.
• Microsoft Fabric — OneLake and DirectLake integration.
• Azure Synapse Analytics for enterprise-scale data warehousing.
• Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform or Azure Bicep) to automate cloud deployments.
•  CI/CD pipelines with Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions for automated deployment of data pipelines.
• MLOps best practices — MLflow, Databricks Model Serving, Feature Store.
• Knowledge of IFRS 17, BCBS 239, UK Data Protection Act and Solvency II compliance.
• Experience with pricing models, claims processing and fraud detection in the insurance sector.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to translate business needs into technical solutions.
• Ability to document and present complex data architectures to technical and non-technical stakeholders

Our Benefits

• Hybrid working – 2 days in the office and 3 days working from home
• 25 days annual leave, rising to 27 days over 2 years’ service and 30 days after 5 years’ service. Plus bank holidays!
• Discretionary annual bonus
• Pension scheme – 5% employee, 6% employer
• Flexible working – we will always consider applications for those who require less than the advertised hours
• Flexi-time
• Healthcare Cash Plan – claim cashback on a variety of everyday healthcare costs
• Electric vehicle – salary sacrifice scheme
• 100’s of exclusive retailer discounts
• Professional wellbeing, health & fitness app - Wrkit
• Enhanced parental leave, including time off for IVF appointments
• Religious bank holidays – if you don’t celebrate Christmas and Easter, you can use these annual leave days on other occasions throughout the year.
• Life Assurance - 4 times your salary
• 25% Car Insurance Discount
• 20% Travel Insurance Discount
• Cycle to Work Scheme   
• Employee Referral Scheme
• Community support day