Principal Data Architect

Job Title: Principal Data Architect

 

Position Summary:

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.

 

Education and Experience:

· 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.

· Prove