Senior Director, Data Solutions Architect is a role and will lead the build out an industry-leading architecture data function and drive the adoption of next-gen, flexible architecture to enable end-to-end business solutions. This leader will work to create a culture of innovation within the technology team to add business value, reduce complexity, and drive competitive advantage. The objective is to progress leveraging of technological advancements to improve products, processes, and services to internal and external clients with data at its core. The company seeks a true change agent who can elevate the technology platform to the next level in a rapidly changing environment.

This role oversees the strategy and direction of company's design and technology architecture enabling the Data strategy. They will lead the build-out of an industry-leading data architecture function, and drive the adoption of next-gen, flexible data architecture to enable end-to-end business solutions. This leader will work to create a culture of innovation within the technology team to add business value, reduce complexity, and drive competitive advantage. The company seeks a change agent who can elevate data to enable strategic capabilities to address next level business challenges in a rapidly changing environment.

In this role, they will set the data strategy, roadmap, and vision for the company. They will set the vision and quality bar of its output and represent it in all its forms internally and externally. We seek a results-oriented leader who is passionate about applying program leadership, organizational discipline, and technology to transform the company’s data practice. The Solutions Architect-Data is a senior leader within company who will own the data portfolio, oversee data governance, envision a roadmap, and invite adoption through cross-functional teams.

The successful candidate will have proven experience in driving transformational change, global scale and positioning the enterprise to incorporate emerging technologies with optimal data architecture. The role requires a strong ability to build a network and influence senior, cross-functional leaders to resolve issues that may arise and deliver a consistently high level of service to our technology teams. S/he will also have a strong understanding of industry trends and relevant emerging technologies in the data function, as well as demonstrated experience empowering team members to make recommendations and provide inputs in a highly collaborative environment.

Primary Responsibilities/Accountabilities of the Job

• This global role is the thought leader in the Data solutions space for the enterprise.
• Must be able to understand and predict emerging technology, service and functionality trends as well as comprehend market adoption of emerging service and business models.
• Lead the development of standardized data taxonomy, definitions for data objects for company.
• Develop and drive the implementation of overall company technology architecture strategy & roadmap.
• The Solutions Data Architect is responsible for setting the strategy for the company’s data architecture and providing technical architecture direction for delivery of the target state.
• Work with Business and IT to understand target architecture delivery dependencies and align delivery timeframes.
• Build and maintain appropriate Architecture artifacts including Entity Relationship Models, Data dictionary, taxonomy to aid data lineage.
• Provide technical oversight to Solution Architects in creating business driven solutions adhering to the architecture and data governance standards.
• Be an advocate of data security principles and ensure appropriate security practices are embedded in any data strategy.
• Lead data architecture governance forums and provide subject matter expert input to architecture decisions.
• Manage holistic roadmap of architecture change and coordinating requirements across different initiatives.
• Work with business and technology teams globally and guide them on data architecture and solution implementation.
• Define and enforce architecture principles & standards, lead Data Architecture Reviews
• The Data Solutions Architect is responsible for understanding and setting the direction regarding the strategic position of their area(s), including ensuring the company has the required expertise in-house or external, to support it.
• Identify opportunities to standardize technology landscape for improved efficiency, effectiveness, & risk mgmt., while maintaining business responsiveness.
• Maintain list of approved technologies and identify relevant new technologies.
• Build and maintain relationships with business executives to develop a clear understanding of business needs and opportunities for technology solution advancements/improvements.
• Strong negotiation skills partnering with EVP, EA on global cost-effective and innovative solutions. Stay abreast of industry trends to be competitive in the market.
• Serve as a "trusted advisor" on data architecture/technology strategy questions to Technology/Business leaders.
• Drive data storage strategy& usage across the organization (e.g., data lake, data streaming etc.)
• Lead data modeling analysis, architecture, design, and development & mappings of data sources, transformations, and data movement.
• Drive consumer/transactional data solution architecture.
• Collaborate with data vendors to understand data sourcing strategy, identify, and collect required data, validate processes, etc.

Experience

• 10+ years’ experience in data architecture/engineering
• Expertise in the design and delivery of advanced analytics and business intelligence use cases and solutions
• Experience with Database technologies including RDBMS, SQL, cloud technologies (e.g., AWS/Azure), Visualization tools etc.
• Experience with NoSQL Database technologies (DocumentDB, TimeSeries DB, ColumarDB, etc.)
• Experience in the successful delivery & ongoing maintenance of complex, high volume, high performing & high-quality data software systems (including big data solutions)
• Experience with data definition/modeling exercises
• Excellent communication skills & ability to influence key technical & non-technical stakeholders; organizationally savvy

Education

• Bachelor’s degree Engineering, Computer Science, IT, or related discipline; retail/consumer experience preferred
• A graduate degree is preferred

Skills

• Demonstrated ability to identify necessary modifications as well as enable new architecture solutions
• Demonstrated business acumen & ability to stay ahead of & incorporate innovative new technologies
• Demonstrated ability to balance long-term ("big picture") and short-term implications of architecture decisions
• Excellent communication skills & ability to influence key senior partners & stakeholders; organizationally savvy
• Strong collaborative skills with Business, IT, internal and external stakeholders at all levels to ensure the enterprise data strategy and associated implementation is adding value to the business.
• Strong negotiation skills partnering with EVP, EA on global cost-effective and innovative solutions. Stay abreast of industry trends to be competitive in the market.
• Strong presentation, negotiation, and facilitation skills within all levels of the organization
• Logical and thoughtful in approach and influential in presenting solution options
• Good written and verbal/non-verbal communication skills with internal and external business partners
• Excellent problem-solving skills, particularly regarding anticipating and solving issues or concerns before they occur or become critical
• Ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines, shifting priorities and handle multiple projects simultaneously towards agreed upon goals and target dates