Job DescriptionData ArchitectLocation: 5000 Kansas Avenue Kansas City, KS 66106
Department: Information Technology
Work Model: Hybrid ( 2-3 Days in office requirement)
Overview:AWG is looking for a Data Architect in Information Technology (IT) to provide architectural and leadership oversight for strategic, business-transforming technical solutions in IT service and support.
Responsibilities:Deliver Solutions (30%)- Architect/design solutions that align with industry best practices, future business/technology strategy and AWG's approved technology stack that address the customer's needs.
- Collaborate with customers to understand their business problems or needs and desired outcomes.
- Translates business context to technology solutions that meets organization objectives.
- Identification and recommendation of appropriate architecture/solutions, estimating the work efforts, upgrades, replacements, or decommissioning options incorporating business and technology productivity, usability, and total cost of ownership.
- Develops /maintains Industry standards, guidelines and best practices for the core domain.
- Participate in Architecture Review Board, conduct architectural and code reviews.
- Drive activities that take place during solution ideation, solution design, and solution implementation.
- Champions a structured approach to business application solutions and supports the architectural aspects of all application projects in peer IT portfolios.
- Communicates the architecture to the stakeholders, collaborates and coordinates with existing domain architects in the formalization and adoption of IT standards and procedures.
Support Availability and Services (25%)- Assist core/project team in solving key/major production support issues, define/develop and execute architecture optimizations based on the unknown/unexpected support issues.
- Serve as the subject matter expert and go-to resource for the functional domain and drive major/key support challenges to successful solutions as appropriate.
- Recommends and drive implementations of system enhancements to provide operational reliability and integration ensuring the business with consistent systems availability and quality.
- Responsible for overall system-wide resiliency, scalability, stability and operational efficiency of solutions
Strategy (25%)- Participates and contributes to the development of IT Roadmap aligning with business and IT strategy
- Development of technical visioning plan in areas of expertise considering future business needs and emerging technologies
- Strategically aligns with the organization's vision and drives leadership to transformation for a better business outcome.
Learning and Continuous improvement (20%)- Responsible for the lifecycle of solutions, from selection, proof of concept including software currency, upgrades and/or technology retirement.
- Evaluate technology acquisitions designed to optimize feature/function for long term supportability, vendor viability and total cost of ownership.
- Responsible for assisting in the establishment of an IT Architecture practice, and the adoption of an architecture and standards methodology.
- Guide, Mentor and Lead Junior/emerging architects and developers.
- Drive resolution with technology vendors when support is needed.
- Influences change to standards when necessary.
Requirements:- Bachelor's degree in software engineering, computer science, computer information systems, or related degree; or commensurate professional experience
- 8-15 years of Data Architecture experience.
- Data architecture experience in complex environments
- Proven experience as a Data Architect, Data Scientist, Data Analyst or similar role
- In-depth understanding of database structure principles.
- Experience gathering and analyzing system requirements.
- Proficiency in SQL and experience with SQL and NoSQL databases.
- Strong hands-on Experience in data modeling and design & tools (e.g., ERWin, Enterprise Architect, Visio).
- Demonstrated knowledge of data warehousing, ETL/ELT techniques, Realtime /near Realtime. data ingestion/processing, and big data technologies (e.g., Hadoop, Spark).
- Good knowledge of Data Governance principles & data quality measurements.
- Familiarity with data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, PowerBI).
- Expertise in cloud services (e.g., AWS, Azure) and cloud database and ELT services, preferably. Databricks, Azure Data Lake, BLOB Storage, Synapse database or AWS RDS, Azure SQL Database).
- Knowledge of programming languages (e.g., Python, Java, Scala).
- Understanding of machine learning algorithms and analytics.
- Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
- Excellent communication and collaboration abilities.
- Familiarity with data privacy and governance policies.
- Relevant certifications (e.g., CDMP, CBIP) are a plus.
- Experience in Data and Analytics solution evaluation/selection and implementation for large scale, and complex environments.
- Experience in designing, developing, and implementing high performing, large scale, and complex Data and Analytics systems including integration with third-party applications.
- Experience serving as a technical coach, mentor, subject matter expert, and escalation point for our customers, IT teams, and colleagues.
- Experience executing on the organizational operation vision and goals, in alignment with department leadership.
Additional Preferred Skills & Experience:- Retail, wholesale, or Consumer Product Goods industry experience
- Knowledge of Azure/AWS/ cloud or managed services
- Demonstrated knowledge of latest security best practices (OWASP, CBE, NIST, etc)
- Containerization technology knowledge (Docker; orchestration tools, i.e. Kubernetes)
- Experience with common programming languages (Python, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS)
- Knowledge of event-based/message architectures
- Enterprise systems knowledge
- Knowledge of virtual networking (public, private, and hybrid networks and subnetworks), network interfaces, and identity/access management (security groups and roles, network access control lists)
- Knowledge of latest DevOps technologies (Jenkins, CI/CD pipelines, IaC frameworks such as Ansible)
- Strong analytical and critical thinking skills
- Accomplished interpersonal and communication skills, demonstrating a clear and articulate standard of written and verbal communications to various levels of audiences.
- Ability to work independently, initiative-taker, highly motivated, resourceful.
- Ability to work as a committed member of a cross-functional team, sharing ideas and inputs from different perspectives in working towards delivering an exceptional product experience.
- Strong passion to mentor and grow the skillsets of lesser-experienced architects.
Benefits:- Medical, Dental, & Vision Insurance
- Health Savings Account
- Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account
- Paid Vacation, Holiday, and Sick Time
- 401(k) with 4% match along with 3 other contributions
- Tuition Reimbursement
- Basic & Supplemental Life and AD&D
- Employee Assistance Program
- Short-Term and Long-Term Disability
- Wellness Program
- Yearly Holiday Bonus
