Data Architect Senior or Data Architect Lead

To be considered for this role, candidates must be a U.S. citizen.

As a Senior Data Architect or Data Architect Lead, you will lead design pattern/technology selection and architecture decisions for complex product development initiatives, which will include modernization efforts for several important data analytics assets. These modernization projects will include the transition from legacy, on-premises architectures to a more modern, cloud-native design. You will serve as the technical authority who ensures solutions meet business objectives while maintaining alignment with enterprise architecture standards, security requirements, and scalability needs. This role requires both deep technical expertise and the ability to influence stakeholders across all levels of the organization.

Essential Responsibilities

• Accountable for selecting design patterns, technologies, and solution architectures for product development projects by analyzing business, technical, and enterprise requirements to ensure alignment with organizational objectives and industry best practices.
• Engages with business areas, clients, and stakeholders as a trusted consultant to identify gaps, present solution options, and recommend optimal technologies; documents architecture decisions and technical standards to support knowledge sharing.
• Champions complex, strategic enterprise solutions by communicating architecture decisions and technical concepts effectively across all organizational levels, from technical teams to senior management.
• Refines and supports a portfolio-wide data optimization strategy to further align existing assets to the new, cloud-native architecture.
• Collaborates with cross-functional teams throughout the full development lifecycle, including ideation, development, integration, testing, and production support.
• Researches and evaluates emerging technologies and industry trends; develops strategic recommendations for architecture investments that reduce cost, increase security, eliminate redundancies, and improve system flexibility.
• Builds and maintains strategic relationships with key technology vendors and business partners to stay current on industry developments and enterprise architecture landscape shifts.
• Owns the data infrastructure strategy and roadmap; assesses current state, identifies gaps, and drives architectural initiatives and monitoring solutions from planning through implementation.
• Establishes, enforces, and evolves data governance policies, quality frameworks, and compliance practices to ensure data integrity, security, accuracy, and regulatory adherence across critical systems.
• Collaborates with data stewards, compliance teams, and technical leads to translate governance and regulatory requirements into technical controls, validation rules, access policies, and audit mechanisms.
• Assists in establishing a flexible and valuable portfolio-level data catalog that will drive transparency and promote reusability.

Technical Expertise

• Enterprise & Solutions Architecture: Deep experience designing distributed systems, microservices, API architectures, and cloud-native applications
• Financial Services Technology: Understanding of payment systems, regulatory requirements, and banking technology landscape
• Modern Application Development: Expertise in web, mobile, and backend architectures with strong grasp of scalability, security, and performance patterns
• Cloud & Infrastructure: Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS), containerization, CI/CD (e.g., GitLab), and infrastructure-as-code (e.g., CDK or Terraform)
• Data Architecture: Proficiency in data modeling, integration patterns, and database technologies (relational and NoSQL)
• Architecture Frameworks: Working knowledge of TOGAF, C4, AWS Well-Architected Framework or similar architecture analysis and documentation approaches

Education and Experience - Data Architect Senior

• Bachelor's degree and 5 years of professional work experience or
• Master's degree and 3 years of professional work experience
• Proven track record of designing and implementing complex, production-grade systems
• Experience working in collaborative, cross-functional environments

Education and Experience - Data Architect Lead

• Bachelor's degree and 7 years of related work experience OR
• Master's degree and 5 years of related work experience
• Proven track record of designing and implementing complex, production-grade systems
• Experience working in collaborative, cross-functional environments

The expected starting salary range for the Data Architect Senior is between $111,400 and $153,100 annually. Final salary and offer will be determined by the applicant's background, experience, skills, internal equity, and market data.

The Cleveland Fed offers benefits to support overall health and financial security. Learn more about our benefits here: https://www.clevelandfed.org/careers

Physical Demands and General Working Conditions

This is not necessarily an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, standards or requirements, efforts, skills or working conditions associated with the job. While this is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current job, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland reserves the right to revise this or any job description at any time.

Full Time / Part Time
Full time

Regular / Temporary
Regular

Job Exempt (Yes / No)
Yes

Job Category
Information Technology Family Group

Work Shift
First (United States of America)