Lead Data Architect with Knowledge Graphs _ Exp: 14+ Years

Responsibilities:

• Design and implement scalable, end-to-end data architectures encompassing source system ingestion, integration pipelines, cloud-native data platforms, data mesh and downstream analytical and operational consumption layers, ensuring robustness, scalability, and security.
• Lead comprehensive data modeling efforts across conceptual, logical, and physical layers, applying best practices in normalized (3NF) and dimensional modeling to support complex, high-volume financial datasets and enable effective reporting and analytics.
• Create and maintain semantic data models using ontologies and validate data integrity via SHACL shapes to build enterprise knowledge graphs, establishing consistent terminology, enforcing data quality constraints, enhancing data interoperability.
• Possess strong knowledge of end-to-end workflows relevant to financial domains (e.g., trade lifecycle, processing, reporting, reconciliation), and design data architectures that optimize data movement, quality, and lineage throughout these workflows.
• Drive execution of technology strategies by translating business and technical requirements into actionable short-to-medium term technology roadmaps aligned with organizational goals.
• Integrate AI/ML or agent-enabled components into data architectures with a focus on reliability, explainability, operational controls, and graceful failure handling.
• Design and enforce data quality frameworks incorporating metadata management, lineage tracking, controls, and auditability to meet regulatory and operational compliance requirements.
• Analyze domain-specific failure modes—such as late or missing data, data mismatches, reconciliation discrepancies, and regulatory deadlines—and architect systems that proactively detect, surface, and remediate these issues.
• Serve as a trusted, domain-aware technical partner to engineering managers and delivery teams, providing guidance and hands-on support to ensure architectural integrity and delivery excellence.
• Possess strong experience designing and building distributed, data-intensive, event-driven systems within financial services or similarly regulated environments, emphasizing resilience and scalability.
• Produce detailed architectural designs and reference implementations; collaborate closely with engineering teams to translate designs into production-quality systems.
• Exercise sound judgment regarding system behaviour in production environments, including performance optimization, failure mode management, resilience, recovery strategies, and risk isolation.
• Demonstrate practical expertise with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), leveraging managed services, multi-tenant architectures, and balancing cost-performance trade-offs effectively.
• Maintain hands-on involvement in reviewing, writing, and improving production code; collaborate with senior engineers to solve complex technical challenges and ensure high-quality deliverables.