Principal Architect of Data

Zennify

8d•$170,000 - $200,000

About The Position

We’re seeking a Principal Data Architect to lead strategic data modernization advisory and reference architecture engagements for Financial Services clients. You will serve as the principal consultant and executive-facing advisor—partnering with Chief Data & Analytics Officers, CIOs/CTOs, Line-of-Business leaders, and program sponsors to define strategy, validate target-state architecture, and de‑risk implementation. This role blends billable delivery leadership with pre‑sales solutioning. Expected mix: ~60–70% billable delivery leadership and ~30–40% pre‑sales/solutioning and thought leadership. This person drives discovery/advisory workstreams, define value‑anchored roadmaps, and guide implementation teams across modern data platforms (e.g., Databricks, Snowflake, Azure) and Salesforce (including Data Cloud).

Requirements

10+ years designing and delivering enterprise‑scale data solutions (with at least 5 years in cloud platforms such as Azure, Databricks, Snowflake, and/or AWS/GCP).
Proven experience working with Cloud Platforms and services.
Proven experience migrating workloads to Cloud environments.
Proven track record leading advisory and modernization programs end‑to-end, from discovery through roadmap and into delivery oversight.
Deep knowledge of enterprise data reference architecture, including Lakehouse/Medallion patterns, Mesh principles, CDC/streaming, and domain‑oriented data products.
Expertise in data modeling (dimensional, 3NF, Data Vault), metadata/lineage, data quality, and observability.
Hands-on governance with Unity Catalog (Databricks) and/or Microsoft Purview; pragmatic implementation of RBAC, lineage, and data masking.
Strong grasp of governance (policy‑driven access, privacy/security, and regulatory expectations in banking such as GLBA, AML/KYC, BCBS 239), FinOps/cost management, and performance/scalability.
Executive‑level communication and facilitation skills; trusted advisor to CDAO/CIO/CTO and business leaders.

Nice To Haves

Financial Services experience (banking/credit union/wealth) strongly preferred; familiarity with common cores/feeds (e.g., FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry) and regulatory context is a plus.
Certifications and/or deep hands‑on experience with Databricks, Snowflake, and/or Azure data services; Unity Catalog and Purview.
Salesforce experience (FSC, Data Cloud) including data migration/integration patterns and activation.
Background with AI/ML enablement (feature engineering, model ops) and GenAI/Agentic data readiness.
Prior leadership in consulting with measurable sales influence (pipeline creation, close rates) and CSAT results.
Self-motivated, strong desire to help customers meet their goals
Consulting experience (ideally leadership)
FINS experience
Experience integrating with Salesforce

Responsibilities

Partner with Sales/Accounts to shape opportunities, conduct discovery, craft SOWs and proposals, build estimates/approaches, and present to executives.
Lead executive advisory engagements that connect business value (growth, efficiency, risk) to a pragmatic data modernization strategy and investment plan.
Define and validate target-state enterprise data architecture. Produce a phased, value‑anchored roadmap with clear outcomes, success metrics, and FinOps/budget guardrails. Build additional architecture artifacts to describe desired-state architecture.
Design governance frameworks (policy-driven access, quality, lineage, metadata, ownership/stewardship, regulatory alignment) and connect them to measurable outcomes.
Design reference architectures based on Cloud principles, such as the Well-Architected Framework.
Own the reference architecture across Lakehouse, Warehouse, and Mesh patterns leveraging industry leading technologies.
Define design patterns for ingestion, transformation, orchestration, and observability (monitoring, logging, alerting) that scale across domains.
Mentor and coach architects, engineers, and analysts.

Benefits

Pawreavement & Pawternity Leave: Two days off of work if you bring a new furry friend home, and two days off of work if you have to say goodbye to one. We take our pets very seriously at Zennify, so it’s important to us to represent our entire family in the benefits we offer!
Unlimited PTO: Because we want you to be a human being first and an employee second!

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