Role Overview
Our cloud data platforms are mission‑critical enterprise capabilities, underpinning analytics, data products, AI solutions, and regulatory workloads across the organisation. We are seeking a Principal Architect to provide technical and architectural leadership across the full data platform estate, including Snowflake, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric.
This role is responsible for defining and evolving the enterprise data platform strategy, establishing architectural standards and patterns, and ensuring data and AI solutions are scalable, secure, cost‑effective, and fit for enterprise use. The role operates at the intersection of platform engineering, architecture, security, and business enablement, with a strong focus on governance by design rather than ad‑hoc control.
Key Responsibilities
1. Enterprise Data Platform Architecture & Strategy
Define and own the end‑to‑end enterprise data platform architecture, spanning:
Establish clear architectural positioning and decision frameworks for when and how each platform is used (e.g. analytics, data products, AI workloads).
Shape the multi‑year data platform roadmap, balancing delivery milestones, risk, cost, and long‑term architectural integrity.
Act as the final architectural authority for data‑platform‑level design decisions.
2. Data Products & Platform Enablement
Define enterprise standards for data products, including:
Ownership models
Contract‑based interfaces
Reuse, monetisation, and lifecycle management
Enable data democratisation while maintaining strong governance, security, and cost controls.
Establish golden paths, reference architectures, and platform patterns to accelerate safe adoption by application and domain teams.
3. AI & GenAI on Data Platforms
Define the reference architecture for AI / ML / GenAI solutions running on the data platform estate.
Establish AI solution patterns for:
Define and own AI SDLC and CI/CD guidance, covering:
Development
Testing
Deployment
Monitoring
Governance
Ensure AI adoption is responsible, cost‑aware, secure, and compliant by design.
4. Governance, Security & Operating Model
Define and evolve the platform operating model, including:
Clear RACI between platform, application, and security teams
Guardrails vs freedom model
Embed security, compliance, and risk controls into platform architectures and patterns (security‑first by design).
Work closely with:
Ensure platforms operate in line with enterprise standards, regulatory obligations, and audit expectations.
5. Cost, Scale & Reliability
Lead platform‑level cost optimisation strategy, including:
Design platforms for scale, reliability, and resilience, leveraging automation and SRE principles.
Reduce operational risk by replacing manual processes with repeatable, automated platform capabilities.
6. Technical Leadership & Enablement
Act as a hands‑off technical leader while remaining deeply knowledgeable of platform capabilities and limitations.
Mentor senior engineers, architects, and platform teams.
Contribute to Centers of Excellence (CoEs) by defining:
Represent the organisation externally with strategic partners and vendors where required.
Candidate Profile / Key Skills
Essential
10+ years’ experience in data engineering, data architecture, or platform engineering roles.
Proven experience designing enterprise‑scale cloud data platforms.
Strong architectural depth across:
Data warehousing
Data engineering
Analytics platforms
AI / ML workloads
Experience defining platform strategy, roadmaps, and operating models.
Strong understanding of security, governance, and compliance in large regulated environments.
Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
Technical Expertise (Breadth over Depth)
Deep expertise in at least one core data platform (Snowflake, Databricks, or Microsoft Fabric), with strong working knowledge of the others, including their architecture and operating characteristics.
Strong knowledge of:
Data product architectures
Lakehouse and warehouse patterns
Streaming and batch processing
Familiarity with AI / ML platforms and tooling (conceptual and architectural level).
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS / Azure) and shared enterprise services.
Expert knowledge of SQL and Python ( or PySpark)
Understanding of DevOps / CI‑CD / Infrastructure as Code from an architectural standpoint.
Desired / Nice to Have
Experience in financial services or other regulated industries.
Experience defining AI governance frameworks or responsible AI controls.
Relevant cloud or platform certifications.
Prior experience influencing vendor roadmaps or acting as an enterprise reference customer.
Career Stage:
Manager
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) Information:
Join us and be part of a team that values innovation, quality, and continuous improvement. If you're ready to take your career to the next level and make a significant impact, we'd love to hear from you.
LSEG is a leading global financial markets infrastructure and data provider. Our purpose is driving financial stability, empowering economies and enabling customers to create sustainable growth.
Our purpose is the foundation on which our culture is built. Our values of Integrity, Partnership, Excellence and Change underpin our purpose and set the standard for everything we do, every day. They go to the heart of who we are and guide our decision making and everyday actions.
Working with us means that you will be part of a dynamic organisation of 25,000 people across 65 countries. However, we will value your individuality and enable you to bring your true self to work so you can help enrich our diverse workforce.
We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. This means that we do not discriminate on the basis of anyone’s race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy or disability, or any other basis protected under applicable law. Conforming with applicable law, we can reasonably accommodate applicants' and employees' religious practices and beliefs, as well as mental health or physical disability needs.
You will be part of a collaborative and creative culture where we encourage new ideas. We are committed to sustainability across our global business and we are proud to partner with our customers to help them meet their sustainability objectives. Our charity, the LSEG Foundation provides charitable grants to community groups that help people access economic opportunities and build a secure future with financial independence. Colleagues can get involved through fundraising and volunteering.
LSEG offers a range of tailored benefits and support, including healthcare, retirement planning, paid volunteering days and wellbeing initiatives.
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