Director of Data Strategy & Architecture

Role Overview

Location: London, UK (Flexible hybrid; <25% travel)
Employment Type: Permanent
BU/Segment: Data Management
Salary: £100,000 – £130,000 per annum
Additional Benefits: Performance bonus, share scheme, flexible working, and other standard employee benefits

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About the Company

Our client is a globally recognised analytics and digital consultancy, trusted by leading Banks, Insurance providers, and FTSE 100–250 companies across sectors including Media, Utilities, Pharma, and Telecoms. They are at the forefront of delivering cutting-edge data, analytics, and digital transformation solutions, helping organisations harness the power of information to drive measurable business outcomes. The team is highly experienced, collaborative, and includes colleagues who have previously worked with our consultancy, ensuring strong, trusted relationships and a high-performing culture.

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Key Responsibilities

1. Data Strategy Execution (60%)

• Lead executive workshops to assess data & architecture maturity.

• Define target-state architectures across cloud ecosystems (Azure, AWS, GCP).

• Translate strategy into actionable technical designs.

• Build business cases with ROI, TCO, and compliance metrics.

• Evangelize modern data and AI architecture trends (data mesh/fabric, composable platforms).

• Maintain strong collaboration with Architecture, Governance, Data Engineering, and AI teams.

2. Data Strategy Capability Build (15%)

• Develop and refine methodologies for data strategy, architecture alignment, and cloud modernization.

• Create reusable frameworks for AI-ready architectures, metadata, and governance.

• Mentor peers and consultants to increase architectural literacy.

3. Pre-Sales (10%)

• Collaborate with sales & delivery to qualify opportunities and define engagement scopes.

• Support proposals, SOWs, and executive presentations.

• Help shape post-engagement delivery plans.

4. Management & Leadership (10%)

• Mentor solution architects, data engineers, and governance leads.

• Communicate risks and mitigation plans.

• Support performance feedback, goal setting, and capability growth.

5. Other Duties (5%)

• Perform additional tasks as needed to support business objectives.

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Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s/Master’s degree or 12–15+ years relevant experience.

• 10+ years in data & analytics, architecture, or solution design.

• 3+ years in Banking/Financial Services (Insurance/Healthcare a plus).

• Prior consulting experience required.

• Strong cloud-based architecture knowledge (lakehouse, data mesh/fabric, MDM, integration).

• Architecture certifications (TOGAF, cloud) preferred.

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Skills & Attributes

• Deep understanding of data integration patterns, APIs, data virtualization, and cloud-native components.

• Ability to design and lead multi-cloud/hybrid data platforms.

• Familiarity with tools like Snowflake, Databricks, Synapse, Collibra, Informatica, Alation, Kafka.

• Strong facilitation, advisory, and presentation skills for executive audiences.

• Ability to synthesize strategy into actionable roadmaps and business cases.

• Excellent organizational skills to manage multiple consulting engagements.

• Creative, analytical, and adaptive mindset to evolving data/AI trends.

• Mentorship and team leadership capabilities.

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Supervisory Responsibilities

• Lead engagement teams: solution architects, data governance leads, analysts, SMEs.

• Set goals, provide feedback, and contribute to performance evaluations.

• Potentially manage direct reports over time within the Data Strategy capability.

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Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Statement

Our client is committed to building an inclusive and diverse workforce, where all individuals are respected, valued, and empowered to thrive. They actively foster a workplace that embraces different perspectives, encourages equitable opportunities, and celebrates diversity as a source of innovation and strength.