Principal Architect

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:

  • Snowflake

  • Databricks (Azure & AWS)

  • Microsoft Fabric

  • Supporting cloud and networking services

• 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:

  • GenAI applications

  • AI agents and orchestration

  • Feature engineering and model serving

• 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:

  • Security architecture

  • Risk

  • Legal and governance forums

• Ensure platforms operate in line with enterprise standards, regulatory obligations, and audit expectations.

5. Cost, Scale & Reliability

• Lead platform‑level cost optimisation strategy, including:

  • Cost attribution

  • FinOps guardrails

  • Platform efficiency metrics

• 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:

  • Integration patterns

  • Architectural standards

  • Best practices and policies

• 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:

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.

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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.

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