Data architect at WPP

Why we're hiring:

We are seeking an experienced and highly skilled Senior Data Architect with 10-12 years of experience to join our Customer Success Tribe. This critical role will be at the forefront of designing, building, and optimizing our data infrastructure and analytics platforms, specifically leading and providing architectural guidance to the "SQUAD | DIGITAL PULSE”. You will be responsible for defining the future state data architecture, ensuring scalability, reliability, and efficiency, and enabling data-driven insights across the organization.

What you'll be doing:

• Strategic Data Architecture & Design:
  • Define and design the future state data architecture for WPP Open reporting, forecasting, and analysis products, ensuring alignment with overall business objectives and data strategy.
  • Lead the design and build of new data models and pipelines to efficiently deliver financial results and operational insights to senior management and business stakeholders.
  • Develop and maintain processes, standards, policies, guidelines, and governance to ensure a consistent framework and set of standards is applied across the company's data ecosystem.
  • Create and maintain conceptual, logical, and physical data models to identify key business entities and visual relationships, ensuring data integrity and usability.
  • Evaluate data-related tools and technologies, and recommend appropriate implementation patterns and standard methodologies to ensure our data ecosystem is always modern, secure, and efficient.
• Data Platform Development & Optimization:
  • Data Integration: Design and manage the process for integrating data from all relevant sources into a central data lake, ensuring data quality and accessibility.
  • ETL Pipeline Development: Build, monitor, and maintain robust ETL pipelines to process and structure data for analysis, ensuring data is transformed efficiently and accurately.
  • Data Warehousing: Manage and optimize the cloud data warehouse to ensure data is stored efficiently, securely, and can be queried effectively for various analytical needs.
  • Data Governance & Quality: Implement and manage data quality checks and governance policies to ensure data integrity and compliance across the platform.
  • Visualization Enablement: Prepare and model data for consumption in visualization platforms for self-service analytics, empowering business users with accessible insights.
  • Provide the foundational data layer for all other squads, acting as the "engine room" for data provision.
• Analytics Platform Optimization & Support (SQUAD | DIGITAL PULSE - BAU):
  • Reporting Curation: Partner with stakeholders to refine what is reported, focusing on high-impact KPIs and deprecating low-value metrics.
  • Data Identity & Enrichment: Solve the GA4 UserID masking challenge and enrich user analytics by integrating with HR data sources in BigQuery.
  • Looker Experience Enhancement: Improve the consumption of analytics by consolidating multiple dashboards into a unified, intuitive Looker experience.
  • Platform Reliability: Ensure the stability, data quality, and governance of the end-to-end GA4 -> BigQuery -> Looker pipeline.
  • Consume requirements from Value Measurement on what data is needed and from Customer Insights on what data the AI platform requires.
  • Provide feedback and prioritization for dashboard and reporting improvements to Business Stakeholders.
  • Collaborate with HR & IT Teams for access and support for data source integration.
  • Contribute to the roadmap and timeline for the eventual migration and decommissioning of the BAU platform.
• Collaboration & Leadership:
  • Partner with Technology, Data Stewards, and various Product teams in an Agile work stream while meeting program goals and deadlines.
  • Engage with line of business, operations, and project partners to gather process improvements and data requirements.
  • Collaborate with Enterprise Data Architects in establishing and adhering to enterprise standards while also performing POCs to ensure those standards are implemented.
  • Provide technical expertise and mentorship to Data Engineers and Data Analysts in the Data Architecture team.
  • Work with business and IT teams to understand data requirements and translate them into technical solutions.
  • Maintain a data dictionary consisting of table and column definitions.
  • Review data models with both technical and business audiences

What you'll need:

• Essential Education:
  • Minimum of a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a similar quantitative field.
  • Additional Certification in Data Management or cloud data platforms like Snowflake preferred.
• Essential Experience & Job Requirements:
  • 10-12+ years of IT experience with a major focus on data warehouse/database related projects.
  • Extensive experience with Cloud Big Data technologies in a multi-cloud environment (specifically Azure, AWS, GCP).
  • Expertise in modern data platforms like Databricks, and cloud databases like Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery, or similar.
  • Proven expertise in Data Warehousing Architecture, BI/Analytical systems, Data cataloguing, MDM, and data governance.
  • Proficient in Conceptual, Logical, and Physical Data Modelling.
  • Proficient in documenting all the architecture related work performed.
  • Proficient in data storage, ETL/ELT, and data analytics tools like AWS Glue, DBT/Talend, Fivetran, APIs, Tableau, Power BI, Looker, Alteryx, etc.
  • Extensive experience with Cloud Big Data technologies such as AWS, Azure, GCP, and Snowflake.
  • Experience working with agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and Meta Scrum with cross-functional teams (Product Owners, Scrum Master, Architects, and Data SMEs) is a plus.
• You're Good At:
  • Designing, documenting, and training the team on the overall processes and process flows for the Data architecture.
  • Resolving technical challenges in critical situations that require immediate resolution.
  • Developing relationships with external stakeholders to maintain awareness of data and security issues and trends.
  • Reviewing work from other tech team members and providing feedback for growth.
  • Implementing Data security policies that align with governance objectives and regulatory requirements.
  • Excellent written, oral communication and presentation skills to present architecture, features, and solution recommendations to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Who you are:

You're open: We are inclusive and collaborative; we encourage the free exchange of ideas; we respect and celebrate diverse views. We are open-minded: to new ideas, new partnerships, new ways of working.

You're optimistic: We believe in the power of creativity, technology and talent to create brighter futures or our people, our clients and our communities. We approach all that we do with conviction: to try the new and to seek the unexpected.

You're extraordinary: we are stronger together: through collaboration we achieve the amazing. We are creative leaders and pioneers of our industry; we provide extraordinary every day.

What we'll give you:

Passionate, inspired people – We aim to create a culture in which people can do extraordinary work.

Scale and opportunity – We offer the opportunity to create, influence and complete projects at a scale that is unparalleled in the industry.

Challenging and stimulating work – Unique work and the opportunity to join a group of creative problem solvers. Are you up for the challenge?

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