Senior Data Architect

Position Title – GOAPRDJP00000987 - Digital Architect
Location: Edmonton, AB (Remote)
Mode: Contract
1. Position Overview
The Digital Architect – Data will serve as a senior technical resource within cross-functional product and program teams. The role will provide architectural leadership, establish technical direction, guide solution design and implementation, and ensure digital services align with enterprise architecture, technical standards, security requirements, and the overall architectural vision.
The successful candidate will combine strong expertise in data architecture, software architecture, enterprise integration, modern data platforms, cloud technologies, agile delivery, and digital transformation with strong communication, leadership, and mentoring capabilities.
2. Key Responsibilities
Solution Architecture & Technical Leadership
Lead the solution architecture and technical design of digital services and data-driven solutions.
Develop comprehensive architectural plans that support citizen-centered design and agile software delivery.
Analyze existing application, data, and technology landscapes to establish current-state system context.
Define target-state architectures, system boundaries, integration patterns, and technology strategies.
Conduct technical discovery, feasibility assessments, prototypes, and proof-of-concept activities.
Develop and maintain solution architecture documentation, diagrams, models, and technical specifications.
Analyze architectural impacts, dependencies, risks, exposures, and technical constraints.
Ensure proposed solutions align with enterprise architecture principles, technical standards, coding standards, and approved platforms.
Data Architecture & Engineering
Lead data architecture activities including conceptual, logical, and physical data modelling.
Design and oversee database schemas for transactional, operational, analytical, and reporting systems.
Architect solutions using both relational and non-relational database technologies.
Define data integration, interoperability, exchange, and standardization approaches.
Support data quality, consistency, metadata management, governance, and responsible use of enterprise data.
Design scalable and high-performing data solutions that support analytics, reporting, and emerging AI-enabled capabilities.
Evaluate data platforms and technologies based on business requirements, scalability, security, performance, and maintainability.
Enterprise Integration
Define tactical and strategic approaches for system-to-system integrations.
Establish appropriate integration patterns, APIs, interfaces, data flows, and system interactions.
Identify opportunities to reuse common components, shared capabilities, platforms, and digital services.
Guide teams in integrating new digital services with existing enterprise applications and legacy systems.
Support incremental modernization of legacy applications and data environments.
Agile Product Delivery
Work closely with Product Owners, developers, technical leads, business stakeholders, designers, data professionals, and other specialists.
Participate in field research, backlog definition, backlog refinement, sprint planning, sprint execution, and iterative product delivery.
Balance technical tasks, architectural work, technical debt, and user stories within product-team capacity.
Provide architectural guidance throughout iterative delivery to ensure the target architecture is progressively achieved.
Review technical implementations and code changes for alignment with architectural direction and standards.
Contribute directly to development activities, user stories, prototypes, and technical tasks when required.
Leadership, Coaching & Mentoring
Act as the senior technical resource and architectural authority within assigned delivery teams.
Coach and mentor developers, technical leads, data professionals, and other members of the product team.
Facilitate technical discussions and support collaborative decision-making.
Communicate complex technical and architectural concepts effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Influence technical decisions through clear analysis, recommendations, architectural documentation, and presentations.
Architecture Practice & Standards
Contribute to the development and continuous improvement of architecture practices across the organization.
Help establish architectural principles, standards, metrics, patterns, and guidelines for digital service delivery.
Promote reuse of common platforms, components, services, and capabilities.
Ensure solutions support service quality, scalability, security, maintainability, and long-term sustainability.
Prepare architecture materials including technical documents, diagrams, presentations, decision records, and other artifacts appropriate for various stakeholders.
3. Mandatory Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field; equivalent education may be considered
Experience leading cross-functional Agile product teams, providing architectural direction, and mentoring developers and technical leads
Experience as a Data Architect, Software Architect, or Senior Data Engineer, with a focus on collaborative delivery of new software applications with cross-functional teams
Experience leading solution architecture and establishing the overall technical vision for large-scale enterprise projects involving integrations between systems
Experience leading domain modelling and database schema design for transactional and reporting systems
Strong communication skills, including the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and influence decision-making
4. Nice-to-Have Qualifications
Experience aligning data architecture with organizational data strategies, digital service delivery objectives, and emerging AI-enabled business capabilities
Experience applying data governance principles covering data consistency, quality, compliance, metadata management, and responsible use of data for analytics and AI solutions
Experience applying secure development practices and managing identity and access using RBAC/ABAC and Zero Trust Architecture principles
Experience architecting solutions using relational and non-relational databases, analytics platforms, and AI technologies, including data modelling, performance optimization, and actionable insights
Experience embedding data interoperability and standardization practices into product development workflows
Experience incrementally transforming legacy systems into modern digital and data-driven services across multiple releases using cloud-native and AI-enabled technologies where appropriate
Experience with Government of Alberta Information Technology/Information Management policies, standards, and guidelines
Experience working in an organization comparable in size and complexity to the Government of Alberta, supporting enterprise-scale data, analytics, and digital transformation initiatives

Work arrangement
Yes