Principal Data Architect

Salary: £51,000 - 91,000 per year

Requirements:

• Experience designing and delivering enterprise-scale data architecture, with expertise across data modelling, governance, integration and strategy
• Strong architectural judgement, with the ability to balance business value, technical complexity, risk, cost and compliance considerations
• Practical MDM and metadata management experience, specifically Databricks/Lakehouse platform
• Experience providing technical leadership and influencing decisions across large-scale programmes, transformation initiatives and diverse stakeholder groups
• A collaborative approach, with a passion for coaching, mentoring and developing others
• Excellent relationship-building and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex concepts into clear, practical guidance
• A strategic mindset and genuine enthusiasm for shaping the future of data and driving positive change across an organisation

Responsibilities:

• Shape and evolve our enterprise-wide data architecture, including conceptual, logical and physical data models
• Develop our data architecture operating model and agentic AI enablement as a strategic driver
• Provide data leadership and architectural guidance across strategic programmes, transformation initiatives and complex data projects
• Partner with engineering, platform, solution architects and business teams to deliver secure, scalable and sustainable data solutions
• Coach and mentor data architects and specialists, helping to grow capability and strengthen our data architecture community
• Influence our data platform strategy, governance and long-term investment decisions
• Support data and AI platform solution design, including hands-on logical and low-level design

Technologies:

• Agentic AI
• AI
• Architect
• Databricks
• Support

More:

At Co-op, data helps us make better decisions, create better experiences and deliver more value for our members, customers and colleagues. We are looking for a Principal Data Architect to help shape the future of how we protect, understand, manage and exploit the value of data across our organisation, combining strategic thinking with deep technical expertise to guide our data transformation. As a senior leader in our data community, you will influence decisions across the business, provide architectural direction on major initiatives and help grow our capability through coaching, collaboration and the sharing of best practice. This is a hybrid role based from our Manchester city centre office, with time split between home and the office once or twice a month. The role offers a salary of 80,000 to 90,000 plus great benefits, including an annual bonus, holiday entitlement, pension, private healthcare, subsidised onsite gym access, colleague discounts, early pay access, virtual healthcare, 24/7 support, training and support for development, and a cycle-to-work scheme. We are owned by our members and are committed to building diverse, inclusive teams where colleagues can feel they belong.

last updated 36 week of 2026