Senior Data Architect

Senior Data Architect - ML & Agentic AI Financial Services - London (Hybrid) - 2-Year FTC - Up to £110,000 We're recruiting for a Senior Data Architect on behalf of a major UK Financial Services group, with a long-standing presence in the savings, investments and insurance space and a workforce of thousands across the UK. This is a business with real scale and stability, but one that's also investing heavily in modernising its data architecture to support a growing portfolio of analytics, ML and AI-driven initiatives. They're known for a collaborative, no-nonsense culture where people are trusted to do good work and given the autonomy to do it properly. If you want to work somewhere with the backing, budget and ambition to do data architecture right, while still feeling close to the business and its outcomes, this is a standout opportunity. This is a hands-on architect role where you'll be shaping technical direction from day one, an opportunity to bring your regulated-industry architecture experience to a business that values doing things properly. You will work with • Defining and maintaining enterprise, domain and solution-level data architecture aligned to business and technology strategy • Designing logical and physical data models supporting operational, analytical and AI use cases • Establishing data architecture standards, principles, patterns and reference architectures • Providing architectural oversight and guidance to delivery teams • Collaborating with business, data, analytics, security and engineering stakeholders to translate requirements into robust solutions • Supporting data governance, metadata management, data quality and lineage • Contributing to architectural roadmaps and investment planning • Reviewing and assuring data designs for security, resilience, performance and regulatory compliance • Mentoring colleagues and promoting strong data architecture practices Benefits • 2-year fixed-term contract with scope to make a significant technical impact • Exposure to high-profile ML and Agentic AI initiatives within Financial Services • Flexible working arrangements and workplace accommodations available • Influence over architectural direction and standards Key experience • 3+ years' experience as a Senior Data Architect or in a comparable technical architecture role • Strong data modelling skills (conceptual, logical and physical) • Experience designing data solutions supporting analytics, reporting and ML workloads • Understanding of how trusted data underpins agentic AI solutions • Solid grounding in data governance, data quality, metadata management and lineage • Experience within Financial Services or another regulated industry (insurance, retirement savings/income experience desirable) • Excellent stakeholder engagement and technical leadership skills, with the ability to translate complex architecture into business terms • Ready to hit the ground running as an architect from day one With a 2-year FTC offering real scope to shape data strategy at a major financial services group - Apply now to be considered.