Data Architect

About Certis Life at Certis Duties & Responsibilities As a Data Architect , you will lead the definition, maintenance, and enforcement of Certis’ enterprise data governance framework, policies, standards, and controls. You will serve as the design authority for data changes and new implementations that support business strategy, analytics, and digital initiatives, while ensuring compliance with security and privacy policies, regulatory obligations, and enterprise data architecture standards.

The role is positioned within the EA & Data Platform team under the Group Technology Office (GTO) Operations Pillar and works closely with business stakeholders, the AI Pillar, Infrastructure, Enterprise Platforms & Solutions, Digital Governance, and the CISO team.

Responsibilities

Define and maintain the enterprise data architecture principles and governance requirements that guide conceptual, logical, and physical data models across the organisation. Review data architectures supporting operational systems, analytics, reporting, AI, and automation to ensure they are scalable, resilient, secure, and aligned with enterprise governance requirements.

Establish and maintain enterprise principles, standards, and approved patterns for data platforms, integration, management, and consumption, with clear alignment to governance, security, and regulatory requirements. Act as the design authority for data changes and new implementations, reviewing and approving solution designs for compliance with enterprise data architecture, governance policies, security requirements, and applicable regulatory obligations.

Partner with technology and engineering teams to ensure data platforms, including data warehouses, data lakes, and streaming architectures, are designed and evolved in accordance with enterprise data governance policies and standards. Define and govern data integration and interoperability principles and patterns across enterprise systems, cloud platforms, and external partners.

Provide governance and architecture assurance for technology selections and design decisions involving data storage, processing, integration, and analytics capabilities. Ensure proposed data architectures are scalable, resilient, interoperable, maintainable, performant, and cost effective, in alignment with enterprise architecture standards.

Maintain and evolve the enterprise data governance framework, policies, standards, and controls in collaboration with business and technology stakeholders. Define and enforce enterprise data governance requirements, including data ownership, stewardship, classification, quality, metadata, lineage, retention, and access standards.

Ensure data solutions comply with security and privacy policies, internal control requirements, and applicable data protection and regulatory obligations. Collaborates with security, risk, and compliance teams to ensure appropriate access controls, encryption, and data protection mechanisms are implemented. Monitor adherence to enterprise data architecture, policies, standards, and governance frameworks, and ensure material exceptions are documented and escalated through the appropriate governance forums.

Work closely with business leaders, data owners, data stewards, product owners, and technology teams to translate business and regulatory requirements into data governance policies, standards, controls, and architecture requirements. Act as a bridge between business, governance, security, risk, compliance, and technology stakeholders to ensure data changes are practical, compliant, and aligned with enterprise standards.

Provide guidance and coaching to data owners, data stewards, and delivery teams on the application of enterprise data governance policies, standards, and approved architecture patterns. Skills & Experience Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related discipline. Minimum 8 years of experience in data governance, data architecture, or enterprise architecture roles, including responsibility for architecture assurance, governance frameworks, standards, and design review.

Strong expertise in enterprise data architecture, data integration, metadata management, data quality, and the governance of data platforms and analytics architectures. Strong expertise in developing, maintaining, and operationalising enterprise data governance frameworks, policies, standards, and controls, including data ownership, stewardship, classification, metadata, lineage, data quality, retention, and access governance.

Strong knowledge of data security, privacy, and regulatory requirements (e.g. PDPA, GDPR). Proven ability to influence architectural decisions and collaborate with senior stakeholders across business and technology. Structured, analytical, and pragmatic, with strong communication and problem-solving skills. Knowledge of data governance, metadata management, data quality, and data platform technologies, including platforms such as Databricks and Snowflake, is advantageous.

Recognition & Reward