Data Architect

The Department Our Technology team continues to go from strength to strength, playing a vital role in firm-wide innovation and strategy. Far from being a support function, Technology is integral to the firm's growth agenda, backed by strong leadership engagement and sustained investment. The Role As a Data Architect, you will play a critical role in designing, developing, and evolving the organisation's data landscape to enable trusted, accessible, and secure data capabilities across the business. Reporting formally to the Head of Data and functionally to the Head of Architecture, you will play a critical role in designing, developing, and evolving the organisation's data landscape to enable trusted, accessible, and secure data capabilities across the business. You will define data architecture patterns, establish standards for data modelling, integration, storage, and governance, and provide technical leadership across data platforms, pipelines, and analytics capabilities. Working closely with solution architects, engineering teams, and business stakeholders, you will ensure that data capabilities are designed for quality, consistency, and operational sustainability. You will contribute to the firm's Data mission of putting the power of data at the fingertips of our fee earners, enabling better decisions, improved client service, and operational efficiency. Responsibilities Duties and Responsibilities • Define and maintain data architecture principles, standards, and patterns aligned with enterprise architecture governance. • Ensure the Data Architecture roadmap is developed and maintained in alignment with both the Enterprise Architecture strategy and the firm's Data Strategy. • Own the enterprise data model and ensure consistency across all product and platform implementations. • Design target architecture for data platforms including Azure Data Lake, Synapse Analytics, and Power BI. • Architect data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, and real-time streaming architectures. • Define architecture patterns for Master Data Management (MDM) using Profisee, ensuring consistent client, matter, and entity data. • Design data integration patterns across Azure Service Bus, APIs, and batch processes. • Collaborate with Security Architect on data classification, protection controls, and privacy-by-design patterns. • Define data governance frameworks including ownership, stewardship, and accountability structures. • Establish data quality metrics, monitoring, and remediation processes. • Ensure GDPR, SRA, and regulatory data compliance through appropriate architecture patterns. • Architect data foundations for AI/ML initiatives including training data pipelines and feature engineering. • Present at governance forums (TAB, CAB) to provide data architecture input and review data-intensive designs. • Act as a senior escalation point for data design decisions across major programmes and initiatives. • Support adoption of federated architectural practices such as domain driven design, data contracts, and distributed data ownership. • Collaborate closely with the Data Governance function to embed stewardship, ownership models, lineage and data quality expectations across all domains. • Maintain and evolve the Data Architecture roadmap, ensuring alignment to both the Data Strategy and the wider Enterprise Architecture strategy and transformation plans. • Coach Data Governance, Platform and Product teams on data architecture best practices and data modelling standards. • Champion data architecture best practice across the Data Platform, Product, and Governance teams, supporting capability uplift and knowledge sharing. Skills And Experience • Proven in-depth experience in data architecture, data engineering, or data platform roles. • Exceptional knowledge of Azure data services (Data Lake, Synapse, Data Factory, Databricks). • Strong experience with data modelling, dimensional modelling, and enterprise data models. • Experience with Master Data Management platforms (Profisee, Informatica MDM, or similar). • Experience working within federated or domain-oriented architecture models. • Understanding of data contracts and modern data product centric design approaches. • Excellent knowledge of SQL Server, Azure SQL, and data warehouse architectures. • Experience with BI and analytics platforms (Power BI, Tableau, or similar). • Understanding data governance frameworks and data quality management. • Knowledge of data integration patterns including APIs, messaging (Service Bus), and ETL/ELT. • Experience streaming/real-time data architectures (Event Hubs, Kafka). • Understanding GDPR, data privacy regulations, and data protection requirements. • Experience working in TOGAF or similar enterprise architecture frameworks. • Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage technical and business stakeholders. • Experience in regulated, professional, or complex multidomain environments desirable. Qualifications • Azure Data Engineer Associate or Azure Solutions Architect certification • TOGAF 9 Certified or similar EA qualification • DAMA CDMP (Certified Data Management Professional) • Experience with Ardoq, LeanIX, or similar EA tools • Knowledge of AI/ML data requirements and MLOps practices • ITIL Certification Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested. About About Mishcon de Reya LLP Mishcon de Reya is an independent law firm, which now employs over 1400 people with more than 650 lawyers offering a wide range of legal services to companies and individuals. The firm has grown rapidly in recent years, showing more than 40% revenue growth in the past five years alone. With presence in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Singapore, Hong Kong and UAE, the firm services an international community of clients and provides advice in situations where the constraints of geography often do not apply. The work the firm undertakes is cross-border, multi-jurisdictional and complex, centered around three increasingly entwined and connected sectors: the Innovation Economy, Private Wealth and Capital, and Real Estate. The firm is known as a disputes powerhouse with a formidable capacity firmwide for dispute resolution. We strive to create a fully diverse and inclusive workplace where all our people are empowered to fulfil their potential. We are proud of our agile working culture and are always happy to talk flexible working.