Enterprise Data Architect (2-year FTC)

We’re looking for an Enterprise Data Architect to lead the design and evolution of our enterprise data ecosystem. This is a fixed-term opportunity for 2 years. In this high-impact position, you’ll define, evolve, and communicate our enterprise-wide data architecture — ensuring it fully supports our business and technology transformation ambitions. You’ll champion a data landscape that is clearly governed, consistently classified, securely integrated, and seamlessly accessible across the enterprise, laying the groundwork for scalable integration, AI readiness, and regulatory compliance. As a key leader in how information is structured, governed, and securely exposed, you’ll collaborate closely with our Data Governance and InfoSec teams to ensure alignment with regulatory, governance, and security standards. Your expertise will help create the secure, compliant foundations of our AI and data-driven future, including establishing robust processes for the safe preparation of test data to enhance project delivery. If you’re ready to drive meaningful change and architect the data ecosystem of tomorrow, we’d love to hear from you. Key responsibilities: Define and maintain the enterprise data architecture strategy to support API-first, event-driven, and scalable integration models. Collaborate with multiple stakeholders to define and document the corporate Information Reference model. Establish clear ownership models for enterprise data domains and articulate the relationship between master data, systems of record, and systems of reference. Partner with the integration architecture team to ensure APIs and event services are underpinned by reusable and secure data structures. Partner with the Data Governance Team to reinforce policies and methods with architectural standards and extend across appropriate Enterprise data domains where beneficial. Enable the automation of API access controls and data security policies by integrating governance artefacts into architecture tooling. Maintain visibility of sensitive and “Crown Jewels” data assets within tooling such as ServiceNow and BiZZdesign to support compliance and operational awareness. Work with data engineering teams on sourcing decisions between operational systems and data warehouses to ensure consistency across analytical, operational, and compliance use cases. Define secure data provisioning strategies for development and testing environments, including methods for anonymisation, masking, and obfuscation. Work closely with enterprise AI teams to ensure foundational data models, access rules, and metadata structures are in place to support ethical, compliant, and secure AI use.Define and promote architectural guardrails that support AI data readiness, enforce provenance, and reduce risk from misused or inaccurate data inputs. What you’ll bring Essential criteria: Extensive experience of shaping and leading enterprise data architecture initiatives across large organisations. Excellent understanding of metadata management, data classification, lineage tracking, and enterprise cataloguing frameworks. Strong knowledge of integration and data architectures including API management, event-driven design, data warehousing, and MDM (Master Data Management). Relevant experience of working with data governance platforms (e.g. data.world), architecture and integration tools (e.g. BiZZdesign, Postman, ServiceNow), and major cloud data services (e.g. Azure and AWS). Ability to translate data strategy into actionable technical guidance and standards for engineers, analysts, and architects. Works collaboratively and inclusively with architecture, engineering, and business stakeholders to ensure data design meets diverse requirements. Demonstrates structured thinking, clarity of communication, and a strong ability to translate complexity into understandable standards.Takes ownership for driving outcomes that balance technical ambition, business value, and risk mitigation. Disability Confident As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we offer interviews to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for the role, and opt-in on their application form. The essential criteria for this role are listed as part of the ‘What you’ll bring’ section. There may be times when the volume of applications means we cannot take all eligible candidates to interview. We encourage you to tell us about any reasonable adjustments you may need by emailing PRHCareersUK@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk. Remember, you only need to share what you are comfortable with, for us to support your request. Application instructions Please apply with your CV and cover letter outlining why you are the right candidate for the role by 11:59pm on Wednesday 7th January 2026. Please note that due to the festive period, we’ll begin reviewing applications in January 2026. Please ensure you include a cover letter, as it is a crucial part of our assessment process. The cover letter offers an opportunity to show how your experience and interests align with the role requirements. Typically, we expect the cover letter to be no more than one or two pages in length. Here at Penguin, we believe in the power of authenticity and human creativity. When you apply for a position, we want to encourage you to showcase your unique voice. Throughout our recruitment process, please share your own thoughts, experiences, and skills. This helps us get a true sense of who you are and what you might bring to our team. We celebrate creativity and diverse perspectives, so please be yourself! While we recognise AI tools can be helpful, we recommend using them thoughtfully to ensure your responses reflect you. Salary Circa £105,000 dependent on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits. Hybrid working While our offices across the UK are places to connect, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues, we recognise that flexibility around where you work is just as important. For this role we expect that you will work from our office in London 2 days per week, with occasional travel to our office in Frating, Essex.