Principal Data Architect

Position: Principal Enterprise Data Architect

Reporting to: Chief Technology Officer – Group

Location: London / York / Lisbon

Type: Permanent

Enterprise Architecture at Hiscox

The Enterprise Architecture (EA) team is part of Hiscox Group which is a central umbrella function responsible for supporting our federated Business Units (BUs). The aim of the EA team is to minimise enterprise risk, cost and complexity through reuse, best practice and strategic planning. This is primarily achieved by defining and promoting corporate standards, providing the guidance and guardrails, supporting and advising local architecture teams. The EA team has formal representation across six architecture domains – namely business, technology, integration, security, data and applications.

The Role

We are looking for a new data domain architect to join the team.

Your core responsibility will be to:

1. Set and maintain an achievable vision for enterprise data architecture at Hiscox in partnership with the BU data / lead architects, secure buy-in from senior leadership and define a prioritised roadmap to move to the target state.
2. Define, promote and govern Hiscox specific enterprise data standards such as a data taxonomy, business information model, design principles, naming standards and a data technology reference model (evolving existing Hiscox standards where appropriate).
3. Represent the data domain on the Hiscox Architecture Review Board and capture and manage risks / opportunities as appropriate.
4. Establish processes (ideally leveraging an EA tool or equivalent) to capture and maintain a high-level view of our enterprise data landscape (e.g. showing how data entities move through and are persisted within our application estate) which can be used to highlight risks / gaps, assess the impact of change and enable regulatory compliance.
5. Support BU-aligned architects on decisions relating to data (e.g. modelling, solutions, strategy) ensuring the broader needs of the enterprise are considered in addition to local BU requirements.
6. Take ownership of and grow the existing Hiscox Data Community of Practice with an emphasis on driving reuse / standardisation improving collaboration and growing internal skills and knowledge.
7. Support senior Hiscox leadership in establishing broader data management roles (possibly leading to a CDO office in the future) and ensuring this role evolves accordingly.
8. Understand the concepts and principles of data modelling and promote the consistent use of data models across the organisation.

Our must-haves:

• Comprehensive understanding of the domain of data (including related technologies, processes, roles, capabilities etc.)
• A background in solution architecture (or equivalent) with practical experience designing and ideally implementing complex data systems such as data warehouses and reporting / analytics solutions.
• Experience of a wide range of data technologies and architectures and be able to understand the impact of emerging trends in data e.g. structured, unstructured, noSQL, data lake etc.
• Experience defining and leading architectural direction at an enterprise level.
• Multiple examples of having successfully overcome resistance to deliver positive strategic change within an organisation.
• Experience defining and governing architecture standards, guidance and guardrails.
• Solid understanding of other architecture domains in particularly security and technology.
• Excellent analytical and problem solving skills with the ability to synthesize large amounts of disparate information to make meaningful decisions.
• Outstanding interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to flex and adapt style to influence others at all levels (team members, peers and senior leadership).
• Formal certification in one or more architectural frameworks (such as TOGAF) with practical experience of tailoring the framework to meet specific organisational requirements.
• Be self-managing, proactive and highly results driven, with the energy and determination to succeed in a high-pressure environment.

Our nice to haves:

• Experience working in the insurance or financial services sector.
• Experience working within or alongside the office of a CDO.
• Good understanding of change governance and management frameworks.
• Experience leading teams and/or line managing resources.

Diversity and flexible working at Hiscox

At Hiscox we care about our people. We hire the best people for the job and we’re committed to diversity and creating a truly inclusive culture, which we believe drives success. We also understand that working life doesn’t always have to be ‘nine to five’ and we support flexible working wherever we can. No promises, but please chat to our resourcing team about the flexibility we could offer for this role.

About Hiscox

We insure the unique and the interesting. And we search for the same when it comes to talented people. Hiscox is full of smart, reliable human beings that look out for customers and each other. We believe in doing the right thing, making good and rebuilding when things go wrong. Everyone is encouraged to think creatively, challenge the status quo and look for solutions.

Life at Hiscox is exceptional. If that sounds good to you, get in touch.

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