Data Architect in London

Collinson Group is a global leader in driving loyalty and engagement for many of the world's largest companies, through the provision of travel related benefits within a market leading digital travel ecosystem. The group offers a unique blend of industry and sector specialists who together provide market-leading experience in delivering products and services across four core capabilities: Loyalty, Lifestyle Benefits, and Insurance.

The group provides unrivalled insight and expertise around affluent consumers and frequent travellers, creating and delivering products and services now accessible to over 400m end consumers. We have more than 25 years' experience, with 28 global locations, servicing over 800 clients in 170 countries, employing 1,800 people. We have been bringing innovation to the market since inception – from launching the first independent global VIP lounge access Programme, Priority Pass to being the first to sell direct travel insurance in the UK through Columbus Direct and creating the first loyalty agency of its kind in the travel sector with ICLP. Today we still invest heavily in innovation to ensure that we continue to deliver superior customer experiences.

Key clients include Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, LATAM, Flying Blue, Accor, EasyJet, HSBC, Chase, HDFC. Our mission is focused on doing good beyond profit, which for us means we seek out opportunities for our people to share in our success and that we give back to the communities and people within which we work. Never short of ambition, the success of our business is delivered through the diverse and talented team of over 1,800 colleagues globally.

We are seeking an accomplished Data Architect to join our Architecture and Assurance team. In this role, you will evolve and enhance the data architecture that supports our products, platforms, and decision-making processes. You will design and update data models and architecture patterns for cloud-based platforms, ensuring that our data remains secure, reliable, and ready for large-scale analytics. You will collaborate closely with teams across data and analytics, engineering, product development, and governance to ensure our architecture aligns with business strategy and technology standards. We are looking for an analytical thinker who can connect technology solutions to business goals and drive innovation throughout the organization. Your work will directly contribute to our ability to deliver superior products and insights, supporting both operational excellence and strategic growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and maintain logical, conceptual, and physical data models to support both operational and analytical needs.
• Develop and update data standards, canonical models, naming conventions, data quality rules, and governance artifacts.
• Lead data architecture and modelling projects from initial design through to successful implementation.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Partner with business stakeholders to define data domains, ownership structures, and ensure alignment with business objectives.
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences, providing actionable, commercially viable recommendations.

Governance & Compliance

• Conduct architecture reviews to ensure compliance with internal standards and industry best practices.
• Participate in peer reviews and represent architecture designs at both Architecture Review, Data Control and Data Governance boards.
• Monitor industry trends and emerging technologies, recommending improvements to enhance data architecture and analytics capabilities.
• Drive initiatives to improve application performance, usability, and user experience.
• Advise and mentor data engineering and product teams on data architecture best practices.
• Support global technology initiatives and foster cross-divisional collaboration.

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience Required

• Demonstrated recent experience in designing and developing data architectures.
• Minimum of three years' experience in architecture and data engineering roles.
• Proficiency with modern data ecosystems (e.g., Data 360, Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift).
• Strong knowledge of relational, non-relational and streaming data technologies.
• Experience designing scalable ETL/ELT pipelines and data integration architectures.
• Experience collaborating with global teams in agile environments.
• Deep understanding of modern technology landscapes and their application to business challenges, including awareness of limitations and localisation requirements.
• Experience innovating with new technologies and adapting designs.
• Ability to visualize and present technical solutions to stakeholders.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills, with a focus on innovative solution design.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to convey complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences.

Person Specification

• Enthusiastic about the automation landscape and presenting ideas back to senior stakeholders.
• Effective communicator across different lines of business functions.
• Always challenging ambiguity with strong character and presence - capable of handling and challenging tough and demanding stakeholders in a respectful and productive manner.
• A creative, innovative person that likes getting stuck in and is keen to learn and grow.
• Able to build strong relationships across the organisational structure.
• Nimble, open-minded thinking, flexible on process but committed to impact.
• Initiative-taker, able to work with minimal supervision and oversight, able to overcome challenges independently.
• Lifelong learner – always identifying areas of improvement and staying up to date with evolving technology and business landscape.