At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the design and delivery of RS's Enterprise Data Platform using cutting-edge technologies.
- Company: Join RS Group, a diverse and inclusive employer committed to making a real impact.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive salary, health benefits, remote work, and opportunities for personal growth.
- Other info: Be part of a dynamic team that values curiosity, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Why this job: Shape the future of data architecture and drive innovation in a global company.
- Qualifications: 3+ years in data architecture with expertise in Snowflake and modern data tools.
The predicted salary is between 80000 - 90360 £ per year.
This job is with RS Group, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community.
Location: This is a remote role, offering the flexibility to work virtually from anywhere within the UK.
Contract Type: Permanent
The Opportunity
The Principal Data Architect is responsible for defining, shaping, and delivering the technical architecture and strategy for RS’s Enterprise Data Platform (EDP), built on Snowflake. This role combines hands-on technical leadership, architecture governance, and line management of Data Architects. The Principal Data Architect plays a critical role in ensuring the EDP enables scalable, high-quality, outcome-focused, and performant analytics capabilities across the RS organisation, globally.
Working within the Group Data function in IS&T, this role supports the entire business, ensuring alignment to enterprise strategy, while enabling effective delivery of value through analytics.
What You'll Be Doing
- Define and evolve the target data architecture for the Enterprise Data Platform, establishing and enforcing principles, standards, design patterns, governance and tooling strategies across the modern data stack (Snowflake, dbt, Dagster, Airbyte, etc.).
- Shape and deliver the data platform roadmap in partnership with the Director of Data Platform, ensuring alignment with wider IS&T, enterprise architecture and Data operating model strategies.
- Provide technical leadership and architectural oversight for data modelling, pipeline design, orchestration and transformation, enabling engineering teams through best practices, performance optimisation and design authority.
- Ensure the platform meets requirements for scalability, performance, cost efficiency, data quality, security, compliance and governance, while monitoring and governing platform costs.
- Lead data architecture for major platform transformations and migrations, including sequencing, cutover strategy, risk mitigation and the adoption of AI-driven efficiencies and innovations.
- Build, lead and develop a high-performing team of Data Architects, fostering a culture of engineering excellence, accountability and continuous improvement.
- Act as a trusted advisor to business and technology stakeholders, communicating complex concepts clearly and leading the design of end-to-end data solutions that balance long-term integrity with pragmatic delivery needs.
What You'll Bring
Essential
- Proven experience in a senior, lead or principal data architecture role (3+ years)
- Strong expertise in Snowflake (or similar cloud data platforms)
- Hands-on experience with modern data tooling, including dbt, Dagster (or equivalent), and Airbyte (or similar)
- Deep knowledge of data modelling approaches.
- Strong understanding of ELT/ETL patterns, pipeline design, and distributed data systems
- Experience optimising performance and cost in cloud-based data platforms
- Experience managing or mentoring technical teams or individuals
- Demonstrated ability to deliver scalable data platform solutions
- Comfortable operating in a hands-on leadership role
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
- Ability to balance strategic thinking with pragmatic decision-making
- Collaborative, delivery-focused mindset
Desirable
- Knowledge and experience of SAP S/4 HANA implementation for Data.
- Development and deployment of truly global data analytics solutions.
We Are RS
We’ve been solving industry problems for over 80 years. We turn the ‘what ifs’ into the ‘why nots’, the impossible into the possible. Our purpose? Making amazing happen for a better world. We offer service and product solutions to over 1.2 million customers globally, shipping a parcel every 2 seconds to over 130 countries. With over 800,000 stocked and 3 million unstocked products, we’re a trusted partner to the world’s leading industries. We’re looking for curious, driven, and empathetic professionals to join our journey. People who think differently, act with purpose, and want to make a real impact.
Rewards
Our Reward Strategy Philosophy is designed to offer market competitive base salaries and provide all of our people the opportunity to participate in a short-term incentive, enabling them to share in the success of the Company. Our total reward package is more than just the cash; our recognition and benefit offering provide the opportunity for us to recognise, reward and enable the wellbeing of our people at all stages of their journey with RS. Our rewards and benefits vary by country, but include:
- Financial - pension/retirement; life assurance; salary finance (payroll deduction loan scheme)
- Wellbeing - medical plans; health screening; critical illness; disability insurance; holiday / paid time off; employee assistance programme; discounted gym/health club membership
- Lifestyle - transportation assistance schemes (e.g., cycle to work, travel loans, car leasing); onsite catering/lunch vouchers; retail discounts
- Spotlight – our global recognition programme provides a platform to highlight and recognise people role modelling our values
Ready to Make Amazing Happen? Join c. 9,000 colleagues and help us shape the future of our industry. Whoever you are, wherever you are — it all starts here. Apply now and make RS a part of your journey.
Principal Data Architect employer: RS Group
RS Group is an exceptional employer that champions inclusivity and diversity, making it a great place for professionals seeking meaningful work in a supportive environment. With a hybrid working model based in Corby, employees benefit from flexible arrangements, competitive rewards, and a strong focus on personal and professional growth, all while contributing to a company that has been innovating for over 80 years. Join a team that values curiosity, empathy, and the drive to make a real impact in the world.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Principal Data Architect
✨Get Involved in Data Science Meetups
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We think you need these skills to ace Principal Data Architect
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show Off Your Projects:In the world of data science, your projects can speak volumes about your skills. Make sure to showcase a few key projects in your CV or portfolio, especially those that highlight your ability to work with data sets, build models, or use relevant tools like Python, R, or SQL. Don’t forget to include links to any GitHub repositories if applicable!
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Craft a Tailored Cover Letter:For a full-time role at RS Group, your cover letter should reflect your passion for data science and your excitement about the specific projects or values of the company. Dive into why you’re a good fit, how your skills align with their needs, and any unique perspectives you can bring to the team.
Stand Out with Relevant Courses and Certifications:Although experience talks, relevant courses or certifications can be your ticket to impressing hiring managers at RS Group. Mention any standout courses you've completed that equipped you with essential skills, such as machine learning certifications or data visualisation courses. This shows your commitment to continuously developing your skills in the field!
How to prepare for a job interview at RS Group
✨Brush Up on Your Statistics
For a data science role, we need to seriously sharpen our statistics skills. Get ready to tackle technical questions on probability distributions, hypothesis testing, and regression analysis. These are often the bread and butter of data science interviews, so don't just skim over them!
✨Showcase Your Projects
Prepare a killer portfolio showcasing your data science projects. We should include details about the datasets used, the tools and techniques applied, and the impact of your findings. If we can walk them through a particularly challenging project or a cool visualisation that had real-world implications, it’ll really make us stand out!
✨Get Comfortable with Python and R
Most data science positions require us to be proficient in programming languages like Python and R. We should practice common libraries like pandas, NumPy, and scikit-learn, and be ready for live coding exercises or algorithm questions. Showing off our coding chops can really impress the interviewers at RS Group!
✨Prepare for Case Studies
Expect to encounter real-world case studies during the interview. We might be asked how we’d approach a data problem or analyse a dataset to extract insights. It's essential to think out loud and demonstrate our problem-solving process so that the interviewer can see our logical thinking in action.
