Data Architect - Customer and Channels – 12m FTC in London

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. Think about the scale it takes for us to feed the nation. The level of data, transactions and variety it involves. Then you’ll realise that ours is a modern software engineering environment because it has to be. We’ve made serious investment into a Tech Academy and into setting standards and principles. We iterate, learn, experiment and push ways of working such as Agile, Scrum and XP. So you can look forward to awesome opportunities in everything from AI to reusable tech.

Joining our team at Sainsbury's means becoming part of a multi-channel, multi-brand business that serves millions of customers daily, providing a vast and diverse dataset that is truly exciting. With over 1.2 billion transactions each year, we have the opportunity to harness this data and build scalable, high-performance products using cutting-edge technology, such as our award-winning Smartshop app, to deliver an exceptional shopping experience for our customers.

As a Data Architect, you will play a crucial role in designing and building advanced data solutions and models, working closely with cross-functional teams to shape innovative products and services. In our inclusive and agile environment, you will have the freedom to explore, experiment, and tackle real-world challenges, witnessing the impact of your creations on millions of people across the UK. Additionally, you will benefit from a supportive culture that fosters innovation, collaboration, continuous learning, and personal ownership. Together, we strive to create a work-life balance that enables you to excel in your professional and personal aspirations.

What you'll do:

• Play a pivotal role in designing and building leading-edge data solutions and models.
• Work closely with colleagues such as Product Owners and the Engineering community to ensure the delivery of optimal data solutions that align with business requirements.
• Triaging new requirements, assessing their impact, and providing estimates for modifying data models accordingly.
• Develop and enhance business physical data models to meet evolving needs while driving alignment as necessary.
• Act as the custodian of data models, defining and owning modelling within delivery teams, ensuring adherence to standards and principles.
• Create solutions that fulfil business needs and align with the end state architecture, while documenting, communicating, and centrally managing data models appropriately.
• Collaborate with the broader architecture community to share expertise and promote alignment and innovation across Sainsbury’s Tech.

As an experienced Data Modeller or Architect, you will bring your passion for creating order within reporting structures, along with a comprehensive understanding of Data Warehousing/Analytic end-to-end architecture. Your proficiency with various modelling methodologies, such as 3NF, Dimensional, and Data Vault, will be essential, and your expertise in staying up to date with industry advancements, including machine learning and modern algorithmic techniques at scale, will be valuable in driving data design best practices. Strong communication and influencing skills will enable you to advocate for and implement these best practices at the Engineering and Product Manager levels. A curious and driven mindset will empower you to comprehend business processes and the data they generate, leveraging opportunities to structure and utilise this data for driving business value.

Who you are:

You are a skilled and experienced professional who thrives in working with vast and complex data sets. With a passion for creating order within reporting structures, you possess expertise in data warehousing, analytic end-to-end architecture, and various modelling methodologies such as 3NF, Dimensional, and Data Vault. Your knowledge of the latest industry developments, including machine learning and modern algorithmic techniques at scale, enables you to design and build leading-edge data solutions that deliver valuable insights and enhance the overall customer experience. You have experience in canonical modelling, publication service/microservice based schematic design. Your strong communication and influencing skills, combined with your curiosity and drive to understand business processes and leverage data for driving business value, make you a valuable asset in shaping and designing new products and services within the overall data architecture of our organisation.

Essential Criteria:

• Experience working with semi-structured, high-volume data, ideally in Digital tagging or Analytics area.
• Strong skills in stakeholder management.
• Hands-on experience in DV 2.0 and Kimball dimensional data modelling.
• Clear understanding of the differences between Conceptual, Logical, and Physical data modelling, and able to demonstrate these distinctions.
• Experience in a Matrix reporting structure.
• Ability to serve as the Architecture custodian for the squad, ensuring standards and principles are followed.
• Knowledge of Data products.
• Technical expertise in designing ELT pipelines.

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new — whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working.

When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:

• Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to save 10% on your shopping online and instore at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat, and we regularly increase the discount to 15% at points during the year.
• Pensions scheme and life cover.
• Performance-related bonus of up to 10% of salary, depending on how we perform.
• Annual holiday allowance and the option to buy up to an additional week's holiday.
• Season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, salary advance (where you can access some of your pay before payday) and access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers.
• Employee assistance programme.
• Up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave.

Please see for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).