Data and AI - Data Architect or Engineer

Wavestone is seeking a Data Architect or Data Engineer to support the design and delivery of innovative data solutions for clients operating in complex, regulated environments, including Banking, Insurance, Wealth & Asset Management, and Life Sciences. In this client‑facing role, you will work with business and technology stakeholders to define data architectures, build scalable data platforms and pipelines, and establish strong data governance practices. You will help organisations unlock the value of their data by enabling advanced analytics, AI, and data‑driven decision‑making, while contributing to the successful delivery of large‑scale transformation programmes.

This is an ideal role for someone who combines:

• Strong data architecture and engineering expertise, with the ability to communicate complex concepts to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Experience designing and delivering modern data platforms, pipelines, and integration architectures.
• A solid understanding of data governance, operating models, metadata, lineage, and data quality frameworks.
• The ability to operate across the full data lifecycle, from strategy and architecture through to delivery, adoption, and optimisation.

As a member of the Data & AI Practice, your key responsibilities will cover client delivery, business development, thought leadership, and people development. Depending on your level of experience, you will be expected to:

• Lead & Deliver Engagements: Take a leading role in delivering complex data transformation programmes, helping clients define data strategies, design enterprise data architectures, and implement modern cloud data platforms. You will provide architectural leadership across delivery teams, translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions, and ensure successful outcomes from strategy through to implementation.
• Data Strategy, Architecture & Platform Advisory: Advise clients on enterprise data strategies, target operating models, governance frameworks, and modern architecture patterns including data lakes, data warehouses, lakehouses, and data mesh. You will conduct architecture assessments and provide vendor‑independent guidance on platform and technology choices.
• Data Engineering & AI Enablement: Support the design of scalable data pipelines, integration frameworks, and cloud‑native data solutions that enable trusted, high‑quality data across the organisation. You will help establish the data foundations required for advanced analytics, machine learning, AI, and GenAI use cases.
• Business Development: Act as a trusted advisor and subject‑matter expert during sales and pre‑sales activities, helping shape solution approaches, contribute to proposals and RFP responses, and identify opportunities to grow Wavestone's Data & AI footprint across strategic accounts.
• Thought Leadership & Proposition Development: Contribute to the evolution of Wavestone's data propositions by bringing innovative perspectives on data architecture, cloud platforms, governance, and AI‑ready data ecosystems. You will support the development of thought leadership, methodologies, accelerators, and market‑facing insights.
• People Development: Help grow Wavestone's Data & AI community through coaching, mentoring, and knowledge sharing. You will support the development of consultants and engineers, contribute to internal capability building, and promote best practices across the practice.
• Maintain Expertise: Stay at the forefront of developments in data architecture, engineering, cloud technologies, analytics, and AI enablement. You will continuously develop your expertise and bring emerging trends, technologies, and best practices into client engagements and internal initiatives.

Core Skills & Experience

• Significant experience in consulting, client‑facing roles, or equivalent industry experience delivering data engineering and architecture solutions.
• Strong understanding of data engineering principles, including pipeline design, ETL/ELT, ingestion patterns, orchestration, and integration approaches.
• Experience designing or governing modern data architectures (lakehouse, warehouse, data mesh, data fabric).
• Hands‑on experience with one or more cloud data ecosystems: Azure (Data Factory, Synapse, Fabric, ADLS, Databricks), AWS (Glue, Redshift, EMR), GCP (BigQuery, Dataflow), Databricks (Spark/PySpark), Snowflake (SQL, Snowpark, performance tuning).
• Strong SQL and/or Python capability, and familiarity with tools such as dbt, Git, CI/CD, or MLOps frameworks.
• Understanding of BI/visualisation principles (Power BI/Tableau) and downstream analytics requirements.

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive salary and bonus scheme.
• Income protection insurance, 5% company pension, private health and dental cover, life insurance, company share scheme.
• Additional flexible benefits include additional holidays, pension contributions, subsidised gym membership, subscriptions to wellbeing apps, and other perks.
• 25 days annual leave.

Travel and Location

Employees are not required to work in a Wavestone office on a full‑time basis but may need to commute to the office or client site when necessary. Wavestone UK office is located in central London. Mandatory 2–3 days per week in the Wavestone office or client site during probation.

Diversity and Inclusion

Wavestone celebrates diversity and inclusion, with active initiatives supporting gender equality, LGBTQ+, disability inclusion, social mobility, and anti‑racism. Candidates requiring flexibility or assistance due to a disability or impairment will be accommodated.