Lead Data Architect; Grade M1
Listed on 2026-10-26
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IT/Tech
Data Engineering
Compensation: Grade M1 £ 66,924 to £78,930 + up to £5,000 Recruitment Retention Allowance. Civil Service Pension with Employer Contribution of 28.97%. Flexible Working Hours. Hybrid Working.
Final date to receive applications: 8 November 2026
Department: Corporate Services
Location: Edinburgh - Hybrid
Compensation: Grade M1 £ 66,924 to £78,930 + up to £5,000 Recruitment Retention Allowance. Civil Service Pension with Employer Contribution of 28.97%. Flexible Working Hours. Hybrid Working.
Description Our ambition is for Scotland to be the best place in the world to learn, educate, research and innovate, so that all of our nation can flourish.
Our purpose is to create and sustain a world-leading system of tertiary education, research and innovation that changes lives for the better, enriches society and supports sustainable and inclusive economic growth.
The role is to provide leadership for SFC's data architecture, establishing data models, standards and design principles that enable trusted, connected and effective use of data to support organisational priorities and informed decision making.
Virtual interviews will be held week commencing 16 November 2026 (via Teams).
Key Responsibilities- Act as SFCs authority for Data Architecture, providing specialist expertise, thought leadership, and guidance on data design, modelling, and data architecture standards.
- Define, maintain, and evolve SFCs data architecture, ensuring alignment with organisational priorities, data strategy and future business needs.
- Lead the development and maintenance of enterprise, domain, conceptual, logical and physical data models, creating a shared understanding of data across SFC.
- Establish and maintain data architecture principles, standards, reference architectures and design patterns that support trusted, scalable, and sustainable use of data.
- Lead data architecture governance and design assurance, providing challenge, recommendations and architectural oversight for significant data initiatives and programmes.
- Provide expert advice to senior stakeholders, influencing decisions through evidence-based recommendations and helping teams understand architectural options, risks and trade-offs.
- Build consensus across teams and programmes, ensuring data architecture standards and principles are consistently applied across platforms, solutions and services.
- Define architecture approaches that improve interoperability, integration, governance, and reuse of data, supporting more efficient and joined-up services across SFC.
- Identify and manage data architecture related risks, technical debt and opportunities, ensuring emerging issues are addressed and escalated appropriately.
- Promote data architecture capability and maturity across SFC by coaching, mentoring and supporting colleagues, fostering greater understanding and adoption of good architecture practices.
It is important through your CV / Cover Letter that you give evidence of proven experience of each of the following essential criteria:
Essential:
- Significant experience defining, implementing and evolving data architectures that support organisational strategy, transformation, and business outcomes.
- Demonstrable expertise in conceptual, logical and physical data modelling, including the development of enterprise and domain level data models.
- Experience establishing architecture principles, standards, governance processes and design assurance that support consistent and effective decision making.
- Strong understanding of data management and governance practises, including metadata, lineage, reference, master data, stewardship, with the ability to embed these principals into data architecture design.
- Experience designing data architecture for modern…
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