Senior Data Architect

About The Role

Hippo is recruiting for a Senior Data Architect to join our Hippo Herd. The Senior Data Architect will work in multi‑disciplinary teams that build, support and maintain user‑centred digital solutions that offer real value and work for everyone.

• Define a data architecture that satisfies the data requirements of all stakeholders in an organisation and adheres to the enterprise wide data and technical strategy.
• Build and maintain appropriate Enterprise Architecture artefacts including Entity Relationship Models, Data Dictionary, ETL/ELT definitions and Data Pipeline/Lineage Models.
• Be accountable to the client for the rationale of the architecture and detailed solution.
• Define the methods of governance to ensure ongoing integrity of the architecture design artefacts.
• Be an advocate of data security principles and ensure appropriate security practices are embedded in any data strategy.
• Define standards for data modelling to ensure consistency within the solution and across the enterprise.
• Evaluate APIs by analysing documentation and sample responses.
• Analyse candidate data sources for content, timeliness and integrity.
• Reverse‑engineer data models from a live system.
• Create Agile stories for the implementation of the solution and support the engineering team throughout development.
• Support third‑party suppliers in developing specifications that ensure compatibility between client and supplier systems.
• Support integration and reconciliation testing.
• Visualise insights using industry standard reporting tools.

• Proven experience in defining data architectures to satisfy multiple stakeholders with varying data proficiency.
• Thorough understanding of data lake and data warehousing principles and full project involvement in one or more major technology platforms, e.g. Snowflake, Databricks.
• Proven experience with one or more Cloud Services provider, e.g. AWS, Azure or Google Cloud Platform.
• Good understanding of role‑based access control, its importance in data security and methods of implementation.
• Excellent data modelling skills in designing data warehouses and datamarts.
• Experience of migrating data from legacy on‑prem systems to cloud architectures.
• Knowledge of OLTP and OLAP principles and evidence of building such solutions.
• Evidence of building and managing the evolution of entity relationship models, data dictionaries and ELT/ETL models.
• Ability to visualise outputs using leading reporting tools such as Power BI (with custom DAX) and/or Tableau.
• High proficiency in SQL. Knowledge of SQL Server, SSMS, SSIS and SSRS is a bonus.
• Ability to make test calls to API endpoints using a tool such as Postman.

• Contributory pension scheme (Hippo 6% with employee contributions of 2%).
• 25 days holiday plus UK public holidays.
• Perkbox access for a wide range of discounts.
• Critical illness cover.
• Life assurance and death in service cover.
• Volunteer days.
• Cycle‑to‑work scheme for avid cyclists.
• Salary sacrifice electric vehicles scheme.
• Season ticket loans.
• Financial and general wellbeing sessions.
• Flexible benefits scheme with options of: private health cover, private dental cover, additional company pension contributions, additional holidays (up to an extra 2 days), wellbeing contribution, charity contributions, tree planting.

At Hippo, we’re dedicated to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that works for everyone. We actively encourage applications from under‑represented groups including women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent and people with disabilities. We provide an inclusive and accessible recruitment process, are a registered Disability Confident Employer, Mindful Employer, Endometriosis Friendly Employer and a member of the Armed Forces Covenant. Hippo continually strives to remove barriers, provide accommodations and offer reasonable adjustments to ensure equity throughout our practices.

At Hippo, we design with empathy and build for impact. We combine data‑informed evidence, human‑centred design and software engineering. We are a digital services partner invested in helping our…