Data Architect

Job Description:

Your Impact

The Data Architect is responsible for designing, creating, deploying, and managing an organization's data architecture. This role ensures that data across systems is accurate, accessible, secure, and supports business objectives.

As a Data Architect, you will have extensive experience in development of data intensive systems. This should include working with customers to derive requirements and design solutions to meet their needs. The successful applicant will be expected to have seen a project through from inception to delivery.

To succeed in this position you will need to be proactive, tirelessly collaboratively with IT teams, data engineers, system engineers, and stakeholders to define data models, data flow processes, and governance frameworks.

What you'll do

• Design and implement enterprise-level data architecture solutions, including databases, data warehouses, and data lakes.
• Develop and maintain logical, physical, and conceptual data models.
• Define data management standards, policies, and best practices.
• Work with data engineers to design and optimize ETL/ELT pipelines for structured and unstructured data.
• Ensure data quality, consistency, and security across platforms.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders to understand data requirements and translate them into technical solutions.
• Evaluate and recommend new data technologies, tools, and platforms to enhance data capabilities.
• Oversee data integration across cloud and on-premises environments.
• Support data governance initiatives, including metadata management, master data management (MDM), and compliance.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to data engineering and analytics teams.

What you'll bring

Successful Candidates will have previous experience as a data architect or data/software engineer in a similar role. Attributes required include;

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in STEM, Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science, or related field (Master's preferred).
• Strong experience in data architecture, database design, or data engineering.
• Strong proficiency in SQL and database technologies (e.g., Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL).
• Knowledge of data warehouse and lakehouse architectures
• Familiarity with ETL/ELT and orchestration tools (e.g., Informatica, Talend, Apache Airflow).
• Experience establishing and maintaining data governance frameworks
• Experience complying with data security requirements.
• Experience designing data models.
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, and documentation skills.
• Familiarity with AI/ML data pipelines and analytics platforms.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with cloud data platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud).
• Experience with big data technologies (e.g., Hadoop, Spark, Kafka).
• Experience with UML/SYSML.
• Strong understanding of API integration and microservices data flow.

This is not an exhaustive list, and we are keen to hear from you even if you might not have experience in all the above. The most important skill is a good attitude and willingness to learn.

Security Clearance

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government's Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). All successful applicants must be eligible for full security clearance and access to UK-caveated and ITAR controlled information. For more information and guidance, please visit:

Why join us

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We offer a comprehensive, company-funded benefits package that supports your wellbeing, career development, and work-life balance. Whether you're looking to grow professionally, care for your health, or plan for the future, we're here to help you thrive.

• Time to Recharge: Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year.
• Secure your Future: Benefit from our award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution.
• Your Wellbeing Matters: Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Armed Forces, Carers, Wellbeing and Ethnicity).
• Rewarding Performance: All employees at management level and below are eligible for our bonus scheme.
• Never Stop Learning: Free access to 4,000+ online courses via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.
• Refer a friend: Receive a financial reward through our referral programme.
• Tailored Perks: Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.
• Flexible working: Flexible hours with hybrid working options. For part time opportunities, please talk to us about what might be possible for this role.

For a full list of our company benefits please visit our website.

Leonardo is a global leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. Headquartered in Italy, we employ over 53,000 people worldwide including 8,500 across 9 sites in the UK. Our employees are not just part of a team-they are key contributors to shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.

At Leonardo we are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.

Be part of something bigger - apply now!

Primary Location: GB - Newcastle

Contract Type: Permanent

Hybrid Working: Hybrid