Job Description

Who we\'re looking for

We\'re after an experienced data architect to guide and shape our business in the effective production and consumption of our data. You have been a Data Architect in previous roles and are able to apply an enterprise lens to our data challenges.

You will understand enterprise architecture and data management principles and practices in equal measure and should be able to demonstrate a track record of delivering significant data programmes in other organisations.

You can design data architecture by dealing with specific business problems and aligning it to enterprise-wide standards and principles. You can work within the context of well understood architecture, and identify appropriate patterns

You\'ll be an effective leader, capable of creating clear actionable strategies to improve our data management efforts, great at bringing groups of people together to remove impediments, and you\'ll be an approachable and inclusive leader who thrives on seeing the people you work with achieve.

You\'ll need to be a great communicator, able to explain your thinking clearly to both technical and non-technical staff. You\'ll put collaboration at the heart of your approach, inviting input widely and making sure all voices are heard, and you\'ll need to be able to gain the respect of your colleagues quickly.

About Schroders

We\'re a global investment manager. We help institutions, intermediaries and individuals around the world invest money to meet their goals, fulfil their ambitions, and prepare for the future.

We have around 5,000 people on six continents. And we\'ve been around for over 200 years, but keep adapting as society and technology changes. What doesn\'t change is our commitment to helping our clients, and society, prosper.

Technology at Schroders

Schroders\' Global Technology (GT) function is organised into a number of teams, distributed across Schroders\' global offices, with Technology hubs in London, Luxembourg, New York, Singapore and Zurich.

The software development and technology function is split between 5 business-facing technology domains:
\xc2\xb7 Corporate Technology
\xc2\xb7 Digital, Distribution and Marketing Technology
\xc2\xb7 Investment Technology
\xc2\xb7 Operations and Private Assets Technology
\xc2\xb7 Wealth Management Technology domain

In addition there are teams which operate as shared services to Technology namely:
\xc2\xb7 Enterprise Technology (comprising our Architecture, Cloud, Data, Delivery and Engineering practices)
\xc2\xb7 Infrastructure and Production Services (including production support, release and access control)
\xc2\xb7 Information Security and Risk
\xc2\xb7 GT Management Office in which sit our Business Management teams and our Chief of Staff.

Our application estate comprises both commercially-available off-the-shelf software packages best suited to Schroders\' operational needs, and many internally-developed proprietary systems to support the specific needs of the clients and products that our colleagues support.

The Global Technology vision is to change the impact we have on the firm bringing about positive outcomes for our colleagues, clients and shareholders.

The base

We moved into our new HQ in the City of London in 2018. We\'re close to our clients, in the heart of the UK\'s financial centre. And we have everything we need to work flexibly.

The team

You will be part of the Corporate Technology function at Schroders which looks after the corporate functions such as HR, Finance, Legal, Risk, Compliance, as well as our Corporate Data Services which includes the global data warehouse, data mastering, data integrations and management analytics and reporting. We are a people-first Corporate delivery and change function, and strategic partner to the business, delivering brilliant digital employee experiences.

This function exists to drive the way Schroders sources, manages, stores and consumes high-quality data to provide business value. We apply the enterprise lens to all data initiatives, from data governance, to master data management and metadata management We are business value outcome driven focused and work closely with our business colleagues to deliver a data mesh architecture and data products

We are a friendly, supportive and collaborative team who work in partnership with all other functions across Global Technology (GT).

What you\'ll do

• You\'ll work closely with the Head of Corporate Technology Data across all our function\'s activities, and take a key role in decision making, and defining and delivering against the organisation\'s data strategy.
• Own the overall view of our Corporate Data Architecture and ensure it is designed and delivered in line with the Enterprise Data Platform and Architecture including::

o Architect data flows into and out of enterprise boundaries by designing scalable and low-maintenance integration workflows, utilising integration patterns and data sharing platforms implemented by the Enterprise Architecture function.
o Support performance and scalability needs for data storage and analysis/persistence layer optimisation for all applications.
o Create enterprise patterns that promote easy access to company data assets across a complex, multi-cloud application and system landscape, leveraging the integration patterns and data sharing platforms implemented by the Enterprise Architecture function.
o Provide assistance to the data governance function to ensure good data quality practices are considered in all new designs.
o Work with our business and technology partners in identifying and prioritising use-cases.
o Participate in the architecture governance design forums to ensure alignment to data strategy.
o Ensure that monitoring, telemety and finops requirements are included in the design process

• Own the strategic roadmap for our Corporate Data Model:

o Analysis and design on the corporate data model, including domain data models, data lakes, modelling for various operational requirements.
o Actively participate in design and data models reviews providing constructive feedback to platform owners.

• Provide strategic guidance to our team of Solution Architects with respect to master data and metadata management best practices in alignment with our data strategy.

o Contribute to data governance council groups, consisting of senior business and technology leaders, to ensure enterprise-wide thinking is applied to all master data management, metadata and lineage initiatives.
o Work in co-ordination with Business Process Owners, Data Owners and Data Stewards to help drive consistency in the management of our data.
o Work with your peers in the data governance team to ensure a constant approach to governance of master data and ensure that effective metadata management is baked into all business processes from the outset.

• Align our business and technical architects:

o Run design forums that encourage business and technical architects in how to use our logical model during physical modelling activities.
o Work with technical architects on patterns for integration of good data management practices into our solution architecture.

• Own data management roadmaps, contribute to others:

o Own the data management roadmap for metadata and lineage to cover the rollout of new business processes in metadata management.
o Review technology roadmaps for metadata and lineage tooling, product selection, rollout, ensuring adoption of capability.
o Also, contribute to the governance roadmap and be an active member of the governance community.

• Practical hands-on delivery:

o Own the data modelling for our strategic data management and reporting layers in our Corporate MDM platform, hosted on Profisee
o Populate/Maintain our metadata relating to the data glossary and data quality rules hosted on various tools (e.g. Collibra)
o Oversee the data modelling in our data delivery layer, hosted on various reporting layers such as Azure Synapse and Snowflake.

The knowledge, experience and qualifications you need

• Experience with conceptual, logical and physical data modelling
• A good understaning of the principles of Data Mesh and Data Products
• Wide, detailed, and up-to-date experience of data management methodologies, with a particular focus on master and metadata management.
• Working knowledge of AWS and\\or Azure data technologies
• Understanding of data consumer visualisation tools (Power Bi\\Tableau)
• Data integration methodologies (File, CDC, messaging, API)

The knowledge, experience and qualifications that will help

• Experience in using Erwin Data modeler beneficial
• Experience in using Collibra Data Governance platform beneficial.
• Experience in using Profisee master data management platform beneficial
• Some experience with event-driven architectures would be beneficial
• Good leadership experience, at individual team level and working across global teams and organisational boundaries
• Building and leading successful teams, recruiting the right people, and retaining them through creating a great collaborative environment and a focus on personal development
• Good experience of creating actionable strategies, with clear outcomes, and continuous measurement of progress
• Agile delivery experience, especially around discovering requirements, and breaking those down into features and stories
• Excellent written and spoken English, and good communication skills to help manage relationships with stakeholders of all levels
• Ability to produce and communicate effective and insightful thought leadership on technical and non-technical topics
• Experience in asset management and\\or Financial Services would be desirable.

What you\'ll be like

• You\'ll enjoy working across teams with many differing outlooks and opinions.
• A careful listener, you\'ll be able to remain friendly and positive when under pressure
• You\'ll be someone who shows initiative and thrives in a fast-paced and time-critical business environment
• You\'ll be self-motivated and passionate about promoting data excellence across Schroders
• An excellent communicator, both verbally and in writing, to people at all levels of technical understanding.
• A coach and sounding board who is friendly, approachable, and takes time to understand others\' views
• A collaborative and inclusive leader who seeks input widely and ensures everyone\'s views are heard
• Down-to-earth, honest, straightforward, and able to stand your ground without being confrontational
• Someone who naturally holds themselves accountable, demonstrates integrity and deals fairly with everyone
• A keen technologist who follows the latest trends, technology, and data management tools and approaches.

We recognise potential, whoever you are

Our purpose is to provide excellent investment performance to clients through active management. Diversity of thought facilitated by an inclusive culture will allow us to make better decisions and better achieve our purpose. This is why inclusion and diversity are a strategic priority for us and why we are an equal opportunities employer: you are welcome here regardless of your age, disability, gender identity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, socio-economic background or any other protected characteristics

Schroders