Job Description

Salary

Senior Manager

Contractual hours

37.5

Basis

Full time

Package

o A rewarding career
o A competitive salary
o Agile Working
o Excellent training, development, and career progression
o 37 days annual leave (pro-rata)
o Staff travel pass for yourself, spouse/partner, and dependents
o An industry leading pension

Date posted

23/06/2025

Job reference

REC000100780

Role Overview

CalMac Ferries Limited (CFL) is a ferries and port operations business with 1,800 staff and turnover of more than 350m. We operate 33 ferries across 31 routes and 50 ports, carrying 5 million passengers and 1 million vehicles each year.



CFL are seeking an experienced Data Architect to shape and deliver data architecture and strategy across enterprise and line of business systems. The Data Architect will design scalable, secure, and future-proof data solutions--balancing technical leadership, architectural rigour, and stakeholder engagement. This role is responsible for defining the data architecture vision, supporting the delivery of data platforms, integration layers, and analytics capabilities, and ensuring alignment with business goals, governance frameworks, and regulatory requirements.



Success will be judged by the quality and effectiveness of the data architecture, the alignment with business needs, and the ability to support current and future data initiatives through thoughtful architectural decisions.



The Data Architect will require to have strong experience in managing delivery of technology and digital solutions in a highly available operational environment combined with a publicly visible brand.



As CalMac embarks on its journey with Microsoft Fabric, the Data Architect will play a critical role in shaping our unified data platform, leveraging Fabric's

capabilities to modernise our data estate.

Principal Accountabilities

Establish and maintain data architecture standards, patterns and best practices



Define and maintain the enterprise data architecture, including reference models, integration patterns, and data flows.



Drive the adoption and architectural design of Microsoft Fabric, aligning its components with business requirements and use cases.



Produce high-level designs (HLDs) and solution architecture for data platforms, analytics systems, and data services.



Creating architectural blueprints for new data initiatives and projects



Design and assure data pipelines, including ingestion, transformation, storage, and distribution across structured and unstructured data sources.



Develop and enforce data governance principles including data quality, metadata, lineage, and master data management (MDM).



Collaborate with colleagues in CalMac architecture, IT Product owners, and platform teams to ensure data strategies align with broader IT and business objectives.



Lead the definition and implementation of data models, data lake/warehouse architectures, and semantic layers to support BI and AI use cases.



Support the evaluation and selection of data platforms and tools, including cloud-native services



Supporting the evolution of the data architecture as business needs and technologies change



Define data security architectures, including access control, data masking, encryption, and compliance with GDPR and other data regulations



Work with data analysts, scientists, and engineers to align solution design with data architecture standards.



Contribute to the development of data architecture frameworks, principles, and reusable patterns.



Providing technical guidance and mentorship to data engineers on architecture implementation

Qualifications, skills and experience

Bachelor's degree in Business, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent experience)



Proven experience in a Data Architect or Enterprise Data Solution Architect role, ideally in client-facing, consultancy or Technology provider environment



Experience translating business requirements into data architectural designs



Familiarity with cloud-based data architecture principles



Deep knowledge of modern data platforms, including cloud-native services (Azure, AWS, or GCP).

Experience in designing and governing enterprise data warehouses, data lakes, and real-time data platforms.

Proficiency in data modelling (conceptual, logical, and physical), including tools such as dbt,

Strong understanding of data integration patterns, including ETL/ELT, streaming, and API-based architectures.

Proven ability to define and implement data governance frameworks, metadata management, and data stewardship models.

Experience with BI and analytics platforms (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, Looker) and data delivery strategies.

Solid grasp of data security, privacy, and regulatory compliance, including GDPR, DPA, or industry-specific standards.

Ability to communicate and present architectural designs to technical and non-technical stakeholders.



Technical expertise in architecting end-to-end solutions using Microsoft Azure and Fabric, including experience with OneLake, DirectLake, Lakehouse architecture, Data Factory Pipelines in Fabric, Real-Time Analytics, and integration with Power BI.



Experience designing semantic models and DirectLake datasets for enterprise reporting in Power BI.

Familiarity with best practice approaches to data engineering lifecycle



Understanding of data governance frameworks and their architectural implications



Experience in data architecture for regulated sectors (transport, government, finance, healthcare).



Ideally knowledge of machine learning pipelines, MLOps, and AI architecture integration.

Familiarity with event-driven architectures and streaming technologies (e.g., Kafka, Kinesis).

Ideally knowledge of metadata management platforms (e.g., Collibra, Alation, Informatica)

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills



* Excellent communication and documentation skills