Staff Data Systems Architect

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Staff Data Systems Architect based in the United States. This staff-level role will own the end-to-end architecture of a modern product data stack supporting a large-scale digital platform. You will shape the systems architecture roadmap and establish standards that improve how data moves, is governed, accessed, and used across the organization. The position brings together data engineering, product analytics, business intelligence, backend engineering, and platform governance. You will lead decisions around technology adoption, vendor evaluation, platform consolidation, data compliance, and infrastructure investment. A major focus will be creating scalable, secure, cost-conscious systems while ensuring data remains accessible and reliable for business and product teams. You will operate in a collaborative, high-velocity engineering environment where technical leadership, documentation, and cross-functional influence are essential. The role also offers the opportunity to shape AI-ready data practices and help establish the foundations for responsible use of governed data by AI assistants and agents.

Own the end-to-end systems architecture for the product data stack and maintain a clear roadmap for its evolution. Serve as the primary point of contact for the consolidated data stack, coordinating contributions across Data Engineering, Business Intelligence, Product Analytics, backend engineering, and other technical teams. Define and enforce standards for data movement, integration, organization, and standardization across the data ecosystem. Lead architecture reviews for new technology and tooling decisions, evaluating vendors against the existing stack and identifying opportunities to reduce duplication. Collaborate with technical teams and vendors on proof-of-value evaluations, platform migrations, consolidations, and technology adoption decisions. Contribute to data compliance architecture, including personally identifiable information (PII) tagging, data governance, and deletion/data subject request (DSR) policies across systems receiving user data. Administer access and licensing across the data stack while maintaining visibility into platform usage, permissions, and vendor spend. Establish and communicate architecture decisions, technical standards, ownership models, and governance practices across the organization. Drive automation that enforces architecture and data standards, reducing reliance on manual reviews. Balance infrastructure performance, reliability, scalability, security, and cost when making architecture and platform decisions. Help establish governed approaches for making data safely available to AI assistants and agents, including AI-ready data models, context, and access guardrails. Promote strong engineering practices through documentation, knowledge sharing, and clear technical direction. Requirements: 8–12+ years of experience in systems design, architecture, or engineering, including 3–5 years designing end-to-end data platform architectures at staff or architect level. Proven experience architecting integrations across a modern customer data ecosystem, including product analytics, experimentation, attribution, and marketing activation platforms. Strong experience with Snowflake or a comparable cloud data platform, including performance tuning, cost optimization, and role-based access design. Experience leading vendor evaluations, technology consolidation initiatives, platform migrations, or similar large-scale architecture decisions. Demonstrated experience implementing data governance, security, and compliance frameworks, including PII management and deletion/DSR workflows across multiple destinations. Experience defining architecture standards adopted across teams or organizations and enforcing those standards through automation. Strong understanding of infrastructure and vendor cost management, with the ability to balance performance and reliability against financial efficiency. Proven ability to influence architecture decisions across multiple teams and organizational functions. Experience with semantic layers and metrics-layer best practices using dbt or similar technologies is preferred. Familiarity with data cataloging and governance platforms such as Secoda or Snowflake Horizon, as well as metadata stewardship programs, is preferred. Experience working in high-velocity experimentation environments, including exposure or assignment pipelines and experiment metric governance, is preferred. Advanced SQL skills and experience are preferred. Experience with consumer-facing subscription applications and familiarity with acquisition, retention, and engagement metrics is preferred. Experience designing governed data environments for AI assistants and agents, including AI-ready data models, agent context, and controlled access patterns, is preferred. Strong communication, collaboration, documentation, and technical leadership skills. Ability to work effectively in an environment that values empathy, continuous improvement, data-informed decision-making, accountability, and innovation. Benefits: Estimated base salary range of $160,000–$220,000 , plus bonus and benefits. Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage. 401(k) retirement savings plan with employer matching. Annual performance bonus opportunities. Flexible Responsible Time Off policy. Paid maternity and paternity leave. Comprehensive fertility and family-planning support. Mental health benefits and dedicated mental health days. Monthly wellness allowance and technology allowance. Two paid volunteer days per calendar year. Access to a mentorship program designed to support career development and skill growth. Virtual learning and development resources and training opportunities. Access to a premium health, fitness, and wellness platform. Employee recognition and rewards programs. Opportunities for in-person team connections and an annual company-wide gathering. Inclusive culture supported by dedicated diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Remote work environment with flexibility designed to support work-life balance.

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