Data Architect

Client Our client is modernizing and scaling its data ecosystem to support intelligent, real-time, secure, and compliant fleet and vehicle-related payment solutions. The AI Focused Data Architect will define and evolve the data architecture needed to power advanced analytics, machine learning, and AI-driven features such as fraud detection, risk scoring, spend optimization, and predictive vehicle insights. Position overview This role combines deep architectural expertise with hands-on knowledge of AI/ML data pipelines. You will design robust, secure, real-time data platforms that enable our client to deliver next-generation international vehicle payment capabilities. Responsibilities • Plan end-to-end data architectures that support AI and ML workloads using structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data • Develop data models, canonical schemas, entity definitions, and integration approaches for international vehicle payment workflows • Architect scalable data pipelines that handle ingestion, transformation, feature engineering, and model deployment • Define a long-term data architecture strategy aligned with the platform roadmap • Ensure the data architecture supports explainable AI, responsible AI, and transparent model evaluation • Collaborate with data science teams to enable a unified feature store, ML registry, and model-ready datasets • Implement real-time and near-real-time data flows for fraud detection and authorization decisioning • Evaluate and recommend AI and ML technologies, vector stores, model operations platforms, and data platforms • Enable secure integration of generative AI and predictive AI into customer and operator-facing solutions • Establish data quality, lineage, metadata, and cataloguing standards • Partner with security and compliance teams to align with PCI, GDPR, and financial services data requirements • Define and support policies for data retention, PII handling, model transparency, and AI governance • Collaborate with software engineering teams to embed data-centric design principles into product architecture • Provide architectural guidance on APIs, microservices, and event-driven systems • Conduct architectural reviews, create reference architectures, and mentor engineers • Drive improvements in data reliability, platform scalability, and cost efficiency Requirements • 10+ years of experience in data architecture, solution architecture, or related roles • Experience designing cloud native data platforms in AWS • Knowledge of distributed data processing, data lake and lakehouse architectures, streaming platforms, feature stores, and model serving patterns • Understanding of ML operations practices, including CI/CD for ML, automated retraining, and model monitoring • Experience designing or supporting AI or ML-based products • Understanding of security and regulatory requirements for financial data • Ability to communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders Nice to have • Experience in payment processing, vehicle telematics, or financial services • Familiarity with vector databases and LLM-based architectures • Exposure to real-time fraud detection systems • Certifications in Azure Data or AI, Enterprise Architecture, or similar areas • Experience with enterprise-scale modernization programs