Principal Data Architecture Engagement Lead (NO THIRD PARTY, ONLY INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES)

esponsibilities:

• Secure read-only access to SQL Server system metadata and stand up the approved analysis workspace and repository within the first two weeks; this gate governs the whole plan.

• Agree the RACI, standards, templates and working cadence with Mizuho, and lock the fortnightly delivery-leadership review and the escalation path into the architecture board.

• Map stakeholders and secure a single named coordination point per business domain (a stated dependency of the proposal, and the primary schedule risk).

• Own the risk, issue and dependency log; escalate stakeholder-availability slippage early rather than absorbing it into float.

• Chair the DACI forum for contested and multi-domain items. Apply the stated position: exactly one accountable owner plus explicit contracted consumers, never diffuse co-ownership.

• Quality-gate every phase exit against the agreed key exits before deliverables reach Mizuho.

• Own the target-state conceptual architecture narrative jointly with the Data-Mesh / Enterprise Architect, and defend it at the Mizuho architecture board.

• Author the executive summary and recommendations (slide deck and Word), sequencing the roadmap against materiality, regulatory exposure and delivery risk.

• Frame the follow-on phase: what Mizuho should fund next, in what order, and what the cost of deferral is on the highest-materiality core tables.

Requirements:

• 10+ years in data architecture or data transformation consulting, with 3+ years as the accountable owner of engagements at director or principal level.

• Capital markets or Tier-1/Tier-2 banking domain grounding: able to hold a credible conversation about trade, position, collateral, sub-ledger and regulatory reporting data without an SME in the room.

• Demonstrated ownership of a target-state data architecture that was formally accepted by a bank architecture review board — candidates should be able to name the board, the decision and the objections they had to answer.

• Data mesh operating-model fluency: domain ownership, data as a product, self-serve platform, federated computational governance — and a considered view on where mesh fails (over-centralising versus over-fragmenting shared assets).

• Lakehouse and medallion architecture on Azure Databricks; sufficient depth to challenge a pattern, not merely approve it.

• Executive presence with bank stakeholders at head-of and MD level; comfortable running a steering committee and delivering unwelcome findings.

• TOGAF certification, or equivalent evidence of using TOGAF to govern a pattern catalogue.

Preferred, but not required:

• Experience decomposing a SQL Server or Oracle monolith where stored-procedure logic obscured ownership boundaries.

• Regulatory programme exposure: CCAR / FR Y-14, Dodd-Frank, BCBS 239 lineage and CDE evidence.

• Experience running a distributed delivery team across US, Canada and India time zones on a fixed-window engagement.