Senior Data Architect

Job Description

Senior Data Architect

• Lead the design of enterprise-wide data architecture across platforms, integration and master data.


• Hands-on technical leadership role shaping scalable, secure and modern data solutions.


• Hybrid working – 80% from home, 20% based in Stratford-upon-Avon.

About the role

We’re looking for a Senior Systems Architect – Data to join our Architecture team at NFU Mutual.

This is a senior, hands-on architecture role focused on designing and evolving our enterprise data landscape. You’ll take technical ownership of data architecture across operational systems, analytics platforms and integration services, ensuring data is modelled, governed, secured and structured to support business outcomes and long-term strategy.

In this role, you will define and design comprehensive enterprise data architectures spanning core systems and platforms. You will take ownership of architectural patterns and standards for data modelling, integration, master data and the management of information lifecycles. You will shape and influence the technical roadmap; you will play a pivotal role in the modernisation of data platforms and the adoption of cloud technologies. A key element of the role involves designing resilient integration strategies, including API-led and event-driven approaches, while also supporting the implementation and continuous improvement of Master Data Management (MDM) capabilities.

It is essential that all data solutions you design are fully aligned with governance, regulatory and security requirements. You will contribute actively to architecture governance forums, rigorously reviewing and challenging proposals to guarantee compliance with enterprise standards. Your responsibilities also include producing clear architectural artefacts, such as data models, data flows and reference architectures. As the senior technical authority on complex or high-risk data initiatives, you will collaborate closely with business stakeholders, IT leadership and delivery teams, ensuring that strategic objectives are translated into practical, actionable architecture. This position offers the opportunity to fundamentally influence how data is recognised and managed as a valuable organisational asset across the enterprise.

Internally, this role is called Senior Systems Architect

About you

You’re an experienced Data or Information Architect with strong enterprise exposure and a passion for hands-on technical design.

You combine strategic thinking with practical implementation experience and are comfortable influencing senior stakeholders while staying technically credible with engineers and delivery teams.

You’ll bring:

• Significant experience in senior Data or Information Architecture roles within complex enterprise environments.


• Strong hands-on experience designing enterprise data platforms and integration architectures.


• Deep expertise in data modelling (conceptual, logical and physical).


• Experience implementing or evolving Master Data Management solutions.


• A strong understanding of data governance, regulatory considerations and secure design principles.


• Experience defining architecture standards, patterns and reusable reference models.


• The ability to clearly communicate complex architectural concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Essential technical expertise

• Enterprise Data Architecture across operational and analytical ecosystems


• Data Modelling and information domain design


• Data Integration & APIs (REST, messaging, event-driven architecture, ETL/ELT)


• Cloud Data Platforms (e.g. Azure Data Factory, Synapse, Data Lake, Fabric or equivalent)


• Data Security, classification and access control design


• Data Migration and modernisation programmes


• DevOps and CI/CD practices within data environments

Experience enabling analytics, reporting or AI use cases would be advantageous.

At NFU Mutual, we support an inclusive workplace and value all the differences that make us unique. We celebrate the creativity and innovation that comes from diverse perspectives and experiences and share a common vision of doing the right thing for our customers and employees.

We recognise that some candidates may experience barriers during the recruitment process. So, we encourage candidates to discuss any adjustments or accommodations they need to be the best they can be throughout our recruitment process.

We're proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, a Race at Work and Women in Finance Charter signatory and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, regardless of age, ethnicity, disability, neurodiversity, gender, religion, marital status, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic background.

Benefits and Rewards

• Salary – Up to £105,000 depending on experience


• Annual bonus (up to 25% of salary)


• Contributory pension scheme, up to 20%, including your 8% contribution


• 28 days annual leave + bank holidays + buy/sell/save holiday trading scheme


• A Family Friendly policy that helps you balance your work and family responsibilities


• Private medical insurance + options to add family members


• Access to savings at High Street brands, travel and supermarkets


• £20 contribution to a monthly gym membership – subject to T&Cs


• Health and wellbeing plan - cashback for dentist, opticians, physio and more


• Employee Volunteering - volunteer in the community for one day each year


• Unlimited access to Refer a Friend £500 bonus scheme


• Life Assurance cover of 4 x salary


• Employee discounts of 15% on a range of NFU Mutual insurance policies.


• Salary sacrifice employee car scheme - subject to eligibility

Working at NFU Mutual

We’re one of the UK’s leading general insurance and financial services organisations, and for over 110 years we’ve put our customers at the heart of everything we do. Our people are just as important to us, so we’re proud to be recognised as “a great place to work”.

Our Gallup Exceptional Workplace 2025 award was not only awarded with Distinction, but it also marked us as the first UK based company to earn a Gallup Exceptional Workplace award for ten consecutive years. We’ve also been consistently recognised by Glassdoor. We appeared in the Glassdoor Best Places to Work UK list in 2023, 2024 and 2026 — and in 2026, we were the highest ranked insurance business in the UK, highlighting our strong employee experience and the positive feedback our people share on the platform.

Additionally, we were named in the LinkedIn Top 15 Companies 2025 list of “Best midsize employers to grow your career in the UK”, and we’ve been certified as a UK Top Employer by the Top Employers Institute in 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026.

We offer a supportive and empowering culture where people are inspired to perform, given opportunities to grow, and recognised and rewarded for their contribution. Our people are proud to work for a company that respects them and their communities, and they trust us to be financially sustainable—so we’re successful now and in the future.