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Job Description
Data Architect
Department: Tech Services
Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time
Location: Bristol, UK
Reporting To: David Rocke
Compensation: £75,000 - £85,000+ / year
Description
We’re building the UK's next generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience.
We specialise in turning advances in sensing, AI, and communications into operational capability for the edge, where connectivity may be degraded or denied. Our work focuses on accelerating the deployment of technology, improving decision-making for frontline teams, and protecting people and critical assets in demanding environments.
Headquartered in Bristol, Rowden employs around 160 people and operates over 20,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing facilities. We have a growing international footprint and are one of Europe’s fastest-growing engineering businesses.
Headquartered in Bristol, Rowden employs around 160 people and operates over 20,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing facilities. We have a growing international footprint and are one of Europe’s fastest-growing engineering businesses.
About the role
We’re looking for a Data Architect to provide enterprise-level data architecture, governance, and assurance working alongside a Solutions Architect and Delivery Manager to assure the delivery of a capability.
You will be responsible for architecting and assuring the data foundations that enable synthetic environment capabilities, supporting high-fidelity simulation and integration across customer platform layers. The role also contributes to the development of an enterprise AI platform, ensuring data coherence, quality, and long-term sustainability.
This role is based in Corsham (one day per week) and Bristol (two days per week).
Candidates must be eligible for SC clearance.
More information about security clearance is available here:
Key areas of responsibility
- Architect and assure enterprise data foundations that underpin synthetic environments, enabling high-fidelity simulation, analysis, and integration across customer platform layers.
- Define, maintain, and govern coherent enterprise data models, including documentation of both as-is and to-be states.
- Establish and enforce data standards, naming conventions, and modelling approaches to ensure consistency, interoperability, and reuse across the estate.
- Assure supplier data designs and artefacts, holding the delivery partner to account for alignment with agreed data architecture principles and standards.
- Document data requirements for new and emerging functional needs, including the onboarding of new data types and sources.
- Evaluate data architecture options to support enterprise AI platform development, ensuring data is suitable for advanced analytics and AI use cases.
- Engage with customer technical and operational stakeholders to align data architecture decisions with user needs and platform constraints.
- Provide data architecture governance and assurance across design and live service, ensuring decisions are documented, traceable, and fit for long-term operation.
Key skills, experience and behaviours
We are looking for a senior data architecture practitioner with the authority, judgement, and experience to set direction, assure delivery, and act as a trusted advisor to the customer.
Essential skills and experience
- Demonstrable experience operating as a Data Architect at enterprise or organisational scale.
- Proven ability to define, govern, and assure enterprise data models and standards.
- Strong experience documenting as-is and to-be data architectures.
- Ability to assure supplier data designs and hold delivery partners to account.
- Experience supporting data architectures for analytics, AI, or simulation-based systems.
- Strong stakeholder engagement skills, able to influence senior technical and operational audiences.
- Ability to operate with authority and autonomy in complex, ambiguous environments.
Desirable (not essential)
- Experience working in secure, regulated, or government environments.
- SFIA Level 6 capability in Data Architecture or Information Management.
- Experience supporting enterprise AI or advanced analytics platforms.
- Familiarity with data governance frameworks and reference architectures.
- Experience working alongside solution, security, or platform architects
About you
- You are comfortable setting direction and making architectural decisions that have long-term impact.
- You bring clarity and structure to complex data landscapes and evolving requirements.
- You challenge designs constructively and base decisions on strong technical reasoning.
- You value good governance, clear standards, and well-documented decisions.
- You enjoy working as part of a small, high-trust client-side team providing assurance on complex delivery.
Working at Rowden
We are committed to building a flexible, inclusive, and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills, experience, and backgrounds, so please apply and come as you are!
We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible, hybrid-working model, with an average 3 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility, part-time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants.
Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company, and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.
Finally, if you feel that you don’t meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience, we’d still love to hear from you!