Data Architect

The Digital Innovation Division (DID) is accountable for generating and executing integrated strategies, providing governance, and managing internal investments that form the foundation of Aerospace’s digital transformation. 

The Digital Innovation Division is seeking an experienced Data Architect to design, govern, and modernize enterprise data capabilities across a complex technical environment. This role will be responsible for developing scalable data architectures, improving data interoperability, enabling trusted analytics, and supporting the organization’s broader digital transformation goals. 

You will work across mission, business, engineering, cybersecurity, and IT stakeholders to ensure that data is treated as a strategic asset. The ideal candidate will bring strong technical depth, practical implementation experience, and the ability to translate enterprise needs into durable data architecture patterns, standards, and solutions. 

Work Model: 100% onsite; Chantilly, Colorado Springs, El Segundo. 

What You’ll Be Doing 

• Develop and maintain enterprise data architecture frameworks, reference architectures, design patterns, and standards. 

• Define target-state data architectures that support analytics, AI/ML, digital engineering, mission applications, and enterprise reporting. 

• Assess current-state data environments, identify gaps, and develop practical roadmaps for modernization. 

• Design architectures for structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data across cloud, on-premises, hybrid, and classified networks 

• Design conceptual, logical, and physical data models for enterprise and mission systems. 

• Support integration across legacy systems, data platforms, software factories, analytics environments, and business applications. 

• Ensure architecture decisions align with governance, security, compliance, privacy, and mission requirements. 

• Advise on data platform capabilities, including data lakes, warehouses, lakehouses, catalogs, pipelines, streaming platforms, knowledge graphs, and API layers. 

• Architect data foundations that enable reliable AI/ML development, model training, retrieval-augmented generation, advanced analytics, and operational decision support. 

• Translate technical architecture concepts into clear guidance for executives, program leaders, engineers, analysts, and data owners. 

• Facilitate architecture reviews, working groups, and design sessions. 

• Produce clear architecture artifacts, including diagrams, roadmaps, standards, decision records, and implementation guidance. 

What You Need to be Successful  

Minimum Requirements: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Computer Engineering, SW Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent work experience). 

• 7+ years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, or data operations 

• Significant experience designing enterprise data architectures in complex organizations. 

• Strong knowledge of data modeling, data integration, metadata management, data quality, and data governance. 

• Experience with modern data platforms such as cloud data warehouses, data lakes, lakehouses, relational databases, NoSQL stores, or distributed processing platforms. 

• Experience designing APIs, data pipelines, data exchange patterns, or integration architectures. 

• Working knowledge of security, access control, compliance, and data protection principles. 

• Demonstrated ability to produce architecture artifacts, technical standards, and implementation roadmaps.  

• Strong problem-solving skills, with a strategic mindset and the ability to design and evolve enterprise-scale data ecosystems. 

• Ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders. 

• Excellent interpersonal skills, with a proven track record of fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing across diverse teams. 

• Demonstrated ability for innovation, creativeness, resourcefulness, and initiative. 

• Position requires ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance, which is issued by the U.S. government. U.S. citizenship is required to obtain a security clearance. 

How You Can Stand Out 

It would be impressive if you have one or more of these: 

• Advanced degree in STEM or other technical discipline. 

• 10+ years of increasingly responsible professional experience in data engineering, data architecture, or data operations, with at least 3 years in a leadership or management role. 

• Certifications in cloud (AWS, Azure), DevOps, or security (CISSP, CISA). 

• Direct mission experience in the national space domain, missile defense, and/or remote sensing. 

• Experience with tools such as Databricks, Snowflake, PostgreSQL, Neo4j, Kafka, Airflow, dbt, Collibra, Alation, Informatica, or similar platforms. 

• Experience with AI/ML data preparation, feature stores, vector databases, knowledge graphs, or retrieval-augmented generation architectures. 

• Experience supporting classified, cross-domain, or multi-network environments. 

• Familiarity with DevSecOps, DataOps, GitOps, CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, and automated data quality testing. 

• Experience with enterprise architecture frameworks, architecture review boards, or technical governance bodies. 

• Current DoD TS and SSBI/SCI Clearance