Data Architect

Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: Holborn Store Support Centre and Home, London, EC1N 2HT
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Sainsbury's Tech
Closing date: 02 January 2025
Requisition ID: 248103

We'd all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That's waiting for you at Sainsbury's. Think about the scale it takes for us to feed the nation. The level of data, transactions and variety it involves. Then you'll realise that ours is a modern software engineering environment because it has to be. We've made serious investment into a Tech Academy and into setting standards and principles. We iterate, learn, experiment and push ways of working such as Agile, Scrum and XP. So you can look forward to awesome opportunities in everything from AI to reusable tech.

Joining our team at Sainsbury's means becoming part of a multi-channel, multi-brand business that serves millions of customers daily, providing a vast and diverse dataset that is truly exciting. With over 1.2 billion transactions each year, we have the opportunity to harness this data and build scalable, high-performance products using cutting-edge technology, such as our award-winning Smartshop app, to deliver an exceptional shopping experience for our customers. As a Data Architect, you will play a crucial role in designing and building advanced data solutions and models, working closely with cross-functional teams to shape innovative products and services. In our inclusive and agile environment, you will have the freedom to explore, experiment, and tackle real-world challenges, witnessing the impact of your creations on millions of people across the UK.

What you'll do

As a Data Architect, you will play a pivotal role in designing and building leading-edge data solutions and models. Working closely with colleagues such as Product Owners and the Engineering community, you will ensure the delivery of optimal data solutions that align with business requirements. Your responsibilities will include triaging new requirements, assessing their impact, and providing estimates for modifying data models accordingly. You will also be responsible for developing and enhancing business physical data models to meet evolving needs while driving alignment as necessary. Acting as the custodian of data models, you will define and own modelling within delivery teams, ensuring adherence to standards and principles. Your duties will include creating solutions that fulfill business needs and align with the end state architecture, while simultaneously documenting, communicating, and centrally managing data models in an appropriate manner. Collaborating with the broader architecture community, you will share your expertise to promote alignment and innovation across Sainsbury's Tech. As an experienced Data Modeller or Architect, you will bring your passion for creating order within reporting structures, along with a comprehensive understanding of Data Warehousing/Analytic end-to-end architecture. Your proficiency with various modelling methodologies, such as 3NF, Dimensional, and Data Vault, will be essential, and your expertise in staying up to date with industry advancements, including machine learning and modern algorithmic techniques at scale, will be valuable in driving data design best practices.

Who you are

As a Data Architect, you are a skilled and experienced professional who thrives in working with vast and complex data sets. With a passion for creating order within reporting structures, you possess expertise in data warehousing, analytic end-to-end architecture, and various modelling methodologies such as 3NF, Dimensional, and Data Vault. Your knowledge of the latest industry developments, including machine learning and modern algorithmic techniques at scale, enables you to design and build leading-edge data solutions that deliver valuable insights and enhance the overall customer experience. Your strong communication and influencing skills, combined with your curiosity and drive to understand business processes and leverage data for driving business value, make you a valuable asset in shaping and designing new products and services within the overall data architecture of our organisation.

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer so you'll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there's always the chance to try something new - whether that's as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we'll also offer you an amazing range of benefits, including colleague discounts, holiday allowance, bonus schemes, pension plans, and special offers on various lifestyle perks.

Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance and you can buy up to an additional week's holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, salary advance (where you can access some of your pay before payday) as well as access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an employee assistance programme.

Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks' pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks' pay for paternity leave.

Please see for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).