• Job Description

  Req#: R5091

  Do you value integrity and innovation? How about passion and caring? Great! Us too, and that's why you'll fit right in. Our intentional culture promotes trust and participation, encouraging you to bring your heart and mind to work every day.

  Work hours: Full-time (Monday – Friday, 40 hours per week)

  Work Location: Remote and hybrid work options are available.

  Division: Digital and Information Services

  Out-of-Scope

  Closes: Sunday, April 14, 2024

  The Director, Data Architect will be responsible for leading the overall research, definition, design, and technology strategy for the company’s data architecture. In this role you will evaluate business needs and determine, develop, and improve data architecture solutions in support of business goals. Recommend and support the selection and implementation of design techniques and integrated data architecture solutions at an enterprise level to enable achievement of business strategies. Continually identify data technology system risks at an enterprise level and recommend solutions for mitigation. You will be responsible for the continuous improvement of the data architecture and participate in the establishment, maintenance, evolution, and compliance of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC). This position is considered an expert in its field.

  The successful candidate will provide thought leadership for the continually changing and highly complex data architecture required to support business operations. Provide vision, leadership, analysis, and design expertise for highly complex data architecture products. Lead all data architecture activities on behalf of SGI and the Data Office with a focus on developing, maintaining, and publishing data architecture strategies, standards, guidelines, and policies. As a highly experienced data practitioner, this position translates and represents business information requirements into a semantic structure that is easily comprehended by business end-users, supporting growth in our reporting and analytics. You will be accountable for comprehensive data design and mapping to realize an integrated view of our data resulting in a single version of truth representation. You will work with other members of the Data Office team, as well as IT Developers, on all aspects of data and analytics solutioning and ensure that a consistent and harmonized approach to solution development is achieved across disparate projects.

  Key Accountabilities

  Note: This section is not intended to be an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities – other duties and responsibilities may be assigned.

  Data Architecture Planning/Strategy

  • Establishes standards, strategies, guiding principles, and methodologies that formulate the data architecture.

  • Leads all data architecture activities on behalf of SGI and the Data Office with a focus on developing, maintaining, and publishing data architecture strategies, standards, guidelines, and policies.

  • Identifies gaps in data for new or existing Data and Analytics (D&A) solutions and works with team members on designing and instantiating new data structures.

  • Determines optimal data architecture and conventions and works with team members and business units on execution.

  • Oversees the proper application and selection of D&A technology platforms, systems, building blocks, and services in collaboration with members of the Data Office and Systems teams.

  • Provides specialized technical knowledge during Request for Proposal (RFP) processes:

    • Participates in the development of complex RFPs for the procurement of products and services.

    • Creates and updates the technical RFP requirements.

    • Participates as a member of the decision-making team in the evaluation of RFP responses and recommendations.

  • Understands the impact of transformation and technology decisions on roles and supports management in planning out what the impact will be.

  • Ensures that solutions are architected to meet the business outcomes while strategically aligning to the Data Office and enterprise Systems vision and strategies.

  • Maintains knowledge of emerging data architecture techniques and trends and utilizes this knowledge to educate both the Data Office, Systems, and the business on opportunities to build better solutions that support and drive business decisions.

  • Participates in the definition of the data architecture and technology needs of the organization based on new and emerging technologies.

  • Collaborates with business and technology subject-matter experts to guide data architecture decisions.

  Data Architecture Delivery & Support

  • Collaborates with the Director, Data Platform Solution Architect to determine the best technology solution for solutions required by the business. Together with the Director, Data Platform Solution Architect, provides input into the creation of business cases for divisional or enterprise initiatives.

  • Jointly presents the solution to the business, providing technical expertise and explaining the trade-offs with various data design alternatives.

  • Recommends approach for data migration strategies to best align with business needs and to optimize maintainability and performance.

  • Identifies the key technology interactions and dependencies across data systems/platforms impacting the organization’s ability to achieve integration, compatibility, and performance targets.

  • Conducts research and analysis and provides recommendations for the design and delivery of the data architectures required for the delivery of IT-based solutions, services, and support.

  • Designs solutions for high availability, connectivity, and disaster recovery, as required.

  • Provides technical advice and support to Data Office, Systems, and management relating to data architectures and schemas.

  • Ensures data architecture designs follow established security policies.

  • Ensures technical designs comply with architecture guiding principles.

  • Writes professional/technical proposals, reports, and manuals.

  • Collaborates with other Data Office and Systems teams on enterprise-wide IT strategies and technologies, as required.

  Data Solution Design & Development

  • Partners with members of the Data Office team, specifically the Director, Data Platform Solution Architect and the Data Engineers, setting standards and modeling in our Azure data platform for operational and analytical data, structured and unstructured data, data in motion, and data at reset.

  • Partners with members of the Data Office team and IT stakeholders to define data processing requirements and dependencies across the data platform for data ingestion, data standardization, data integration, and data consumption.

  • Designs, develops, publishes, and maintains the Azure data platform semantic layer and maps its data lineage back through the various data propagation zones of the data platform and subsequently back to the physical operational source systems where the source data is captured/originates.

  • Designs, develops, publishes, and maintains the data platform standard for data integration (aka. single version of truth), naming conventions, use of reference data, data profiling process support, and metadata.

  • Defines and translates business and systems requirements into a relevant data structure by collaborating with business stakeholders, members of the Data Office team, and IT on how given requirements will best be realized.

  • Partners with members of the Data Office team and IT stakeholders to instantiate physical data models and optimize data performance.

  • Reviews and participates in the testing and acceptance of data model design and mappings, tool infrastructure design, and data pipeline solutions.

  • Ensures that there is synergy, alignment, and integration among D&A initiatives and other active projects while consistently aligning with the long-term D&A vision.

  • Applies creativity and thoughtful solutioning in instances where business end-users require data in a form that may differ from that which was originally captured.

  • Plays a critical role in building and delivering a data education and training program to ensure the success of the D&A program and to maximize the likelihood of end-user adoption of the data platform. The data education track will be centred on building an understanding of our organizations data and its journey from the physical operational source systems to the data platform’s Consumer Zone.

  Production Support

  • Proactively works with members of the Data Office team and IT stakeholders to identify and resolve any/all data issues adversely impacting service-level agreement commitments.

  • Engages with members of the Data Office team and business stakeholders to enable data governance, data quality, and metadata, aligning with SGI's policies, standards, and frameworks.

  Leadership and Learning Environment

  • Participates in succession plans by continual knowledge transfer to team members and providing feedback to the Director, Data Platform Solution Architect.

  • Understands the importance of being a part of a high performing workforce and actively participates in contributing to the team and effectiveness of seamless customer experience.

  • Supports senior leadership in human resource activities, such as recruitment, staffing, and workforce planning as per corporate HR policies and procedures.

  • Supports senior leadership in establishing performance standards and contributes to performance discussions by providing feedback to senior leadership.

  • Aids in building a culture of empowerment and accountability to effectively deliver on strategic vision and corporate strategies.

  • Leads the continual improvement of the data platform framework through active learning sessions, practical application, and feedback.

  • Provides guidance and mentoring within the Data Office.

  • Provides expert guidance to enhance team and corporate knowledge to deliver on the data architecture framework.

  • Acts as a champion for continuous learning so that the skill level of the team continues to improve and delivers value to SGI more effectively.

  Corporate Management

  • Enables the success of programs and policies are in alignment with corporate, strategic, and divisional strategies.

  • Manages risk in area of authority.

  • Ensures that the Health, Safety and Emergency Management Policy is applied in area of responsibility.

  • Implements methodologies, processes, and best practices to enhance data and analytics awareness.

  Education and Experience

  • Four-year degree from an accredited post-secondary education institution in a relevant field of study, such as Mathematics & Applied Science, Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or defined equivalency.

  • Ten years of experience in IT comprised of at least four years in a Data Architect role or equivalent, including experience in supporting the development of others.

  • Certification in DAMA Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP) would be an asset.

  • Experience with cloud architecture, including data integration and consumption architectures.

  • Experience working closely with IT and Data & Analytics teams on platform adoption, implementation, and monitoring.

  • Experience as a Data Architect in the Property and Casualty insurance industry would be an asset.

  Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

  • Knowledge of Azure cloud data platform, Azure Stream, Azure Data Lake, Blob Storage, Synapse, Databricks, Azure Data Factory, and cloud best practices.

  • Knowledge of data gathering, inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modeling techniques.

  • Knowledge of data storage and warehousing solutions that can help source and process data (e.g., Azure Data Lake, Cosmos DB, Synapse Analytics).

  • Knowledge of solution design, database design and management, application integration, agile implementation, machine learning methods, and data modeling tools would be an asset.

  • Skill in building processes supporting data transformation, data structures, metadata, dependency, and workload management.

  • Skill in using data modeling tools and approaches with a thorough understanding of physical implementation issues, data strategies, design implications, and performance requirements.

  • Mature enterprise data perspectives and the ability to effectively communicate your vision to others.

  • Exposure to Azure D&A frameworks.

  • Exposure to strategic D&A implementation migrations.

  • Exposure to Property and Casualty industry products and services.

  Behavioral Competencies

  Leader Level 4 – Applies (Department/Division)

  • Accountability - Enables Performance Across Teams/Business Units

  • Business Acumen - Formulates Departmental/Divisional Plans in Relation to Internal and External Environment

  • Change Agility - Defines Areas for Change and Follows Through

  • Leadership - Leads the Department/Division

  Diversity is a cornerstone of SGI. We believe all candidates should be given the opportunity to fully participate during the recruitment process. If you require an accommodation, we invite you to submit your accommodation request to wellness@sgi.sk.ca and we will work through your request with you. All information received will be kept confidential.

  Posting Close Date:

  April 14, 2024

  As you prepare to submit your application, and cover letter if applicable, please highlight the achievements that demonstrate why you're a great candidate for this role.

• About the company

  Care. Cover. Connect. We're your insurance company, offering protection that benefits you & your community. Selling P&C products in BC, AB, SK, MB, ON

Notice