Senior Manager Architect - Data

Location: London or Nottingham - Hybrid

Working Pattern: 3 days in-office (Tuesday-Thursday) and 2 days remote

Our Mission

We’re on a mission to be a force for good in lending. Throughout our almost 30-year history, we’ve consistently been recognised as a great place to work; in 2026, Capital One was officially ranked 9th in the UK’s Best Workplaces™ list. Hear from our team about what it’s like working at Capital One UK.

About the role

Do you love shaping the architectural technical direction of large, complex Data transformation initiatives?

It’s an exciting time at Capital One UK - We’re on a mission to unlock organisational pace and Data agility, through creating our next generation, cloud-based data ecosystem, to unlock the power of data, increase financial inclusion and deliver transformative, real-time, intelligent experiences to our customers.

Capital One’s Data team is responsible for the data ecosystem, which covers the holistic data lifecycle, from the capture of high-quality customer data in real-time, the structuring, storage and processing of that data for insight, to the usage of the data in event driven applications, ML and AI.

As a Senior Manager Architect in Data you will be an experienced technical leader bringing business, industry and deep technical understanding to shape the architecture direction and evolution of the data ecosystem, across Cloud-scale Distributed Data Processing, Storage & Curated Data Consumption. You will invest in architecture excellence across the Data team, and foster innovation to unlock value across our user community of Engineers, Data Scientists, Data Analysts & Data Governance associates.

Come and help us shape the future of financial services in the Cloud.

What you’ll do

• Shape the architecture direction and evolution of the data ecosystem, across Cloud-scale Distributed Data Processing, Storage & Curated Data Consumption
   

• Influence Senior stakeholders, Internal customers & Enterprise partners, gaining consensus on key technology decisions and architecture direction of the data ecosystem
   

• Own and evolve architecture artefacts including reference architectures, Architecture Decision Records, and technical standards for your domain
   

• Partner with Product Management, Engineering, Cyber and our user community of Engineers, Data Scientists, Data Analysts and Data Governance associates, solving their challenges through Data Technology, to unlock business value
   

• Be a passionate advocate for the data ecosystem and data technology, driving wide awareness and usage aligned to Enterprise architecture standards and patterns
   

• Enable simplification across our architecture, processes and technologies, by encouraging and fostering UK standardisation, the reuse of appropriate industry SaaS solutions, and adoption of Enterprise standards, patterns, capabilities and platforms as appropriate for each use case
   

• Nurture and grow architecture excellence & culture within the Data team, leading technical design reviews & driving architecture best practice both within the team and the broader Architecture organisation
   

• Collaborate with your peers in UK architecture and engage in the wider Enterprise architecture group

What you’ll bring

• Demonstrable experience as a hands-on Senior Manager Architect, in a large, complex data led organisation
   

• Deep understanding & hands-on leverage of Modern, Cloud scale Data Technologies, with specific expertise in Distributed Data Processing architectures (Spark, PySpark, Python, Airflow), ELT data processing underpinning Data LakeHouses and Data Products for scaled use within ML & AI
   

• Expertise in Streaming Data, Event Driven Design, Data Governance & the AWS Cloud Technology stack (e.g. Glue, ServerLess, DynamoDB)
   

• A track record in leading the architecture vision, design & implementation of Enterprise scale data applications, with specific focus on Distributed Data Processing systems, Data LakeHouse, Data Products, Streaming data, ML & AI platform capabilities
   

• Working knowledge of ML and Generative AI, including the leverage of Agentic AI based systems within the Architecture and Software Development lifecycle
   

• Excellent communication skills, effortlessly navigating across tech, architecture, product and senior stakeholders to achieve alignment
   

• Proficiency in software development principles, patterns, and practices including CI/CD
   

• Passion for growing architectural and data led thinking, with experience in embedding & scaling this within in a large Enterprise setting
   

• An ability to shape the adoption of modern Data Technology and support the evolution of a Data driven culture, across a scaled, cross functional organisation

• There is no one type of architect; you are the glue that adds value where it’s needed. To achieve this you are flexible, adapting your approach to meet the needs of the team, initiative, or product. You solicit differing views, are willing to change your mind and perspective as you learn more, and are adept at building consensus to align stakeholders to a common direction
   

• Experience in Financial Services or Regulated sector beneficial

Where and how you'll work

This is a permanent position which can be based in either our London or Nottingham offices.

We embrace a hybrid approach to work. You'll spend three days a week in the office (Tuesday-Thursday), with Monday and Friday being dedicated work-from-home days.

Our offices are designed to inspire and support you. At our Nottingham head office, you'll find an on-site gym, restaurant and dedicated Learning Loft. Our London office boasts a rooftop running track and coffee bar. 

What’s in it for you

We invest in the growth of our people alongside our business. You will have extensive opportunities to learn and develop your career, including access to up to £5,000 in funding for external qualifications.

In addition to career development, our comprehensive benefits package is designed to grow with you, ensuring your wellbeing is prioritised at every stage of your career:

• Wealth & Future: Competitive pension and performance-based bonus schemes

• Holidays: Start with 25 days of annual leave, increasing with tenure. Need more? You have the option to buy 5 additional days.

• Health: Access premium care through our private medical insurance.

• Family Support: We champion your milestones with enhanced parental leave.

A full list of our benefits is available here.

What you should know about how we recruit

We pride ourselves on hiring the best people, not the same people. Building diverse and inclusive teams is the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. We want to work with top talent: whoever you are, whatever you look like, wherever you come from. We know it’s about what you do, not just what you say. That’s why we make our recruitment process fair and accessible. And we offer benefits that attract people at all ages and stages.

We value diversity, inclusion and belonging at our core. We empower our associates to do great work by creating an inclusive culture—one that values diverse perspectives, fosters collaboration and encourages innovative ideas—and a place where associates of all backgrounds can thrive by bringing their most authentic selves to work. We call this our Culture of Belonging, and it rests at the heart of our business.

Our associate-led Business Resource Groups were created to help support our diverse population and include over 10 groups across our offices. Because each Business Resource Group is as unique as the population it serves, they offer a range of activities, networking opportunities, special events and learning programs to associates.