Data Architect - Galway, Ireland

When you join MetLife’s Global Technology team, you’ll be part of a forward-thinking group dedicated to shaping the future of digital solutions for customers worldwide. You’ll develop, maintain and support technology applications and delivery, leveraging AI, automation, and contemporary ways of working to enhance experiences and drive business outcomes. Your work will simplify complex processes, improve tech resiliency, and ensure high-performing, seamless solutions that power life’s most important moments. In this dynamic environment, you’ll collaborate with talented peers across teams and functions, expanding your skills in impactful ways. Ready to push boundaries and set new industry standards? Join us and help drive the future of technology forward.

MetLife Ireland which is located in both Dublin and Galway City Centres. Dublin is our Operational Headquarters for our Europe Region.  In addition, both Dublin and Galway have a significant number of our colleagues that are focused on supporting our broader EMEA and Global functions. They are homes to our Actuarial, Audit, Compliance, Finance, IT, Legal, Operations, Risk and Treasury Teams.  

Enterprise Architecture ensures a holistic strategy and approach to technology solutions, by working broadly and globally across the company. We drive MetLife toward a simplified and consistent architecture, globally, thereby driving quality, agility, and cost-effectiveness. We support all areas of MetLife in developing and implementing the MetLife and GTO strategy -- Business Units, Global Operations, Application Development, Info Sec, Data and Analytics and Infrastructure.

MetLife is seeking a Lead Architect to support enterprise and data domain architecture across the global portfolio. In this role you will be a critical member of a dedicated team responsible for defining technology standards and documenting the guardrails and patterns related to data for use in solution architectures throughout MetLife. You will have the opportunity to drive innovative solutions using cutting-edge technologies, and you will have the responsibility to ensure that systems are designed with security, resilience, and performance in mind. You will get to partner with and build relationships with teams that span various business, technology, and enterprise domains in the support of building enterprise scale solution architectures.

• Define and maintain the enterprise data architecture vision and roadmap.
• Develop architecture principles, standards, patterns, and reference architectures.
• Ensure alignment between data strategy and business objectives.
• Govern enterprise-wide data architecture decisions and design reviews.
• Drive architectural consistency across regions, platforms, and programmes.
• Lead architecture for cloud-based data platforms.
• Define scalable architectures supporting:Data Warehousin, Data Lakes, Lakehouse Platforms, Real-time Data Processing, Advanced Analytics, AI/ML Enablement
• Evaluate emerging technologies and establish adoption roadmaps.
• Guide platform modernisation programmes and technical transformations.
• Design end-to-end data solutions from source systems to consumption layers. 
• Define integration patterns for: APIs, Event-driven architectures, Batch processing, Streaming architectures
• Ensure solutions meet non-functional requirements including: Scalability, Resilience, Performance, Security, Operability, Data Governance & Security
• Partner with Data Governance teams to establish: Metadata management, Data lineage, Reference data management, Master data management, Data quality frameworks
• Ensure compliance with privacy, security, and regulatory requirements.
• Define standards for sensitive data handling and protection.
• AI, Analytics & Data Enablement
• Define architecture patterns supporting AI and advanced analytics.
• Design semantic and consumption layers enabling self-service analytics.
• Support enterprise data products and business data domains.
• Enable trusted and governed data consumption across the organisation.

Key Stakeholders: Solution Architects from Regional and LOB Architecture teams, Governance Partners across areas such as Data & Analytics, Global Security, Global Infrastructure, Privacy, Legal, etc.

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline (CS, EE, ME, Math or equivalent)
• 5+ years’ experience in Software Engineering or Architecture, and strong technical experience with building enterprise scale data solutions
• 3+ years’ experience with Data Engineering or Architecture with hands-on experience of cloud data platforms
• Exposure to modern AI concepts such as generative AI and machine learning
• Strong analytical skills with demonstrated ability to apply analysis to actionable insights
• Demonstrated expertise in security, operational, and resiliency architecture principles
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical initiatives requiring engagement and support from partner organizations
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with focused attention to details, as well as demonstrated professionalism and time/task management skills

• Experience designing and building solutions utilizing generative AI and machine learning, including addressing responsible use of AI considerations
• Experience architecting enterprise data solutions around SaaS and PaaS technologies and services
• Broad knowledge of Big Data concepts, design patterns and technologies 
• Experience with BI, Reporting, and Analytics.
• Extensive experience with information architecture, data integration, data management, and database technologies
• Cloud PaaS technologies, ADF, Azure Data Lake Storage, Event Streaming platforms, Databricks, Kubernetes, web APIs, API security protocols, etc., with preferred experience in Azure
• Strong Software Development Life Cycle knowledge and experience, particularly Agile and DevOps
• IT Experience in enterprise-scale organizations in an architecture role
• Knowledge of multiple architecture disciplines, or an equivalent combination of education and work experience
• Demonstrated influencing and negotiating skills
• Demonstrated business acumen especially in insurance and financial industries and systems

The expected salary range for this position is €71900 - €95800. This role may also be eligible for annual short-term incentive compensation. All incentives and benefits are subject to the applicable plan terms.

Benefits We Offer About MetLife