Chief Data Architect

Visa•Foster City, CA

2d•$217,600 - $348,300•Hybrid

About The Position

The Chief Data Architect – Finance Technology is responsible for defining and leading the enterprise data architecture strategy across the Finance Technology landscape. This role ensures scalable, secure, and governed data solutions that support financial reporting, regulatory reporting, planning, analytics, and decision-making. This leader also plays a key role in building and evolving the Finance Data Platform (FDP)—a cloud-enabled, enterprise data foundation designed to serve as the single source of truth for Finance data, enabling consistent, trusted, and self-service access across domains. The role requires close partnership with Finance, Technology, and Data teams to deliver a unified, modern data ecosystem across platforms such as ERP, EPM, data platforms, and analytics solutions.

Requirements

12+ years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or at least 9 years of work experience with an Advanced degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 6 years of work experience with a PhD, OR 15+ years of relevant work experience.

Nice To Haves

15 or more years of experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or 12 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, or MD), PhD with 9+ years of experience
Proven track record of delivering large-scale data platform or transformation initiatives
Strong experience working with senior business and technology stakeholders
Experience with enterprise data modeling (conceptual, logical, physical)
Familiarity with modeling approaches such as dimensional modeling or data vault
Experience with cloud data platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
Exposure to technologies such as Databricks, Snowflake, or similar
Understanding of data warehousing, lakehouse, and distributed data architectures
Experience with data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, and orchestration tools
Knowledge of data integration patterns including APIs and data streaming
Familiarity with data quality, lineage, and metadata management concepts
Exposure to regulatory, audit, and compliance requirements in Finance
Experience supporting BI and analytics tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, EPM platforms)
Understanding of how data supports reporting, forecasting, and analytics

Responsibilities

Define and drive the multi-year Finance data architecture roadmap aligned with business and enterprise data strategy
Serve as a trusted advisor to Finance and Technology leadership on data strategy, architecture, and platform investments
Lead the vision for a modern, cloud-based Finance data ecosystem spanning transactional, analytical, and reporting systems
Position the Finance Data Platform as a central, governed data foundation for Finance use cases
Establish and govern enterprise-wide data architecture standards, principles, and best practices
Define canonical data models and standardized definitions across Finance domains
Ensure consistency, scalability, security, and compliance across all Finance data solutions
Partner with enterprise architecture and governance teams to align with broader data strategies
Define and oversee the architecture for the Finance Data Platform, including ingestion, transformation, and consumption layers
Own data integration strategy across Finance systems such as ERP, billing platforms, EPM, and analytics tools
Drive adoption of scalable integration patterns including batch, streaming, APIs, and data pipelines
Ensure alignment and reconciliation between operational systems and analytical reporting platforms
Ensure Finance data solutions meet audit, regulatory, security, and compliance requirements (including SOX)
Embed strong data governance practices including data quality, lineage, metadata, and stewardship
Partner with Risk, Controls, and Audit teams to enable transparent and auditable data flows
Lead modernization of legacy Finance data environments to cloud-native architectures
Define and implement scalable data platform patterns (e.g., lakehouse, data warehouse, hybrid models)
Enable high-performance data processing for financial close, reconciliation, and reporting cycles
Simplify and rationalize existing data platforms and pipelines
Enable self-service analytics and reporting through well-governed, high-quality data
Design data architectures that support advanced analytics, AI/ML, and future data use cases
Ensure Finance data is structured and accessible for innovation and emerging capabilities
Provide architectural leadership across major Finance Technology initiatives and programs
Collaborate with engineering teams and partners to ensure high-quality design and delivery
Act as escalation point for critical data and architecture decisions
Mentor and guide data architects, engineers, and technical leaders
Collaborate with business and technology stakeholders across Finance, Risk, Treasury, and Accounting
Build strong relationships with key technology partners and vendors