Director, Data Architect

Dir Data Architecture - GT06AE We’re determined to make a difference and are proud to be an insurance company that goes well beyond coverages and policies. Working here means having every opportunity to achieve your goals – and to help others accomplish theirs, too. Join our team as we help shape the future. The Hartford is seeking a Director of Data Architecture to lead the strategic design, governance, and evolution of the Employee Benefits data ecosystem within the Enterprise Data Services (EDS) organization. This leadership role offers a unique opportunity to define and execute a modern data architecture vision that enables advanced analytics, AI-driven innovation, operational excellence, and business growth across Employee Benefits products. You will lead a high-performing team of data architects responsible for establishing scalable, secure, and resilient data platforms, integration frameworks, and enterprise information management capabilities. Partnering closely with leaders across Actuarial, Data Science, Data Engineering, Technology, and business organizations, you will drive data architecture strategies that support real-time data ingestion, trusted data curation, data products, AI-enabled solutions, and critical business decision-making. As a key leader within EDS, you will champion the adoption of modern cloud-based architectures, event-driven data platforms, data governance frameworks, and enterprise data standards. You will collaborate across organizational boundaries to ensure data assets are discoverable, interoperable, and aligned with business and technology objectives while enabling scalability, agility, and regulatory compliance. This role will have a Hybrid work schedule, with the expectation of working in an office location (Hartford, CT; Chicago, IL; Columbus, OH; and Charlotte, NC) 3 days a week (Tuesday through Thursday). Primary Job Responsibilities Strategy and Execution: Lead the strategy and execution of complex and large Data and Analytics portfolio. Data Modernization: Develop and implement a strategic roadmap to modernize legacy data and analytics ecosystems using Cloud and AI. Solve for data complexity by enabling data domains and data products for all consumption architypes and stakeholders including reporting, data science, AI/ML and analytics. Architecture and Solution: Ensure data architecture and solutions align with enterprise-wide standards for Data, AI and Analytics. Effectively communicate strategy, execution progress, and outcomes to diverse stakeholders and promote data capabilities through thought leadership and presentations. AI Data Engineering leader responsible for Implementing AI data pipelines that integrate structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data to support AI and Agentic solutions. Real-Time Data Streaming: Design, build and maintain scalable real-time data pipelines for efficient ingestion, processing, and delivery. Drive best practices in AI data engineering by establishing standardized processes, promoting cutting-edge technologies, and ensuring data quality and compliance across the enterprise. Data and Analytics Management: Oversee the design, development, and maintenance of lakehouse architectures, data pipelines, data warehouses, data lakes and reporting systems. Expertise in data engineering practices, knowledge of AI technologies, and the ability to lead cross-functional teams. Expertise in real-time data streaming, agentic frameworks, Data APIs, vector stores, and RAG architectures, self-serve analytics and AI. Leadership: Mentor and lead a high-performing team including Directors, Business data analysts, Data engineers and Release train engineers. Of Data Architects Drive efficiency and Productivity: Identify and champion developer productivity improvements across the end-to-end data management lifecycle. This includes researching and implementing innovative solutions such as AI-driven auto-generation of data pipelines, advanced DevOps practices for data and automated data quality frameworks. Technology Evaluation & Adoption: Stay current with emerging trends in data engineering and AI/ML, design prototypes and conduct experiments, and recommend innovative tools and technologies to enhance data capabilities enabling business strategy. Data Governance, Stewardship and Quality: Support robust data management frameworks to ensure successful adoption of Enterprise Data Governance and Data Quality practices. Develop deep partnerships and alignment with the portfolio and agile value stream frameworks. Experience with Agile at Scale and iterative development through cross-functional teams. Partners with Technology, Data, AI Platform, EB Ops and Architecture teams to influence technology, data, platform and tooling strategy. Qualifications Candidates must be authorized to work in the US without company sponsorship. The company will not support the STEM OPT I-983 Training Plan endorsement for this position. 12+ years in data engineering, data management and building large-scale data ecosystems. Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science or a related field. 7+ years in leadership roles managing large and complex data and analytics portfolio with large size teams. Proven strategic and innovative thinker with a track record of enabling transformative data capabilities. Mastery level data engineering and architecture skills, including deep expertise in data architecture patterns, lakehouses , data integration, data domains, data products, conversational business intelligence, and cloud technology capabilities. Technical expertise in LLMs, AI platforms, prompt engineering, LLM optimization, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures and vector database technologies (Vertex AI, Postgres, OpenSearch, Pinecone etc.). Strong experience with GCP, Vertex AI or AWS required. Experience in multi cloud environment. Experience in Lang chain, AI agents, Vertex AI and Google Agent ecosystem. Strong experience with the design and development of complex data ecosystems leveraging next-generation cloud technology stack across AWS or GCP Cloud and Snowflake. Exceptional presentation and verbal/written communication skills; must be able to communicate effectively at all levels across the organization. Ability to lead successfully in a lean, agile, and fast-paced organization, leveraging Scaled Agile principles and ways of working. Excellent negotiation, influencing, and conflict resolution skills; adept at building strong cross-functional relationships. Preferred experience in the Employee Benefit insurance industry. Compensation The listed annualized base pay range is primarily based on analysis of similar positions in the external market. Actual base pay could vary and may be above or below the listed range based on factors including but not limited to performance, proficiency and demonstration of competencies required for the role. The base pay is just one component of The Hartford’s total compensation package for employees. Other rewards may include short-term or annual bonuses, long-term incentives, and on-the-spot recognition. The annualized base pay range for this role is: $140,000 - $210,000 Equal Opportunity Employer/Sex/Race/Color/Veterans/Disability/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity or Expression/Religion/Age About Us | Our Culture | What It’s Like to Work Here | Perks & Benefits Every day, a day to do right. Showing up for people isn’t just what we do. It’s who we are – and have been for more than 200 years. We’re devoted to finding innovative ways to serve our customers, communities and employees—continually asking ourselves what more we can do. Is our policy language as simple and inclusive as it can be? Can we better help businesses navigate our ever-changing world? What else can we do to destigmatize mental health in the workplace? Can we make our communities more equitable? That we can rise to the challenge of these questions is due in no small part to our company values that our employees have shaped and defined. And while how we contribute looks different for each of us, it’s these values that drive all of us to do more and to do better every day. 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