Data Architect

Data Architect

Working for the City of McKinney is more than a job. It is an opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others. It is also an opportunity to have a hand in the development of one of the fastest growing communities in the nation. Proudly recognized on the Top Workplaces USA list by USA TODAY, our team is dedicated to making McKinney one of the best places to work, live, and raise a family. That's why we exist. Join us and start making a difference today. Our core values are Respect, Integrity, Service, and Excellence (RISE). We are also supported by servant-based leaders who foster and support a healthy, family-oriented culture. All new employees are expected to embrace and live by our core values and commit to helping us sustain our exceptional work environment as a high-performance organization (HPO).

The Data Architect is a senior IT professional responsible for designing, developing, and managing the organization's data infrastructure to ensure efficient, secure, and scalable data storage, processing, and retrieval. This role involves creating data models, defining data architecture frameworks, and aligning data systems with business objectives to support decision-making, analytics, and compliance. The Data Architect collaborates with cross-functional teams, including data engineers, analysts, and business stakeholders, to translate business requirements into technical solutions, ensuring data integrity, accessibility, and security. This position will be essential in contributing to business innovation and operational efficiency.

General expectations for all employees include understanding how team, department, and City goals are interconnected, contributing to a positive work culture, maintaining regular and reliable attendance, assessing work performance, contributing to the development of others, working as part of a team, and continuously learning and developing through training opportunities.

Essential duties and responsibilities include developing and maintaining data models, creating and implementing database solutions, ensuring data quality, optimizing data structures, designing and executing data migration strategies, establishing data lineage, producing architecture artifacts, leading enterprise-wide data strategy initiatives, architecting scalable platforms, driving cross-departmental data integration, mentoring junior data professionals, evaluating and introducing emerging technologies, establishing data governance policies, monitoring and optimizing database performance, providing technical guidance, collaborating and communicating with stakeholders, leading cross-functional teams in data stewardship and literacy, assessing and recommending tools, technologies, and platforms, maintaining awareness of new technologies, producing detailed work, adhering to work schedules, traveling to meetings and events, and complying with City policies.

Knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors include embracing the City's core values, effective communication, producing desired work outcomes, planning and organizing work, forging professional relationships, advanced proficiency with databases and data modeling tools, working knowledge of cloud platforms and data services, experience with ETL/ELT tools and data integration platforms, proficiency in scripting languages, skilled project management, problem-solving, technical writing, independent learning, facilitating discussions, working in a team environment, multitasking, flexibility and adaptability, expertise in data observability and lineage solutions, advanced proficiency in infrastructure-as-code, hands-on experience with containerized data services, working knowledge of graph databases and semantic modeling.

Minimum qualifications include a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software/Computer Engineering, or a related field, and five (5) years of experience in data architecture, data warehousing/modeling, cloud platform architecture, and enterprise database design. Preferred qualifications include a Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Enterprise/Information Architecture, or a related field, industry-recognized certifications, four (4) years of experience with data lakehouse architectures and tools, Snowflake data integration and orchestration, performance optimization and query tuning in Snowflake, data modeling and schema design tailored for Snowflake, Snowflake security features, four (4) years of experience implementing data mesh or distributed data architecture concepts, and eight (8) years of experience in data architecture with a focus on cloud-based solutions or large-scale enterprise systems.

Conditions of employment include passing a drug screen and background check, having a Class C Texas Driver's License, obtaining CJIS Certification within 30 days of hire, obtaining Snowflake SnowPro Core within 6 months of hire, and obtaining SnowPro Advanced: Architect within 12 months of hire.

Physical demands involve the ability to exert light physical effort in sedentary to light work, which may involve some lifting, carrying, pushing, and/or pulling of objects and materials of light weight (5-10 pounds). Tasks may involve extended periods of time at a keyboard or workstation. Some tasks require visual and sound perception and discrimination and oral communications ability. Work environment involves limited exposure to environmental conditions.

The City offers a full complement of benefits including Health Insurance, Additional Benefits, Retirement, and Paid Time Off (PTO).