Technical Lead​/Data Architect

* Please note.

- You must be registered as a freelance contractor (Ltd Co, Sole Trader) or work via an umbrella company for this assignment.*

The Technical Lead / Data Architect owns the end-to-end technical architecture, engineering organisation, platform maturity evolution, and multi-layered replatforming agenda for the VWG DTO ecosystem. This senior role reports directly to the DTO Overall Lead and operates as a peer to the Head of Governance & Strategy and the Enablement Lead. The role is accountable for delivering a modern, scalable, AI-ready, governance-aligned data ecosystem spanning ingestion, transformation, modelling, storage, sharing, observability, and reporting.

The remit includes working with engineering teams (Ingestion, ETL/Transformation, BI/Viz, QA, Dev Ops, Automation), embedding governance and compliance expectations into the architecture, and driving the platform transition from both Starburst→Redshift and Airbyte→Adverity.

The Technical Lead / Data Architect is accountable for:

• End-to-end technical architecture across the full e2e stack.
• Engineering leadership across ingestion, transformation, BI, QA, Dev Ops.
• Replatforming One Reporting’s analytical substrate to Redshift, enabling zero-copy data sharing, unified lineage and AI/LLM workloads.
• Replatforming the ingestion and integration layer from Airbyte→Adverity to support harmonised vendor management, higher observability and stronger schema governance.
• Delivering 24-hour latency expectations and 0–1% discrepancy tolerances.
• Embedding automation, observability and controlled backfills across all pipelines.
• Translating expanded client expectations (2025→2026) into scalable architectural patterns.

• Lead architectural redesign driven by 2025 expansions (multi-source reconciliation, dual-environment support, URL governance, finance reconciliation).
• Deliver the 2026 requirements: creative-level granularity, lineage versioning, governed metadata history, automation-first operations, AI-ready data layers.
• Define canonical modelling standards, entity relationships, lineage contracts, and schema evolution frameworks.
• Embed governance frameworks (taxonomy, CSREF/URL rules, tagging, QA rules) directly into the platform architecture.

• Work with all engineering teams:
  Ingestion, Transformation/ETL, BI/Viz, QA, Dev Ops, and Automation.
• Drive consolidation under a single engineering leadership structure.
• Establish modern software engineering practice: code reviews, CI/CD, IaC, automated QA gates, telemetry-driven operations.
• Partner with Governance to ensure rule-driven, compliant, “Right First Time” execution across markets.

• Lead end-to-end replatforming from federated Starburst architecture to Redshift analytical substrate.
• Deliver native zero-copy data sharing for the client.
• Establish unified compute+storage lineage, enabling audit-ready transparency.
• Enable SQL-native AI/LLM workloads.
• Lead migration of ingestion layer to Adverity to consolidate connectors, improve vendor-supported reliability, and reduce ingestion failure domains.
• Deliver a unified ingestion governance layer: schema validation, drift detection, automated reprocessing rules, lineage tagging at source.
• Support increasing platform complexity (additional local DSPs, retailer platforms, local publishers, custom feeds).

• Deliver automated, rule-driven, end-to-end QA with 0–1% tolerance.
• Implement full observability: SLA/SLO telemetry, heartbeat checks, freshness monitoring, discrepancy detection, error patterning.
• Build governed, deterministic backfill mechanisms.
• Ensure the platform “explains itself” to audits, client pipelines and LLM-based validation systems.

• Lead, mentor and develop engineering leads and multi-disciplinary technical teams.
• Build an accountable, proactive engineering culture.
• Create clear KPIs, SLAs, maturity models and progression paths.
• Forecast capability needs and drive hiring aligned to 2026 requirements.
• Provide documentation, architectural decisions, and transparency to audits and client councils.

• Deep experience in cloud…