Data Architect

Job Title:

Data Architect Location:

Lake Forest, IL (Onsite once every 2 months) Data Architect Retail Data Integration & Single Source of Truth This role requires a unique combination of retail domain knowledge, data architecture expertise, cloud data platform experience, and stakeholder management capabilities. Key Responsibilities Retail Data Strategy & Architecture Assess retailer data sources and current-state architecture. Define a target-state enterprise retail data architecture. Design a common retail data model (Canonical Data Model). Establish a scalable "Single Source of Truth" framework. Create data integration standards across retailer ecosystems. Retail Data Integration Lead integration of retailer data feeds including: Walmart Scintilla/Luminate Target RBD/VIQ Kroger 84.51 / Stratum Sam's Club MAP Additional retailer data sources Design ingestion patterns for: APIs Flat files EDI feeds SFTP integrations Data subscriptions Data Modeling Design enterprise-wide: Product hierarchy models Inventory models Customer/Retailer models Store hierarchy models Supply chain models Sales and demand models Create canonical definitions for: Sell-through On-hand inventory In-transit inventory Weeks of supply Fill rate OTIF Forecast accuracy Data Governance Define data quality framework. Establish KPI governance. Design metadata management processes. Create business glossary and data catalog structures. Support Master Data Management (MDM) strategy. Analytics Enablement Architect data structures supporting: Power BI Tableau Executive dashboards Commercial analytics Supply chain analytics AI/ML use cases Must-Have Retail Experience Mandatory Retail / CPG Experience 10+ years working in: Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Retail Analytics Retail Supply Chain Retail Data Platforms Must-Have Technical Capabilities Data Architecture Expert Level Enterprise Data Architecture Data Lake Architecture Lakehouse Architecture Data Warehouse Architecture Canonical Data Modeling Dimensional Modeling (Star Schema) Data Vault 2.0 (preferred) Deliverables Expected Conceptual Data Model Logical Data Model Physical Data Model Enterprise Data Flow Architecture Cloud Data Platforms Must Have Experience with at least one: Microsoft Azure (Preferred)

AWS Google Cloud Strong Preference Azure Stack:

Azure Data Factory Azure Synapse Azure Data Lake Gen2 Microsoft Fabric Azure Databricks Azure SQL Data Engineering & Integration Must Have

ETL / ELT

Architecture API Integration Event-driven Architecture Batch Processing Data Pipeline Design Tools:

Azure Data Factory Databricks Informatica Talend SSIS Kafka (preferred) Retail Data Modeling Expertise Candidate must understand: Inventory Metrics On-Hand Inventory Available Inventory Safety Stock In-Transit Inventory Weeks of Supply Sales Metrics POS Sales Sell-In Sell-Through Unit Velocity Supply Chain Metrics OTIF Fill Rate Forecast Accuracy Replenishment Metrics Data Governance & MDM Must Have Data Quality Frameworks Data Lineage Metadata Management Master Data Management Data Catalog Implementation Tools preferred:

Microsoft Purview Collibra Alation Analytics & Reporting Must Have Understanding of:

Power BI Tableau Semantic Models KPI Framework Design Executive Dashboards AI & Advanced Analytics (Preferred) Experience enabling: Demand Forecasting Inventory Optimization Predictive Analytics Machine Learning Data Platforms GenAI-enabled Insights Preferred technologies: Azure AI Services Azure Machine Learning Databricks ML Soft Skills / Consulting Skills Must Have Executive stakeholder management CTO/CIO level communication Retail business process understanding Workshop facilitation Architecture governance Vendor management Ability to translate: Retail Business Problem Data Architecture Technology Solution Business Outcome Ideal Candidate Profile Experience 12-15+ years overall experience 5+ years as Lead Data Architect Retail/CPG domain experience Large-scale enterprise data platform implementations What Success Looks Like in the First 90 Days Assess all retailer data sources and current architecture. Define a Retail Canonical Data Model. Produce target-state architecture and roadmap. Create retailer-to-canonical mapping framework. Define enterprise KPI definitions. Deliver MVP architecture and Target integration. Establish foundation for a Retail Single Source of Truth platform. One-Line Requirement "We need a Data Architect who has previously built a unified retail data platform across multiple retailer ecosystems and can rapidly design a scalable Single Source of Truth architecture for commercial, inventory, and supply chain analytics."