Palo Alto Sr Principal Data Architect 

United States, California 

277652365

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.

Your Career

We are seeking an experienced and strategic Senior Principal Data Architect to lead our data architecture, governance, and quality frameworks, supporting the company's vision to achieve maximum leverage from all our data assets. This role is essential in developing and maintaining a robust data infrastructure that serves as a reliable foundation for analytics, insights, and decision-making. You will oversee the establishment of our Enterprise Data Model (EDM) including Single Sources of Truth (SSOTs) for critical data assets, ensuring data consistency and reliability across the organization.

Your Impact

• Architectural Strategy & Design - Lead the design, development, and optimization of scalable data architectures, including data warehouses, data lakes, and other data platforms that support high-volume and high-velocity data processing
• SSOT Implementation & Management - Design and implement Single Sources of Truth (SSOTs) for critical datasets, ensuring consistent and reliable data across the organization - Define processes and standards to centralize, govern, and validate SSOTs, promoting data integrity across multiple business functions
• Data Governance - Develop and enforce data governance policies and frameworks to ensure responsible and compliant data usage - Partner with cross-functional teams to establish data stewardship, ownership, and accountability across departments, maintaining SSOTs
• Data Quality Management - Establish and manage data quality standards, processes, and metrics to ensure data accuracy, consistency, and completeness - Deliver initiatives to monitor, improve, and report on data quality, particularly for SSOTs
• Technical Leadership - Provide technical leadership and mentorship to the data engineering and architecture teams, fostering best practices in data management, governance, and quality - Encourage a culture of continuous learning and innovation
• Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement - Drive in data quality/governance/architecture discussions across IT and business teams, aligning data architecture and SSOT decisions with business objectives, and translating complex concepts into actionable insights
• Scalability & Performance Optimization - Design and support the implementation of scalable data systems capable of handling large datasets efficiently, ensuring performance that meets SLAs and maintains system reliability
• Data Security - Work closely with Infosec team to incorporate data privacy and security best practices into data architectures and SSOTs, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA)
• Innovation & Emerging Technologies - Stay updated on industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in data architecture, governance, quality management, and SSOT frameworks to continuously enhance our data ecosystem

Your Experience​​​​​​

• Education - Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Data Science, or a related field or equivalent military experience required (Master’s or Ph.D preferred)
• Experience - 10+ years in data architecture, data engineering, or related roles, with demonstrated experience in SSOT, data governance, and data quality management
• Technical Expertise - Proficiency in data warehousing (e.g., BigQuery, Snowflake, or Redshift), data lakes, ETL/ELT frameworks, and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) - Strong knowledge of SQL and at least one programming language (e.g., Python, Java)
• SSOT & Data Governance - Proven experience establishing SSOT frameworks and data governance strategies to maintain data accuracy and accessibility across the organization
• Data Modeling - Expertise in data modeling, including OLAP, OLTP, star schemas, normalized forms, and semi/unstructured data
• Leadership Skills - Strong track record of mentoring, influencing, and managing technical teams, with the ability to collaborate effectively across diverse teams
• Analytical Skills - Strong problem-solving skills focused on operational efficiency, data integrity, and analytical accuracy
• Communication - Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to present complex concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences

Preferred

• Experience with machine learning data pipelines and supporting AI/ML infrastructure
• Familiarity with data governance frameworks (e.g., DAMA DMBOK, DCAM)
• Knowledge of industry regulations and data privacy laws (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA)

Compensation Disclosure

The compensation offered for this position will depend on qualifications, experience, and work location. For candidates who receive an offer at the posted level, the starting base salary (for non-sales roles) or base salary + commission target (for sales/commissioned roles) is expected to be between $243,000 - $335,000/YR. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found .

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.