Job Title: Data Architect / Data Steward

Location: Chicago, IL (Onsite)

Duration: Long-Term Contract

Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced Data Architect / Data Steward to lead enterprise data architecture, governance, and data stewardship initiatives. The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in designing scalable data architectures, implementing data governance frameworks, ensuring data quality, and collaborating with business and technical stakeholders to manage enterprise data assets.

Required Skills

8+ years of experience in Data Architecture, Data Governance, or Data Management.

Strong experience in Data Architecture and Enterprise Data Modeling.

Experience working as a Data Steward or supporting Data Governance initiatives.

Expertise in Data Governance, Data Quality, Metadata Management, and Master Data Management (MDM).

Strong knowledge of Collibra, Microsoft Purview, Informatica EDC/Axon, or similar data governance tools.

Experience with SQL and relational databases (SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Snowflake).

Hands-on experience with cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or GCP.

Strong understanding of ETL/ELT processes and data integration.

Experience with Data Warehousing, Data Lakes, and Lakehouse architectures.

Knowledge of data security, privacy, compliance, and regulatory standards.

Familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies.

Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

Design and maintain enterprise data architecture and data models.

Define and implement enterprise data governance and stewardship strategies.

Establish data standards, business glossaries, metadata, and data lineage.

Collaborate with business stakeholders to identify critical data elements and data ownership.

Monitor and improve data quality, consistency, and integrity across enterprise systems.

Define data policies, governance frameworks, and compliance controls.

Support master data management (MDM) and reference data initiatives.

Work closely with data engineering teams on data integration and migration projects.

Manage metadata repositories and data catalog solutions.

Perform impact analysis and ensure governance compliance across data platforms.

Prepare documentation, architecture diagrams, and governance reports.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with Snowflake, Databricks, Azure Data Factory, or Microsoft Fabric.

Experience with Power BI, Tableau, or other BI platforms.

DAMA-CDMP, Collibra, Azure, or cloud certifications are a plus.

Knowledge of Banking, Healthcare, Retail, or Financial Services data domains.

Nice to Have

Collibra

Microsoft Purview

Informatica MDM

Data Catalog

Data Lineage

Data Quality Frameworks

Data Mesh

Data Fabric

Python or Spark

Azure DevOps / Git