Data Architect Lead

Make your mark for patients

We are looking for a Data Architect Lead who is strategic, collaborative and solutions-oriented to join our Digital Technology Strategy & Solutions team, based in our HQ in Brussels, Belgium.

About the role

As a Data Architect Lead, you will define and evolve the target-state data architecture supporting analytics, advanced analytics, AI and data solutions. You will establish architecture principles, reference models, reusable design patterns, and data modeling and semantic standards that enable trusted, secure, interoperable, and AI-ready data capabilities.

You will translate technology evolution into architecture roadmaps, principles, standards and reusable patterns that guide how data solutions are designed and delivered. Working across multiple stakeholders, you will ensure that data architectures remain consistent, scalable, reusable, interoperable, and aligned with standards.

This is a highly collaborative architecture role where you will influence solution decisions, provide architecture guidance, and ensure alignment with enterprise data governance, security, privacy, and regulatory requirements.

Who you’ll work with

You will work closely with Technology Owners, Data Designers, Data Engineers, and architecture teams, to drive consistent adoption of architecture standards and enable scalable reuse across stakeholders and delivery teams.

You will join a growing and evolving team shaping the architecture and technology foundations supporting major analytics and data initiatives. You will act as a senior point of reference for data architecture, contribute to architecture and transformation forums, and advise and mentor architects, Data Designer Leads, and engineers on architecture practices and decision-making.

What you’ll do

Establish and govern architecture principles, reference models, reusable design patterns, decision records, and architecture guardrails across data acquisition, integration, storage, transformation, serving, sharing, and consumption

Define standards for conceptual, logical, physical, and semantic data models, including naming, approved business definitions, interoperability, and reuse across domains

Contribute to architecture governance forums and review, challenge, and approve solution designs, documenting architecture decisions, risks, dependencies, exceptions, and remediation actions

Ensure architecture standards are pragmatic, testable, version-controlled, clearly owned, and supported by implementation guidance for delivery teams

Ensure coherent integration of data architecture across business domains and technology platforms, with clear boundaries, interfaces, and system-of-record responsibilities

Drive scalability, modularity, reusability, portability, interoperability, performance, and maintainability across the architecture landscape

Partner with Platform Owners and engineering leaders to align platform roadmaps, shared services, and technical capabilities with the target architecture

Embed data governance, security, privacy, records management, resilience, and regulatory requirements into architecture standards and design decisions

Identify architectural risks, technical debt, duplication, and control gaps, defining mitigation paths and following their resolution through the appropriate governance mechanisms

Build and contribute to an active architecture community, promoting knowledge sharing and continuously improving architecture assets, governance effectiveness, and adoption

Interested? For this role, we’re looking for the following education, experience, and skills

Strong experience defining target-state architectures and roadmaps, leading design governance, evaluating trade-offs, and influencing senior technical and business stakeholders

Expert knowledge of enterprise data architecture, data integration, data products, conceptual/logical/physical modeling, semantic models, metadata, lineage, master/reference data, and information lifecycle principles

Strong understanding of the modern data and AI landscape, including cloud data platforms, lakehouse and warehouse patterns, event and API-based integration, analytics and BI consumption, data science, and data foundations for governed AI solutions

Ability to translate data governance, security, privacy, records management, resilience, and regulatory requirements into practical architecture controls and design guardrails

Strong systems thinking and decision-making skills, with the ability to analyze complex landscapes, dependencies, non-functional requirements, risks, and costs while balancing enterprise consistency with delivery pragmatism

Strong communication and facilitation skills, with the ability to make complex architecture understandable, build alignment across domains and platforms, and constructively challenge proposed solutions

Ability to convert strategy and standards into actionable patterns, architecture backlogs, adoption plans, and measurable improvements for product and engineering teams.

Ability to mentor architects and technical leads, establish communities of practice, and raise architecture and data modeling maturity across the organization

Are you ready to ‘go beyond’ to create value and make your mark for patients? If this sounds like you, then we would love to hear from you!

About us 

UCB is a global biopharmaceutical company, focusing on neurology and immunology. We are over 9.000 people in all four corners of the globe, inspired by patients and driven by science.

Why work with us? 

At UCB, we don’t just complete tasks, we create value. We aren’t afraid to push forward, collaborate, and innovate to make our mark for patients. We have a caring, supportive culture where everyone feels included, respected, and has equal opportunities to do their best work. We ‘go beyond’ to create value for our patients, and always with a human focus, whether that’s on our patients, our employees, or our planet. Working for us, you will discover a place where you can grow, and have the freedom to carve your own career path to achieve your full potential.

At UCB, we’ve embraced a hybrid-first approach to work, bringing teams together in local hubs to foster collaborative curiosity. Unless expressly stated in the description or precluded by the nature of the position, roles are hybrid with 40% of your time spent in the office.

UCB is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions will be made without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable laws.

Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us on EMEA-Reasonable_Accommodation@ucb.com. Please note should your enquiry not relate to adjustments; we will not be able to support you through this channel.