GCP Data Architect

The Role

This role will play a critical part in architecting and modernising cloud-native data platforms on Google Cloud Platform for a major financial services environment. You will design scalable, secure, resilient, and cost optimised data solutions that serve high volume, high regulatory workloads. The role provides exposure to large-scale transformation programmes, modern engineering practices, mature data governance frameworks, and access to advanced GCP services, enabling you to influence enterprise-wide data strategies.

Your responsibilities:
* Architect end-to-end data solutions using GCP services such as BigQuery, Dataflow, Pub/Sub, Dataproc, GCS, and Composer.
* Design robust data models (conceptual, logical, physical) for complex risk, operations, analytics, and regulatory data domains.
* Build scalable ingestion and transformation frameworks with an emphasis on quality, lineage, metadata, and auditability.
* Define and enforce cloud architecture best practices, security patterns, IAM policies, and data protection standards.
* Lead cost optimisation, performance tuning, and reliability engineering across cloud data workloads.
* Collaborate with engineering squads, product owners, and stakeholders in an Agile environment to deliver technical roadmaps.
* Provide architectural governance, technical oversight, and reusable frameworks to development teams.
* Drive cloud modernisation and Legacy-to-cloud migration initiatives across multiple data estates.
* Conduct POCs and evaluate emerging tools to strengthen the organisation's cloud data capabilities.
* Ensure full compliance with regulatory, audit, and enterprise data governance requirements.

Your Profile
Essential skills/knowledge/experience:
* Identifying the correct architecture patterns for workload deployment and ensuring governance
* Managing data lineage and quality aspects of DPs
* Understanding and defining SRE principles such as SLOs, SLIs, and SLAs for each workload
* Supporting feature teams across the lab in optimizing FinOps for live workloads
* Developing and deploying data pipelines using various GCP services
* Implementing TDD for unit testing and DBB for functional testing
* Reviewing and creating FinOps dashboards for the lab
* Creating custom Dynatrace monitoring and alerting
* Integrating Looker and enabling reporting for end-users within general guardrails
* Experience in designing high-volume ingestion, transformation, and analytics pipelines.
* Strong knowledge of data governance, lineage, metadata management, and regulatory controls.
* Demonstrated ability to work with cross-functional Agile teams and influence technical direction.
* Experience executing cloud migration or platform modernisation programs.
* Excellent architectural documentation, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills.

Desirable skills/knowledge/experience:
* GCP Professional Data Engineer or Cloud Architect certification
* Experience in BFSI domains such as AML, Fraud, Risk, Finance, or Regulatory Reporting.
* Exposure to Real Time streaming, ML Ops, and advanced analytics architectures.
* Experience with platform observability tools and cloud cost management framework

LA International is a HMG approved ICT Recruitment and Project Solutions Consultancy, operating globally from the largest single site in the UK as an IT Consultancy or as an Employment Business & Agency depending upon the precise nature of the work, for security cleared jobs or non-clearance vacancies, LA International welcome applications from all sections of the community and from people with diverse experience and backgrounds.

Award Winning LA International, winner of the Recruiter Awards for Excellence, Best IT Recruitment Company, Best Public Sector Recruitment Company and overall Gold Award winner, has now secured the most prestigious business award that any business can receive, The Queens Award for Enterprise: International Trade, for the second consecutive period.