Data Architect

Hybrid Sydney or Melbourne CBD | Permanent Full-time About the Role Avant is a member-owned mutual that stands beside doctors through some of the most challenging moments of their careers, and data is central to how we do that well.  We have laid solid data platform foundations, and the next phase is maturing our data, analytics, and AI capability so the business can confidently use, trust, and build on it. Our Azure and Databricks environment is already established, so this role is about making it better rather than starting again. You will take ownership of our target data architecture as we bring architecture ownership in-house. You will assess what we have today, decide what needs to evolve, simplify where complexity has crept in, and build a clear roadmap to the target state. As our design authority for data, you’ll set the standards our engineers, analysts and delivery partners work to, and make and document key design decisions. You’ll make sure the platform can scale while remaining secure, resilient, cost-effective, and fit for a highly regulated environment. Importantly, this is not architecture at a distance. You will work closely with data engineering, analytics, governance, cyber security, and business teams, ensuring the technology ultimately delivers what matters: trusted data, actionable insights, and better business decision-making. You like a challenge, and you are energised by a platform with real potential and work still to do. You bring the confidence to challenge and the openness to listen, and you know that strong relationships with engineers are what turn good architecture into positive change. You will join a small, diverse team that is keen to learn, open to new ways of working and motivated to drive positive change for our members. Key responsibilities: Own and evolve our data architecture Own the target data architecture and roadmap for our data platform, primarily Azure and Databricks. Assess the current environment and technical debt and establish a pragmatic transition roadmap towards the target state. Act as the design authority for data, setting standards and making key architectural decisions. Ensure the architecture balances scalability, performance, resilience, security, and cost. Simplify the data and analytics technology landscape over time, in line with the target state. Shape our data models and integration approach Define modelling standards across the medallion architecture, including reusable, trusted data assets, and semantic layers. Own conceptual and logical models across key domains, including member, product, claims, and finance. Define ingestion, transformation and integration patterns across the platform and downstream systems. Champion strong modelling, schema design, and engineering practices that keep the environment maintainable and portable. Bring architecture ownership in-house Provide independent architectural assurance over solutions delivered by delivery partners. Review and challenge designs, frameworks, and technical debt, holding all solutions to our standards. Lead the transition of architecture ownership and knowledge in-house, keeping our platform open and portable. Build capability across the team by coaching engineers and analysts on data architecture and modelling practices. Build governance and security in by design Embed data classification, access, privacy, retention, and security requirements into architectural decisions. Design for lineage, data quality and access controls that support APRA (including CPS 230 and CPS 234) and Privacy Act obligations. Help establish an architecture that supports the responsible use of AI on trusted and governed data. Influence across the organisation Represent data architecture at the Architecture Review Board and provide data architecture input to major programmes. Explain complex architectural choices and trade-offs clearly to technical and non-technical audiences. Work closely with business leaders, delivery teams, risk partners, and technology teams to ensure architectural decisions reflect real business priorities. Skills and experience required: 10+ years’ experience across data and technology, including at least five years operating as a Data Architect or Solution Architect. Strong hands-on experience with Databricks, or deep experience with a comparable modern data platform such as Snowflake or BigQuery, combined with the ability to quickly apply that expertise to the Databricks environment. Strong cloud and data architecture expertise, ideally within Azure. Experience taking ownership of an established data platform and driving its ongoing maturity, optimisation, and simplification. Strong data modelling capability, including conceptual and logical modelling, dimensional or Data Vault approaches, semantic layers, and advanced SQL. Experience working alongside consultancies or systems integrators, with the confidence to review, challenge and change their technical designs Strong stakeholder skills and the ability to hold an architectural position while remaining collaborative and pragmatic. Experience working across multidisciplinary data, analytics, engineering, and governance teams. Strong focus on using data architecture to enable better analytics, insight, and business decision-making. Tertiary qualification in computer science, information technology or a related field, or equivalent experience. Experience within financial services, insurance, or health, particularly an APRA-regulated environment, would be highly regarded Experience with Unity Catalog, Microsoft Purview, data products/data mesh, Terraform, CI/CD for data platforms or Databricks Asset Bundles would also be advantageous. About Avant Avant is Australia’s leading medical defence organisation and is proudly member-owned.  We support doctors throughout their careers, particularly when they face some of the most challenging moments in professional life.  Our investment in data, analytics and AI is focused on helping us better understand and support our members, improve how we make decisions and build a stronger, more responsive organisation.