Senior Data Architect

King’s College London is a leading university with a long-standing commitment to education, research and service to society. King’s Strategy 2030 is focused on serving society through academic excellence, with priorities including student success, research and education excellence, and building a sustainable future.

Enterprise Data Architecture within IT supports these priorities by establishing a consistent approach to how data is structured, governed, shared and reused across the University. It aligns data capabilities, standards and architecture with wider University needs, supporting trusted data, digital services and emerging AI capabilities.

We are looking for a Senior Data Architect to provide enterprise-level strategic architecture direction for Data and AI at King’s, supporting the University’s strategy and the effective and responsible use of data and emerging AI capabilities.

Reporting to the Head of Information Architecture, you will contribute to Enterprise Architecture across Business, Data, Application and Technology Architecture. You will translate strategic priorities into target architectures, capabilities, roadmaps, principles and standards, helping ensure Data and AI investments align with wider University needs and deliver institutional value.

A key focus of the role will be shaping how trusted and governed University data supports AI and digital capabilities, including how data is prepared, accessed and governed for AI use, and how AI-generated information is captured, classified, stored, secured, retained and reused. You will define the Data Architecture capabilities, standards and patterns needed to support current and emerging AI approaches, including Generative AI, RAG, agentic AI and Model Context Protocol (MCP).

You will work with senior stakeholders, Data Owners, Data Stewards, Data Custodians, Data Governance, Enterprise and Business Architecture, Data Solutions, Cloud & Platform, IT Assurance, delivery teams, other Professional Services teams and external suppliers. You will provide strategic architecture advice and assurance, communicate complex Data and AI decisions in clear, business-oriented language, and support alignment across portfolio priorities, Value Streams, PI planning and Agile Release Trains.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria 

Desirable criteria

Downloading a copy of our Job Description 

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university. 

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King’s guidance.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving rapidly, and we recognise its growing role in professional work. Applicants may use AI tools to support preparation of their application, for example to research the role or structure written responses. However, applications must reflect the applicant’s own work and experience. AI tools should not be used during interviews or assessment activities unless this has been agreed in advance as a reasonable adjustment. Further guidance on the use of AI in recruitment can be found here.

We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.