Lead Data Platform Architect - Institutional Clients Platform

What would your role be?

• Define and evolve our data architecture - establish clear patterns, standards, and best practices across the platform.

• Establish and enforce data standards, model design principles, and governance models across the platform.

• Turn complex, disparate data sources into clean, well-documented data models that business teams can rely on.

• Design and implement data contracts between producers and consumers, ensuring reliable, versioned, and well-documented interfaces.

• Own end-to-end pipeline delivery - from source data validation and reconciliation through to consumption-ready models.

• Design, build, and maintain data pipelines and transformation logic using dbt-core and Snowflake.

• Implement data quality frameworks and automated testing to ensure trustworthy data at every layer.

• Work within a web services environment, integrating data flows across APIs and services.

• Contribute to and help shape CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code practices for data workloads.

• Collaborate with engineers, analysts, and business stakeholders in an agile environment.

• Contribute to platform hygiene - Snowflake access control, cost monitoring, and resource management (~5% of your time).

What are we looking for?

Must have:

• Strong SQL skills (any dialect - you'll be working primarily with Snowflake).

• Strong data modeling / data architecture skills - you can take messy, inconsistent data and shape it into coherent, maintainable models.

• Strong software engineering skills - proficiency in C#/F# and/or Python, with proven experience building production-grade code (APIs, data access layers, automation scripts, pipelines).

• Experience with dbt or similar transformation tools (Dataform, SQLMesh, etc.).

• Snowflake (or any other DB) administration experience (RBAC, warehouses, cost management, data sharing, query profiling, etc.).

• Experience implementing data contracts, data quality frameworks, and source data validation/reconciliation.

• Familiarity with CI/CD tooling and version-controlled data workflows (git, pipelines, testing).

• Experience establishing data standards, governance models, and model design principles in a team setting.

• Exposure to web services / microservices architectures and integrating data across service boundaries.

Strong plus:

• Experience in a team lead or senior/lead role - mentoring engineers or driving technical direction.

• Knowledge of financial instruments (asset management or structured products).

• Exposure to State Street's Alpha Data Platform or similar.

You are:

• Equally comfortable writing dbt models and configuring Snowflake roles.

• Pragmatic, structured, and outcome-focused.

• Hands-on and delivery-driven - you write the code, deliver the pipelines, and see things through to production.

• A good communicator who can bridge technical and business conversations.

• Fluent in English; German is a welcome plus.

What do we offer?

• Top Zurich location with collaboration spaces (including rooftop terraces) and free lunch.

• Friendly, diverse team in an open-office space.

• All the latest technology to help you excel and advance.

• Agile environment in how we think, the way we work and our trust for each other.

• Flat hierarchy with collaboration at all levels.

• Campus feeling and a collaborative spirit.

Why Vontobel?

At Vontobel, you are building better futures for our clients and society, as well as for yourself. As a family-owned and publicly listed company with over 2,000 professionals based in 28 locations globally and headquartered in Zurich, we’re committed to long-term thinking and sustainability.

Our diverse team values unique perspectives, and we hire individuals determined to deliver in a dynamic and changing world. Even if you don’t meet all the criteria, we encourage you to apply if you’re enthusiastic about the role.

Do you want to be Vontobel?