Lead Data Architect - Data Platform

  • Full-time
  • Job Family Group: Technology and Operations

Company Description

Common Purpose, Uncommon Opportunity. Everyone at Visa works with one goal in mind – making sure that Visa is the best way to pay and be paid, for everyone everywhere. This is our global vision and the common purpose that unites the entire Visa team. As a global payments technology company, tech is at the heart of what we do. CyberSource, a Visa company, has been and continues to be a pioneer within the e-Commerce Payment Management world. Our VisaNet network is capable of handling over 65,000 transaction messages per second for people and businesses around the world, enabling them to use digital currency instead of cash and checks.

We are also global advocates for financial inclusion, working with partners around the world to help those who lack access to financial services join the global economy. Visa’s sponsorships, including the Olympics and FIFA™ World Cup, celebrate teamwork, diversity, and excellence throughout the world. If you have a passion to make a difference in the lives of people around the world, Visa offers an uncommon opportunity to build a strong, thriving career. Visa is fueled by our team of talented employees who continuously raise the bar on delivering the convenience and security of digital currency to people all over the world. Join our team and find out how Visa is everywhere you want to be.

Job Description

You may have noticed that payment has become a very active/hot area in the last several years. Given the strong demands and innovation, this will be a very exciting area in the next 5 to 10 years. VISA is clearly a very strong leader in the payment industry, and is in a fast pace of technology transformation. For a payment system to work well, advance technologies such as data platform, big data, data mining, machine learning, cloud, etc. are critical. In VISA, we have all of these. The Data Platform Department is in the center for many of these technologies and development.

The Data Platform team is a key component of Visa's Technology organization that provides an enriched and valuable ecosystem of data platform and data services that drive innovation for our partners and clients, within Visa and globally. Data is the most valuable asset in Visa. The Data Platform Department is dedicated to develop advanced technology (e.g. Cloud, Machine Learning and Big Data), systems and services to make data secure, high quality, rich, fast, and easy to use, therefore enabling Visa the ability to leverage its data asset in an effective and timely manner to maximize technology/business development and differentiate Visa from others in the payment industry. The department maintains tens of petabytes of data supporting over 100 services for various internal lines of business and external clients.

Position Summary:

Visa is seeking a Lead Data Architect in the Data Platform department to act as one of key technology contributor to build and manage Visa’s data and technology assets in the data Platform, build and maintain Visa Data Lake, enable wide range of application to be deployed and operate in Data Lake.

This individual will act as a trusted technical advisor and strategic thought leader to the Data Platform department. The successful candidate will be comfortable navigating challenging forces in the dynamic payments space especially in big data and data platform areas and be comfortable in a fast-paced environment with significant changes; developing/implementing strategies and processes that enable the organization to innovate and grow fast. You will have the opportunity to lead, participate, guide, and mentor other people in the team on architecture and design in a hands on manner. You are responsible for the strategic and technical direction of Visa Data Platform. This position reports to the Sr. Director of Architecture for Data as a Service team in Data Platform and will be based in Bellevue, WA.

Primary responsibilities will include:

 

  • Provide Architectural leadership and vision for Visa’s Data Platform and Data Lake. Develop and maintain architectural roadmap for data products and data services plus ensuring alignment with the business and enterprise architecture strategies and standards. Able to develop, present and explain the value and vision of proposed architectures and solutions to a wide range of audience.

  • Provide leadership and guidance on design and management of data for data applications, formulate best practices and organize processes for data management, governance and evolution. Build processes and tools to maintain high data availability, quality and maintainability.

  • Contribute to the DP strategies and roadmap development to meet business objectives with existing or emerging technologies. Ability to translate business concepts to technical terms. Understands and communicates company goals and objectives.

  • Apply creative thinking/approach to determine technical solutions that further business goals and align with corporate technology strategies, keeping in mind performance, reliability, scalability, usability, security, flexibility, and cost.

  • Articulate technology solutions as well as explain the competitive advantages of various technology alternatives.

  • Collaborate with the key stakeholders, other product development groups and software vendors to identify and define solutions for complex business and technical requirements.

  • Engage with Data Platform customers/partners to understand their needs and provide suggestions/guidance on what data platform techniques are appropriate to solve their problems with pros/cons articulated clearly.

  • Drive internal proof of concept initiatives. When needed, quickly design and implement a prototype of a system or component with a proper architecture, and then hand over to (may lead) a small group of devs to finish.

  • Provide mentorship and help team growth especially on technical side.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications:

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, or equivalent field

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Experienced technology leader with a minimum of 10+ years of software development experience including 5+ years of data application or data platform architecture experience with deep technology expertise in the following:
  • Architecture design and development of large scale data platforms and data application with simple solutions
  • Expertise in design and management of complex data structures and data processes
  • Expertise in metadata management, ETL processing, reference data management. Expertise in streaming and batching data processing and efficient and performing organization of data in devices set of data platforms.
  • Deep knowledge and hands on experience on big data and cloud computing technologies including Hadoop, Spark, Hive, HBase, etc.
  • Extensive hands on design/coding experience/skills using languages like Java, or C#/C++/C#. Strong on elegant coding, can write very solid prototypes or core components quickly.
  • Strong service architecture and development experience with high performance and scalability
  • Technical background in data with deep understanding of issues in multiple areas such as data acquisition and processing, data management, distributed processing, and high availability is required. Experience in statistics, data mining, machine learning and operational excellence of production systems is a plus.
  • Strong at technical goal setting for a project with actionable success metrics. Good knowledge and experience on measuring a service from user experience angle.
  • Strong on driving for results and self-motivated, strong learning mindset, with good understanding of related advanced/new technology. Keep up with the technology development in the related areas in the industry, which could be leveraged to enhance current architectures and build durable new ones.
  • Outstanding verbal, written, presentation, facilitation, and interaction skills, including ability to effectively communicate architectural issues and concepts to multiple organization levels and executive management.
  • Deep experience in:
  • SQL/noSQL technology. Familiar with Databases like Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, etc.
  • ETL, Data Warehousing, Metadata management, Data Governance
  • Experience on data application/platform instrumentation, measurement, log data processing, and monitoring.
  • Experience on distributed application performance engineering, mobile application development, database design, middleware, user interface development, and information security engineering
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related technical discipline required; advanced degree is a plus.
  • Strong skills on mentoring/growing junior people

 

Additional Information

Visa is an EEO Employer.  Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status.  Visa will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with EEOC guidelines and applicable local law.

  • Work Hours

         Incumbent must make themselves available during core business hours.

  • Travel Requirements       

          This position requires the incumbent to travel for work 0% of the time.

  •  Physical Requirements       

          This position will be performed in an office setting.  The position will require the 

           incumbent to sit and stand at a desk, communicate in person and by telephone,

           frequently operate standard office equipment, such as telephones and computers,

           reach with hands and arms, and bend or lift up to 25 pounds.

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