Fastmarkets is an industry-leading price-reporting agency (PRA) and information provider for global commodities, providing price data, news, analytics and events for the agriculture, forest products, metals and mining and new-generation energy markets.

Fastmarkets' data is critical for customers seeking to understand and predict dynamic, sometimes opaque markets, enabling trading and risk management. Fastmarkets is a global business with a history dating back to 1865 and is built on trust and deep market knowledge. It has more than 700 employees spread across global locations in the UK, US, China, India, Singapore, Brazil, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland and beyond. 

JOB PURPOSE

Fastmarkets Data team is a new and dynamic function supporting the business in developing and delivering our data strategy through data, insights, and business intelligence. Highly valued by the business we are working hard to transform data function and ways of working.

Reporting to the Data Platform & AI Manager, we are seeking an experienced Data Architect to shape and guide our data architecture strategy. This is a fantastic opportunity to join us at the start of our journey to bring Data, BI, Analytics, and Insights together into a high performing workstream in its own right.

The Data Architect will play a pivotal role in defining and maintaining the technical architecture of our modern data platform, ensuring scalability, reliability, and optimal performance. Working across decentralized teams and collaborating closely with Business Analysts, this role will be responsible for translating business requirements into detailed technical specifications, defining data quality frameworks, and establishing robust data modeling standards. The Data Architect will act as a technical authority, analyzing and challenging design patterns introduced by federated teams to ensure consistency, best practices, and architectural alignment. The successful candidate will leverage AI tools throughout their workflow and identify opportunities for AI-driven innovation across the data platform.

PRINCIPLE ACCOUNTABILITIES

Technical Requirements & Product Backlog Management

• · Collaborate with Business Analysts to manage and refine the product backlog
• · Translate high-level business requirements into detailed technical specifications and user stories
• · Define technical requirements for data products, pipelines, and platform capabilities
• · Provide technical input on story estimation, complexity, and dependencies
• · Document architectural decisions and create comprehensive technical documentation
• · Work with Senior Data Engineers and MI/Operational reporting teams to refine technical implementation approaches
• · Bridge the gap between business requirements and technical implementation

Data Architecture & Modeling

• · Design and maintain the overall data architecture strategy for the Snowflake-based modern data platform
• · Define and implement data modeling standards, patterns, and best practices
• · Create conceptual, logical, and physical data models that support business requirements
• · Establish and maintain data modeling frameworks (including Data Vault methodology where appropriate)
• · Ensure data models are optimized for performance, scalability, and maintainability
• · Design integration patterns for ingesting data from diverse sources

Data Quality Framework

• · Define comprehensive data quality check definitions and validation rules
• · Establish data quality standards and metrics across the platform
• · Design data quality monitoring and alerting frameworks
• · Work with Data Governance Manager to ensure data quality aligns with governance policies
• · Implement data quality best practices throughout the data lifecycle

Federated Team Governance & Design Pattern Review

• · Analyze and critically evaluate design patterns introduced by decentralized/federated teams
• · Challenge proposed solutions to ensure architectural consistency and adherence to best practices
• · Provide technical guidance and recommendations to distributed teams
• · Balance team autonomy with centralized architectural standards
• · Conduct architecture reviews and design critiques
• · Identify and resolve architectural conflicts or inconsistencies across teams

AI Integration & Innovation

• · Leverage AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, GitHub Copilot) throughout daily workflows for documentation, code generation, and problem-solving
• · Identify opportunities to integrate AI capabilities into data architecture and workflows
• · Evaluate and recommend AI-driven solutions for data quality, metadata management, and automation
• · Stay current with AI developments relevant to data architecture and analytics

Platform Optimization & Best Practices

• · Define and enforce best practices for Snowflake, DBT, Dagster, and the broader modern data stack
• · Optimize data platform performance through effective architecture and design
• · Establish standards for code quality, testing, and deployment
• · Ensure alignment with DataOps principles and "data-as-code" approach
• · Continuously evaluate new technologies and tools for potential adoption

KEY INTERFACES

• · Data Platform & AI Manager
• · Business Analysts
• · Head of Cloud Engineering
• · Senior Data Engineer
• · Data Governance Manager
• · Data Operations Engineer
• · BI Engineers and Data Analysts
• · MI and Operational Reporting Teams
• · Federated data teams across business units
• · Business Stakeholders across Fastmarkets

KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

We are looking for an individual who is highly motivated, driven, and have a passion to be part of a fast-paced, successful team. Being a strong team player is also important as well as someone who is happy to work flexibly.

Core Technical Skills

• · Proven experience as a Data Architect, Solutions Architect, or similar role
• · Deep expertise in data modeling methodologies (dimensional modeling, Data Vault, 3NF)
• · Strong proficiency in SQL and database design principles
• · Hands-on experience with Snowflake Data Cloud platform architecture
• · Experience with modern data stack components including DBT, Dagster, Fivetran/Airbyte, or similar
• · Proficiency in Python for data architecture and automation tasks
• · Azure cloud architecture experience (transferable skills from AWS/GCP will be considered)
• · Strong understanding of data orchestration and ELT/ETL patterns
• · Experience defining data quality frameworks and validation strategies
• · Knowledge of data governance principles and best practices
• · Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• · Strong communication skills with ability to translate business requirements into technical solutions
• · Experience working with decentralized or federated team structures

AI & Modern Practices

• · Demonstrated ability to integrate AI tools into daily workflows for enhanced productivity
• · Understanding of how AI can be applied to data architecture, quality management, and automation
• · Familiarity with DataOps principles and infrastructure-as-code approaches
• · Experience with Git, CI/CD pipelines, and version control best practices
• · Knowledge of data catalog and metadata management tools (e.g., Atlan, data.world, Collibra)

Essential Attributes

• · Problem-solving mentality: Creative and pragmatic approach to solving complex technical challenges
• · Embraces new ideas and technology: Enthusiasm for learning and adopting emerging tools and methodologies
• · Natural curiosity: Passion for staying current with industry trends and best practices
• · Adaptability: Comfortable working in a fast-paced, evolving environment
• · Critical thinking: Ability to analyze, challenge, and improve existing approaches
• · Natural self-starter with enthusiasm for learning and research

Leadership & Collaboration

• · Experience collaborating with Business Analysts on product backlog management and refinement
• · Ability to influence and guide technical decisions across distributed teams
• · Experience conducting architecture reviews and providing constructive challenge
• · Track record of establishing and enforcing architectural standards
• · Excellent documentation and technical writing skills
• · Ability to balance pragmatism with architectural purity
• · Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments with backlog management

Preferred Qualifications

• · Snowflake certifications (e.g., SnowPro Core, SnowPro Advanced Architect)
• · Experience with BI tools (e.g., Qlik, Tableau, PowerBI)
• · Knowledge of data privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR)
• · Experience in commodities, financial services, or data-intensive industries
• · Previous experience working in transformational data platform projects
• · Understanding of agile development methodologies and product ownership
• · Experience with Kubernetes and containerization concepts
• · Can demonstrate experience working on projects that delivered transformational change or exceptional business value

Our Values

Fastmarkets people come from all different walks of life. It’s this mix of brilliant personalities, experiences and insights that gives us that warm, open, and friendly culture you can feel as soon as you meet us. But however wonderfully different we all are, there are six things we all have in common – and they form our Fastmarkets values.

Created by our own employees to reflect some of the personal traits that Fastmarkets people have, our values are key to what makes our culture unique. They reflect who each of us are and they're embedded in everything we do. Our values are:

• METRICS DRIVEN. We use insights to improve our customers’ experience and our business performance
• ACCOUNTABLE. We are accountable to ourselves and those we work with: we keep our promises and get things done
• GROWTH MINDSET. This value enables us to be nimble to the changing realities and operate with a sense of urgency
• INCLUSIVE. We are inclusive and respectful, celebrating each of us and giving everyone a deep sense of belonging with the desire to bring their best self to work every day.
• CUSTOMER CENTRIC. We are customer-centric in all that we do
• COLLABORATIVE. We are collaborative, able to work across teams and capitalise on the diversity of intellect, perspectives, and experiences.

We are committed to ensuring all candidates feel welcomed and supported. Should your application advance and you require accommodations for the interview process, please inform us so we can make the necessary arrangements.

You’ve read a little about us – now it’s over to you!

If you like what you’ve read so far and think you can see yourself as a Fastmarkets person, it’s time to fill in your application form. This form is an important part of the selection process: it’s used to determine whether or not you’ll be chosen to have an interview and acts as a basis for the questions we’ll ask you on the day.

It’s vital that you try to capture all the relevant information we have asked for on the form so we can get a good feel for who you are and why you’re great.