Role Overview

• The Principal Data Architect – APJ Snowflake Data Platform will provide technical architecture leadership for the design, evolution, and governance of the APJ enterprise data platform.
• This role will define the target architecture and technical standards for a scalable, secure, and governed data ecosystem centered on Snowflake, supporting enterprise data engineering, business intelligence, advanced analytics, and AI use cases across APJ.
• The Principal Data Architect will work closely with Data Engineers, BI and Analytics teams, business stakeholders, and global technology teams to translate business and data requirements into sustainable enterprise architecture.
• This is not only an advisory architecture role. The successful candidate is expected to have deep hands-on Snowflake expertise and be able to review technical designs, challenge engineering decisions, troubleshoot complex issues, and provide practical architectural guidance.

Key Responsibilities

1. Snowflake Platform Architecture

• Define and evolve the target architecture for the APJ Snowflake data platform.
• Design scalable architecture patterns for enterprise data ingestion, transformation, storage, consumption, and analytics.
• Establish architectural principles for database, schema, warehouse, and data-layer design.
• Define architecture supporting BI, Advanced Analytics, Data Science, and AI workloads.
• Ensure architecture decisions balance scalability, performance, security, maintainability, and cost.

2. Enterprise Data Architecture

• Define common architectural patterns for integrating major enterprise data domains.
• Establish data-layer and data-modeling principles across source, transformation, and consumption layers.
• Define reusable architectural patterns that can be adopted across APJ markets.
• Guide the design of trusted and reusable enterprise data products.
• Ensure local market requirements can be accommodated without unnecessary architectural fragmentation.

3. Snowflake Security & Access Architecture

• Define Snowflake security and access-control architecture.
• Establish principles for role-based access control and appropriate separation of responsibilities.
• Partner with Security and Identity teams on enterprise access requirements.
• Provide architecture guidance for secure handling of sensitive commercial and customer data.

• Snowflake role design and security-related approvals are already among the architecture topics documented internally.

4. Data Integration & Transformation Architecture

• Define architectural standards for data ingestion and transformation using Fivetran and dbt.
• Establish patterns for source-to-Snowflake integration.
• Define scalable approaches for ELT and transformation architecture.
• Guide engineering teams on reusable dbt models and data-layer design.
• Review pipeline and transformation designs for architectural consistency.

5. Architecture Governance & Design Authority

• Serve as a technical design authority for major APJ data platform initiatives.
• Lead architecture and solution design reviews.
• Review technical proposals and identify architecture risks, dependencies, and technical debt.
• Define and maintain architecture standards, principles, and reusable patterns.
• Ensure new data solutions align with the APJ target architecture.
• Partner with engineering teams to move from architecture design to practical implementation.

6. Platform Resilience & Operational Architecture

• Define architectural principles for platform resilience, data protection, and recoverability.
• Partner with relevant technology teams on business continuity and disaster recovery requirements.
• Identify architectural risks and recommend improvements to platform resilience.

• Disaster Recovery for Snowflake has also been an active internal architecture topic.

7. AI-Ready Data Architecture

• Define a data architecture capable of supporting AI/ML and Generative AI workloads.
• Establish architectural patterns for governed consumption of enterprise data by AI applications.
• Work with Data Science and AI teams to ensure the underlying data platform supports emerging AI requirements.
• Evaluate how Snowflake capabilities can be incorporated into the broader APJ data and AI architecture.

• Internal discussions also reference the use of Snowflake for AI-related development and scaling data capabilities.

Required Qualifications

Snowflake Expertise

• Deep hands-on experience with Snowflake is mandatory, including:

• Enterprise Snowflake architecture and solution design
• Data warehouse and analytical data architecture
• Snowflake security and access architecture
• Advanced SQL
• Data modeling
• Performance and scalability considerations
• Production troubleshooting
• Data integration architecture

Data Engineering & Architecture

Strong knowledge and practical experience in:

• dbt
• Fivetran
• Modern ELT/ETL architecture
• Enterprise Data Warehousing
• Data Modeling
• Data Integration
• Data Quality
• Data Governance
• Git-based development and CI/CD concepts
• Cloud data architecture

• The candidate should be technically strong enough to challenge and guide Principal/Senior Data Engineers, rather than functioning only as a high-level solution architect.

Language Requirements

Japanese

• Business-level proficiency required
• The candidate must be able to independently:

• Conduct architecture discussions with Japanese stakeholders.
• Translate business requirements into technical architecture.
• Explain complex technical decisions to both technical and non-technical audiences.

English

• Business-level proficiency required
• The candidate must be able to collaborate effectively with APJ and global technology, architecture, security, and data teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Pharmaceutical or Life Sciences industry experience
• Experience architecting large-scale enterprise Snowflake platforms
• Experience with pharmaceutical commercial and customer data
• Experience with Master Data Management
• Data Governance and Data Quality framework experience
• Experience designing platforms supporting Power BI
• Experience supporting AI/ML or Generative AI solutions
• Experience working across multiple APJ markets
• Experience establishing architecture standards and conducting technical design reviews

What We Expect from a Principal Data Architect

• This role goes beyond producing architecture diagrams.
• The successful candidate will:

• Own the technical direction of the APJ Snowflake data platform
• Establish architecture standards and reusable patterns
• Act as a technical authority for Snowflake architecture
• Challenge and approve critical technical design decisions
• Identify architectural risks and technical debt
• Guide Data Engineers through complex implementation decisions
• Bridge Global architecture standards and APJ/Japan requirements
• Remain sufficiently hands-on to investigate and resolve complex platform issues

Date Posted

Closing Date

Alexion is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We are committed to fostering a culture of belonging where every single person can belong because of their uniqueness. The Company will not make decisions about employment, training, compensation, promotion, and other terms and conditions of employment based on race, color, religion, creed or lack thereof, sex, sexual orientation, age, ancestry, national origin, ethnicity, citizenship status, marital status, pregnancy, (including childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), parental status (including adoption or surrogacy), military status, protected veteran status, disability, medical condition, gender identity or expression, genetic information, mental illness or other characteristics protected by law. Alexion provides reasonable accommodations to meet the needs of candidates and employees. To begin an interactive dialogue with Alexion regarding an accommodation, please contact accommodations@Alexion.com. Alexion participates in E-Verify.