Data Architect

About the Organization

Are you looking for a different type of state government job? Something with a little more excitement and a more fast-paced and fluid environment? How about an opportunity to be part of one of the most remarkable transportation projects in California's history? The California High-Speed Rail Authority is a small and dynamic state agency that is looking for employees who are interested in a challenging and rewarding job opportunity.

About the Role

Under administrative direction of the Chief Data Officer, an Information Technology (IT) Manager II, the IT Specialist III (Data Architect) leads the design, development, and implementation of the enterprise data strategy. This includes defining the technical data architecture, modern data platforms, enterprise data warehouse, and analytics infrastructure. The incumbent collaborates with business and IT stakeholders to establish scalable data engineering practices, enterprise data governance, and business intelligence capabilities. The Data Architect drives innovation by designing secure, high-performing, and future-ready data solutions that make data accessible, trusted, and actionable across the organization.

Desirable Skills

• Demonstrated knowledge and experience in data architecture, data management, business intelligence, and governance.
• Proficiency in data analysis, data modeling, and data visualization.
• Experience with modern data platforms (cloud-native architectures (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP), data lakehouse (e.g., Delta Lake, Snowflake), event-driven or microservices-based data platforms).
• Experience with modern data pipeline tools and technology.
• Experience designing and implementing data pipelines for production environments.
• Experience of governance frameworks (evidence of work with data cataloging tools (e.g., Collibra, Alation), metadata management, and data lineage.
• Experience with implementing governance and compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA.
• Enabling analytics and self-service BI (experience with BI tools (Power BI, Tableau, Looker, ThoughtSpot), semantic layer design, and data modeling for analytics).
• Ability to lead teams, communicate effectively with stakeholders, and influence decision-making.
• Ability to establish and maintain cooperative working relationships with all levels of staff, management, and vendor partners; communicate effectively with executive leadership, peers, end users, technical staff and partners, oversight agencies, and other stakeholders.
• Ability to prepare or direct the preparation of clear and concise documentation (e.g., architecture diagrams, workflows, roadmaps, policies, etc.).
• Ability to research and analyze technical solutions and provide recommendations that support the Authority’s technical direction.
• Ability to meet business needs through innovative solutions in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to adapt to changes in direction or organizational change.
• Ability to manage multiple high priority initiatives in a fast-paced achievement- oriented environment.
• Ability to communicate complex technical information in a manner easily understood by non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality of sensitive tasks, assignments, and information.
• Ability to work under pressure to meet deadlines.
• Display a working knowledge of project management practices, the system development lifecycle, etc.
• Demonstrate a service-oriented and customer relations-sensitive attitude.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the California State Administrative Manual and California Statewide Information Management Manual.
• Willingness to work excess hours to achieve business results.
• Display enthusiasm and aptitude for continuous learning.

Minimum Qualifications

To learn more about the minimum qualifications, please click here.

Benefits

Benefit information can be found on the CalHR website and the CalPERS website.

Equal Opportunity Statement

The State of California is an equal opportunity employer to all, regardless of age, ancestry, color, disability (mental and physical), exercising the right to family care and medical leave, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, military or veteran status, national origin, political affiliation, race, religious creed, sex (includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and related medical conditions), and sexual orientation.