Principal Data Architect

Established in 2021, Independence Pet Holdings is a corporate holding company that manages a diverse and broad portfolio of modern pet health brands and services, including insurance, pet education, lost recovery services, and more throughout North America.

We believe pet insurance is more than a financial product and build solutions to simplify the pet parenting journey and help improve the well-being of pets. As a leading authority in the pet category, we operate with a full stack of resources, capital, and services to support pet parents. Our multi-brand and omni-channel approach include our own insurance carrier, insurance brands and partner brands.

Role Overview

In close collaboration with the CDO team, this role leads enterprise data architecture and strategy for IPH, driving the architecture and governance of the Unified data platform and enabling advanced analytics and AI/ML capabilities across all Pet Insurance and non-insurance brands.

It combines data platform, architecture, engineering, data governance, and business intelligence architecture to ensure a unified, secure, and scalable data ecosystem.

Key Focus Areas:

Building unified Customer Data Platform (CDP) across multiple zones/domains/lines of business - Enabling data monetization through cross-sell and up-sell insights and customer journey analytics - Driving Gen-AI/Agentic AI adoption (agents, skills, RAG) with data as foundation - Handling non-standard data from various sources (pet metadata, third-party data with formatting issues) - Transforming non-insurance data into pet insurance actionable insights and vice versa.

Key Responsibilities

Calandra Data Platform Architecture (30%)

• Architect, design, and support / govern the implementation the Azure-based enterprise data platform using cloud-native services
• Architect a medallion lakehouse (Bronze/Silver/Gold tiers) for structured and unstructured data
• Enable real-time streaming and batch processing for analytics and operational insights
• Architect a multi-region, multi-AZ architecture with multiple instances per zone for high availability
• Ensure unified CDP across multiple zones/domains/lines of business

Data Governance & Master Data Management (20%)

• With the CDO team, establish an enterprise data governance framework and implement a data catalog for discovery and lineage
• Define MDM strategy to ensure a single source of truth for critical data domains (Customer, Product, Policy)
• Implement data quality monitoring and remediation processes
• Handle non-standard input data with formatting issues from various sources

Analytics & BI Architecture (20%)

• Build a Customer Data Platform (CDP) for all brands, including enrichment pipelines and analytical models
• Enable self-service BI through Power BI and semantic modeling
• Define architecture for reporting and advanced analytics capabilities
• Drive data monetization strategies for cross-sell/up-sell and customer journey insights

Integration & Standards (15%)

• Define data integration patterns, pipeline architecture, and API standards
• Ensure compliance with SOC 2, PCI DSS, and internal security baselines
• Align with Calandra Toolkit and target architecture standards

Strategic Leadership (15%)

• With the CDO team, develop future-state data architecture roadmap aligned with IPH's digital transformation goals
• Partner with business and technology leaders to drive adoption and maturity of data capabilities
• Drive organization toward 90% agentic-driven operations through AI/ML adoption

Data Architecture Process Workflow (Expected Participation)

As Solution Architect:

• Define high-level design, scope, and intended outcomes
• Align to business goals, governance standards, and target architecture (Calandra Toolkit)
• Hand off requirements to Data Architecture

As Data Architect:

• Translate solution into data models, integrations, security, and governance patterns
• Validate scalability, regulatory, compliance, and long-term roadmap alignment
• Produce clear technical specs for engineering

Architecture Review:

• Conduct "Solution Architecture Data Architecture" review - In collaboration with the CDO team
• Support implementation, design, and go-live
• Performance, security, and governance
• Reusability and standards compliance
• Ensure required fixes are addressed before proceeding

Technical Requirements - Required Platforms & Tools

Data Platforms

• Data Platforms, Databricks, Azure Synapse, Microsoft Fabric

BI & Analytics

• Power BI, Self-Service BI, Semantic Modeling

CDP

• Customer Data Platform architecture, enrichment pipelines

Cloud

• Azure (primary), AWS

Streaming

• Kafka, Kinesis, Spark Streaming, Real-time pipelines

Data Governance

• Data Catalog, Lineage, MDM, Quality Frameworks

Gen-AI & Agentic Requirements (Nice to Have → Becoming Critical)

Machine Learning

• Model building, deployment, ML pipelines

Gen-AI Agents & Skills

• Multi-agent pipelines, agentic workflows

RAG

• Retrieval Augmented Generation for data insights

Data Monetization

• E2E framework with data as a base, AI on top to deliver customer value

90% Agentic Driven

• Vision to drive org toward agentic automation

Client Technology Stack (Familiarity Expected)

MS Dynamics

• Internal client CRM

New Portal

• External client portal (in-house, React MS stack)

DocGen

• Document generation (MS stack)

EIS Insurance Platform

• Middle layer - Policy/Group Admin

Earnix

• 3rd party Rating/Pricing engine

General Qualifications

• 10 years enterprise data architecture experience; deep expertise with Azure data platforms.
• 8 years in analytics/BI architecture and Power BI at enterprise scale.

Preferred Qualifications

• Azure Data Engineer or Solutions Architect Expert certification
• Experience with Databricks, Synapse, and Microsoft Fabric
• Strong knowledge of lakehouse patterns, streaming architectures, and data governance frameworks
• Insurance industry experience is a plus
• Experience building end-to-end frameworks with data as a foundation and AI on top
• Hands-on with Data, Gen-AI agents, RAG, and agentic workflows

Key Success Metrics

Unified CDP

• Single customer 360 view across all brands/zones

Data Quality

• 95% quality scores

Agentic Automation

• Progress toward 90% agentic-driven operations

Cross-sell/Up-sell

• Data-driven insights driving revenue

Compliance

• SOC 2, PCI DSS compliance maintained

Platform Adoption

• Self-service BI adoption across business units

All of our jobs come with great benefits including healthcare, parental leave and opportunities for career advancements. Some offerings are dependent upon the location of where you work and can include the following:

• Comprehensive full medical, dental and vision Insurance
• Basic Life Insurance at no cost to the employee
• Company paid short-term and long-term disability
• 12 weeks of 100% paid Parental Leave
• Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• Retirement savings plan
• Personal Paid Time Off
• Paid holidays and company-wide Wellness Day off
• Paid time off to volunteer at nonprofit organizations
• Pet friendly office environment
• Commuter Benefits
• Group Pet Insurance
• On the job training and skills development
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)