Data Architect (Assistant Principal Officer level)

Roles and Responsibilities

The Role

We are looking for a Data Architect with values consistent with public service values who would like to bring their extensive experience to the Civil Service.

The successful candidate will build and maintain strong relationships with business partners while supporting the organisation’s use of secondary data, including administrative data and big data, and ensuring delivery of a scalable and efficient architecture.

This role presents an opportunity for an individual who wants to play a role in delivering on the ambition for Ireland to be a leader in evidence informed policy, which is one of the main pillars of the Better Public Services Strategy.

This role requires the person to:

• Be an experienced team leader
• Have hands-on experience in data architecture
• Have hands-on experience in the development and implementation of data-driven solutions at both operational and strategic levels in a corporate environment

Reporting to the Head of Data Engineering and Architecture (Senior Statistician), the key responsibilities of the post will include, but not be limited to:

• Develop a data architecture for current and future data holdings
• Develop policies and procedures to ensure best practices in data architecture, including data quality, security, governance, scalability, and availability
• Design and maintain both logical and physical data architecture and data models to ensure data is consistent, accessible, reliable, and aligned with organisational goals
• Implement and support data engineering pipelines, including extract, transform, load and extract, load, transform processes, for integrating and migrating data from multiple sources
• Develop, document, and maintain source-to-target mappings and metadata repositories to facilitate understanding and management of data assets
• Integrate and separate data feeds to map, produce, transform, and test new data products as needed
• Ensure robust security, accessibility, and version control in all data solutions, using appropriate coding tools and languages
• Design, write, and iterate code from prototype to production-ready solutions, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements
• Lead, mentor, and develop data engineering team members, overseeing staff management, resource allocation, and professional development
• Liaise and partner closely with the technology team in the implementation of the data architecture within the Central Statistics Office
• Create, manage, and maintain support documentation and online manuals for data solutions and processes
• Lead projects focused on delivering innovative and cost-effective data provisioning solutions
• Continuously improve technical skills and stay up to date with evolving technologies relevant to business intelligence and data services
• Ensure that all risks associated with deployment are well understood, documented, and managed
• Operate with sound judgment, integrity, and confidentiality, upholding public service values
• Collaborate effectively with stakeholders across organisational, technical, and political boundaries, tailoring communication to diverse audiences
• Perform other related duties as assigned by management in support of team and organisational goals

Eligibility to Compete and Certain Restrictions on Eligibility

Citizenship Requirements

Eligible candidates must be:

(a) A citizen of the European Economic Area. The European Economic Area consists of the Member States of the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway; or

(b) A citizen of the United Kingdom; or

(c) A citizen of Switzerland pursuant to the agreement between the European Union and Switzerland on the free movement of persons; or

(d) A non-European Economic Area citizen who has a Stamp 4 permission or a Stamp 5 permission.

Please note that a 50 Treaty on European Union visa, which is a replacement for Stamp 4 European Union Family Member after Brexit, is acceptable as a Stamp 4 equivalent.

To qualify, candidates must meet one of the citizenship criteria above by the date of any job offer.

If your visa expires, this may result in your being stepped down from your employment until such time as you have regularised your permission to work in the State.

Essential Entry Requirements

The successful candidate must, on or before 15 April 2026:

Given the technical nature of the role to be filled, the successful candidate must have a relevant qualification matched with experience appropriate to this Data Architect (Assistant Principal Officer) role. The responsibility is on the applicant to ensure that the application form demonstrates the experience gained to date.

Accordingly, the successful candidate must meet one of the following sets of criteria:

A. Have obtained a qualification at Level 7 on the National Framework of Qualifications major award, that is, an ordinary level degree, in a relevant computing or computational discipline and have at least five years directly relevant hands-on Data Architecture experience

OR

B. Have obtained a qualification at Level 8 on the National Framework of Qualifications major award, that is, an honours degree or higher, in a relevant computing or computational discipline and have at least three years directly relevant hands-on Data Architecture experience

OR

C. Have obtained a Level 8 qualification on the National Framework of Qualifications major award, that is, an honours degree or higher, with computing or computational modules taken in the final year and have at least five years directly relevant hands-on Data Architecture experience

OR

D. Have at least eight years directly relevant hands-on Data Architecture experience and either:

a) A Level 6 qualification on the National Framework of Qualifications major award or higher in a relevant area of Data Architecture

or

b) At least two industry recognised certifications in a relevant area of Data Architecture

Examples of relevant experience include, but are not limited to: database design, data modelling, extract, transform, load and extract, load, transform processes, cloud platforms, big data technologies such as Hadoop and Spark, data governance, architecture design, design of data warehouses, data lakes, and data lakehouses

Technical Expertise

• Proven experience in designing and implementing data architecture and data models, both logical and physical, at scale
• Experience in development of databases, data warehouses, data lakes, and data lakehouses
• Demonstrated expertise in pipeline implementation, extract, transform, load and extract, load, transform integration, and data migration

Core Competencies

• Ability to liaise and collaborate with both data and technology teams and an awareness of associated challenges
• Sound judgment, appreciation for public service values, and a strong sense of integrity and confidentiality
• Strong leadership and mentoring abilities, including team and project management experience

Desirable Skills

While not all are required, experience in some of the following areas is advantageous:

• Strong analytical and problem solving skills with a track record in applying data management best practices, including data profiling, quality assurance, and data cleansing
• Ability to compare and select appropriate tools and modelling approaches, including reverse engineering data models from live systems
• Understanding of industry recognised data modelling patterns and standards
• Good knowledge of industry trends and emerging technologies
• Proficiency in writing, iterating, and deploying code using relevant programming languages and tools
• Experience planning, designing, executing, and reporting on tests within regulatory frameworks
• Vendor management experience
• Familiarity with metadata management tools and ability to design and maintain metadata repositories
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to non technical stakeholders
• Commitment to continuous professional development
• Ability to develop resilient, scalable, and future proof data services

Salary Scale

€82,290 to €102,550 Assistant Principal Personal Pension Contribution Scale