Senior Director, Data Architecture

Starr Insurance Companies is a leading insurance and investment organization providing commercial property and casualty insurance including travel and accident coverage to almost every imaginable business and industry in virtually every part of the world.

Cornelius Vander Starr established his first insurance company in Shanghai China in 1919. Today we are one of the worlds fastest growing insurance organizations capable of writing in 128 countries on 6 continents.

Job Description: Senior Director Data Architecture

Location:New York NY

Reports to:Head of Data Engineering & Chief Data Officer

Department:Starr Technology Group

Overview:

The Senior Director Data Architecture is a pivotal leadership role responsible for championing building and scaling a world-class Data Architecture practice in support of Starrs global enterprise data vision. Reporting to the Chief Data Officer the candidate will define and deliver modern resilient and secure data architectures that underpin all insurance systems capabilities and platforms. Leveraging deep domain experience in insurance (P&C and Specialty lines) data management modeling and analytics the Senior Director will translate business and technical requirements into scalable data solutions that enable the organizations innovation regulatory compliance and growth objectives.

Central to this role is the development and stewardship of data architectural best practices reference architectures and standardized frameworks that drive consistency quality and governance across all data assetsspanning domains from Customer Policy Claims and Financials to the augmentation of external data. The Senior Director will work collaboratively with engineering product analytics and delivery teams to translate requirements into solutions providing architectural oversight and hands-on technical delivery for strategic initiatives and maintaining a current/future state roadmap for all data capabilities.

This leader will drive adoption of modern data technologies advanced data modeling cloud architectures and data governance principles while building the discipline and maturity of Starrs Data Architecture organization. This position is critical for supporting the scalable growth of business intelligence analytics and cross-enterprise data operations across the insurance portfolio.

Responsibilities:

Data Architecture Vision Strategy & Governance

• Define and execute the data architecture vision and strategic roadmap in close alignment with the CDO and enterprise data strategy.

• Architect scalable resilient and secure solutions for enterprise-wide data integration warehousing analytics operational systems and augmentation with external data sources.

• Develop and champion standardized insurance-centric data modeling frameworks data architecture best practices and reference architectures to ensure quality consistency and performance.

Architectural Oversight & Solution Delivery

• Drive architectural oversight for design build and operate phases of critical enterprise data initiativesincluding new insurance products data platforms modernization digital transformation and regulatory projects.

• Translate functional and technical requirements into robust data architectures; guide engineering analytics product and delivery teams throughout the data solution lifecycle.

• Perform hands-on technical delivery and problem solving for complex strategic initiatives ensuring successful execution against business compliance and technical requirements.

• Formalize current- and future-state architectural roadmaps that support unified global and consistent views of Customer Policy Claims Financials and other key insurance data domains.

Insurance Data Domain Leadership

• Develop and maintain standardized insurance data models schemas and pipelines; ensure applicability across the business for operational analytical and regulatory purposes.

• Integrate core insurance application data (e.g. Policy Administration Claims Reinsurance Financials) with enterprise data platform and external third-party sources for holistic insights.

• Lead data architecture initiatives supporting evolving requirements of actuarial underwriting claims compliance finance and product innovation teams.

Adoption of Modern Data Technologies & Best Practices

• Evaluate select and drive adoption of cutting-edge data technologies and architectural approaches (cloud-native distributed streaming data lakehouse real-time analytics).

• Accelerate enablement of cloud-based medallion architecture (bronze/silver/gold) data pipeline automation metadata management and advanced analytics infrastructure.

• Promote strong data governance integrationincluding quality cataloging lineage privacy security and compliance policiesacross all data architecture outputs.

Data Organization Leadership & Team Building

• Build and mentor a high-performing Data Architecture function including data architects modelers solution designers and technical delivery leads.

• Foster cross-team collaboration with engineering operations analytics and governance teams ensuring seamless delivery of robust data solutions across the enterprise.

Stakeholder Engagement & Change Leadership

• Serve as chief architectural advisor and liaison to internal and external stakeholders - educating teams on data architecture capabilities and value.

• Ensure business requirements are accurately captured and reflected in scalable technical designs; drive business adoption and platform utilization.

Continuous Improvement Innovation & Risk Management

• Champion continuous improvement in architectural processes tooling methodology and capability development.

• Lead architectural risk assessment mitigation and proactive controls to ensure technical business and compliance objectives are met.

• Track and report architectural health and progress using enterprise KPIs quality metrics and roadmap milestones.

Technical Skills & Requirements:

• Advanced hands-on expertise in designing and modeling enterprise data architectures (cloud-native hybrid lakehouse distributed real-time).

• Deep experience with data management advanced data modeling (conceptual logical physical) insurance data schemas and master data/reference data frameworks.

• Proven delivery across modern data technology stacksDatabricks Snowflake Spark AWS/Azure/GCP data services streaming/data integration platforms metadata/cataloging tools.

• Expertise in Medallion architecture batch/streaming pipeline design external data augmentation.

• In-depth understanding of metadata management data governance lineage cataloging residency and security/privacy frameworks.

• Familiarity with insurance business models core platforms (Guidewire Duck Creek Majesco) and regulatory/compliance-driven architecture requirements.

• Ability to assess legacy and modern architectures and transition organizations toward future state aligned with business goals.

• Experience driving transformation of architecture standards and best practices across globally distributed teams.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science Data Science Data Engineering Information Systems or related field; advanced degree highly preferred.

• 12 years experience in data architecture data modeling and enterprise data management with 5 years in senior leadership roles.

• Significant insurance industry experience ideally within P&C and Specialty with deep understanding of industry data requirements.

• Proven track record architecting delivering and governing complex data solutions for operational analytical and regulatory purposes in global organizations.

• Expertise building and formalizing insurance data models frameworks and best practices.

• Experience leading architectural teams driving transformation and adoption of modern data architectures and governance.

• Excellent technical leadership stakeholder management communication and problem-solving skills.

• Professional certifications in data architecture cloud platforms (AWS Azure GCP) and insurance data management are highly desirable.

Starr is an equal opportunity employer which means well consider all suitably qualified applicants regardless of gender identity or expression ethnic origin nationality religion or beliefs age sexual orientation disability status or any other protected characteristic. We recruit and develop our people based on merit and were committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We offer first class training and development opportunities to all employees. Our aim is to grow our own talent and bring out the best in people.