Chief Data Architect

Why Should You Join the Data Technology Team at LPL Financial?
At LPL Financial, we are on a transformational journey marked by a relentless commitment to innovation and excellence. Our mission is straightforward yet impactful: to empower financial advisors with the most advanced tools and insights, enabling them to offer personalized, efficient, and seamless experiences to their clients. 

Central to this mission is our Data Technology team, which is tasked with developing a next-generation data platform that will fundamentally redefine the financial landscape. By leveraging cloud-based technologies, we're not just adapting to the future—we're actively creating it. 

This is a pivotal position that sits at the very heart of our strategy and operations. As we make significant investments in our key data assets and platforms, this role emerges as the cornerstone of our mission to revolutionize the way financial services are delivered and experienced by our clients.  It's a chance to make a significant impact—not just within our company, but in the broader financial industry and in the lives of millions of investors.

Job Overview:
This is a newly created position reporting to the SVP, Enterprise Architecture to join one of the largest independent broker-dealers as Lead Distinguished Data Architect. This role will also be a key contributor to driving the broader enterprise architecture strategy across the organization. If the pursuit of excellence is your calling, then this role will provide a springboard in your career for (a) learning breadth and depth of the wealth management domain (b) leveraging cloud computing, modern data pipelines, AI /ML, API-first, domain driven design, and design principles towards delivering best-in-class technology products, and (c) unique experiences interacting directly with financial advisors as well as the satisfaction of your work product being in the hands of customers.

This Lead Chief Data Architect is a key senior leader and individual contributor charged with designing and stewarding mission-critical parts of LPL Financials’ technology and product strategies and solutions. This role will provide technical architecture leadership and support to the community of solution and data architects across. This individual ensures that the business strategy, along with relevant industry trends and regulatory standards, is expressed in and enabled through solution and product architecture. As a senior leader responsible for crafting end-to-end solutions strategy & architecture, this position partners with business, product, and technology leaders and stakeholders to define target-state architecture, inclusive of upstream and downstream dependencies, along with the increments required to achieve that target-state. This role brings a unique perspective to LPL Financial strategy development, identifies the enterprise implications for transformation efforts, and leads the approach to enacting change across both technical and business systems.

Responsibilities:
This new Chief Data Architect Lead will be a highly technical, forward, and innovative leader who possesses a solid foundation in software engineering.  She/He must be able to work closely with other technology, business, and product leaders to ensure an architectural framework is in place to support LPL Data Technology’s mission, strategy, and growth.  In addition, this leader must have experience working in a highly technical environment utilizing leading-edge tools to build architectural blueprints and frameworks encompassing legacy systems/platforms as well as emerging computing platforms.

This leader will define the architectural blueprints and best practices for mission-critical product portfolios and be responsible for leading the continuous evolution of the supporting technology platform, including strategic technology decisions, architectural upgrades, and potential integrations. Reusable assets and frameworks generated by the Distinguished Architect will be consumed throughout the enterprise and lead to key business outcomes, such as higher velocity, greater quality, increased architecture consistency, and more. This Architect should operate with a close linkage to fellow architects as well as product and business stakeholders to ensure priorities are aligned and addressed.

This Chief Data Architect leader will be a key leader in the broader Enterprise Architecture organization that directs the overall technology strategy for the enterprise.  The Architect will contribute to evolving the vision, defining strategies to achieve the vision, and standards and best practices. She/He will drive common architectural standards across the entire organization that emphasize scalability, availability, security, performance, and quality.

The Lead Distinguished Chief Architect, Data Technology at LPL Financial will:
•    Take a seat on the leadership team of the EVP/CIO who owns Data Technology for LPL.
•    Interface with key business and IT leaders for the purpose of understanding priorities and delivering modern product architecture strategies and solutions that enable the company’s vision and extraordinary growth.
•    Guide a team of domain-aligned solution and data architects to maintain a coherent architectural vision for Data Technology.
•    Serve as an expert for enterprise architecture tools, technology, and standards while providing architectural and strategic consulting in the areas of external trends, best practices, and adherence to standards.
•    Understand and leverage emerging technologies such as AI/ML to drive the transformation of key use cases and experiences.

Requirements:
•    Minimum of 8 years experience developing enterprise-class technology and solutions architectures, inclusive of service-oriented or microservices architectures, event-driven architecture, data platforms, and user experience architectures.
•    Minimum of 5 years of experience in the design and implementation of a modern data architecture (e.g., data mesh) is expected.
•    Strong executive presence and ability to communicate & engage effectively with senior technology leadership.
•    Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, engineering, or a related field

Technical Competencies:
•    Proven leadership in executing transformative projects, with a strong command of modern cloud-based data processing, analytics, and AI/ML, utilizing the AWS technology stack.
•    Skilled in crafting robust data ecosystems optimized for high-volume, real-time operations, employing relational databases such as RDS, NoSQL, along with advanced data technologies like Snowflake and BI tools such as Tableau.
•    Proficiency in architecting Event-Driven solutions encompassing event brokers, streams, and serverless functions to sophisticated event processing and analytics using container and orchestration technologies including but not limited to AWS Kinesis, Kafka, and AWS Lambda.
•    Adept in formulating and enforcing Master Data Management (MDM) strategies, and data governance frameworks, handling metadata, and fostering clear data lineage processes to uphold data integrity and regulatory compliance.
•    A commitment to nurturing a culture of perpetual learning and skill enhancement, advocating for technological modernization and adherence to extensive non-functional requirements (NFRs), such as scalability and seamless integration practices.
•    Deep understanding of modern workplace practices including Domain-Based Design, DevSecOps, Continuous Delivery, and Agile methodologies, with an emphasis on Lean principles.
•    Excellent communication skills, capable of working with leadership to demystify complex data concepts into tangible plans and strategies, underlining the importance of cloud adoption pathways and pinpointing initiatives that resonate with the intended architectural and business aims.
•    Familiarity with API management solutions and the transition to an API-first approach 

Preferences:
• Financial industry experience, particularly in wealth management, securities, and trading.
•    AWS cloud architecture experience. AWS Solution Architect certification is a plus.
•    Snowflake experience.

• #LI-PA 

Pay Range:

$174,675-$291,125/year
 Actual base salary varies based on factors, including but not limited to, relevant skill, prior experience, education, base salary of internal peers, demonstrated performance, and geographic location. Additionally, LPL Total Rewards package is highly competitive, designed to support your success at work, at home, and at play – such as 401K matching, health benefits, employee stock options, paid time off, volunteer time off, and more. Your recruiter will be happy to discuss all that LPL has to offer!
 

Company Overview:

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: LPLA) was founded on the principle that the firm should work for advisors and institutions, and not the other way around. Today, LPL is a leader in the markets we serve, serving more than 23,000 financial advisors, including advisors at approximately 1,000 institutions and at approximately 580 registered investment advisor ("RIA") firms nationwide. We are steadfast in our commitment to the advisor-mediated model and the belief that Americans deserve access to personalized guidance from a financial professional.

At LPL, independence means that advisors and institution leaders have the freedom they deserve to choose the business model, services, and technology resources that allow them to run a thriving business. They have the flexibility to do business their way. And they have the freedom to manage their client relationships, because they know their clients best. Simply put, we take care of our advisors and institutions, so they can take care of their clients.

Join LPL Financial: Where Your Potential Meets Opportunity

At LPL Financial, we believe that everyone deserves objective financial guidance. As the nation’s leading independent broker-dealer, we offer an integrated platform of cutting-edge technology, brokerage, and investment advisor services.

Why LPL?

• Innovative Environment: We foster creativity and growth, providing a supportive and responsive leadership team. Learn more about our leadership team here!

• Limitless Career Potential: Your career at LPL has no limits, only amazing potential. Learn more about our careers here!

• Unified Mission: We are one team on one mission—taking care of our advisors so they can take care of their clients. Learn more about our mission and values here!

• Impactful Work: Our size is just right for you to make a real impact. Learn more here!

• Commitment to Equality: We support workplace equality and embrace diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Learn more here!

• Community Focus: We care for our communities and encourage our employees to do the same. Learn more here!

• Benefits and Total Rewards: Our Total Rewards package goes beyond just compensation and insurance. It includes a mix of traditional and unique benefits, perks, and resources designed to enhance your life both at work and at home. Learn more here!

Join the LPL team and help us make a difference by turning life’s aspirations into financial realities. Please log in or create an account to apply to this position. Principals only. EOE.

Information on Interviews:

LPL will only communicate with a job applicant directly from an @lplfinancial.com email address and will never conduct an interview online or in a chatroom forum.  During an interview, LPL will not request any form of payment from the applicant, or information regarding an applicant’s bank or credit card.  Should you have any questions regarding the application process, please contact LPL’s Human Resources Solutions Center at (855) 575-6947.

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