Data Architect

About the Role

This is a foundational leadership role in shaping Swiss Re’s underwriting data infrastructure. As an Assistant Vice President, Data Architect, you will drive the design of scalable, secure, and reusable data platforms that transform the way we capture, structure, and use data across analytics, operations, and digital products.

You will lead architecture efforts in support of our data-first strategy—revolutionizing the flow from “data as a service” to “data as a product.” For most of insurance history, data has followed systems and processes. Our future flips that order: our systems, insights, and automation will revolve around trusted, high-quality, and highly structured data. Swiss Re is proud to lead this transformation.

You will work closely with key leadership, including the Head of Underwriting Data, who you will report to, and the Analytics and Governance teams, to ensure that architecture is aligned with quality, compliance, lineage, and strategic use case requirements. This role bridges strategy and implementation—making sure our platforms deliver both flexibility and control.

Strategic Mandate

As we accelerate our transformation into a data-driven underwriting organization, your mission will be to:

• Design future-ready, cloud-native data architectures that scale with business growth and enable real-time insight delivery.

• Build the architectural foundations that empower Underwriting, Portfolio Management, Actuarial, and Digital teams with timely, trustworthy data.
• Operationalize the shift from siloed, ad hoc pipelines to a shared Analytical Layer powered by reusable data products and governed metadata.

This role is pivotal in driving the data-first evolution of our underwriting platforms—where high-grain, high-consistency data flows are no longer a backend concern but a business enabler and differentiator.

Primary Responsibilities

A. Enterprise Data Architecture Leadership

• Define scalable, secure enterprise architecture aligned with strategic growth priorities.
• Own and evolve our conceptual, logical, and physical data models across domains.
• Align architecture with underwriting use cases and analytics applications across business lines.

B. Standards, Modeling & Design Excellence

• Set best practices for cloud-native modeling, metadata, reference data, and lineage design.
• Define standardized blueprints for data lakes, warehouses, marts, and the Analytical Layer.
• Support master data management and high-reliability design for mission-critical flows.

C. Platform Integration & Engineering Enablement

• Collaborate with engineering teams to develop performant ETL/ELT pipelines and APIs.
• Ensure that architectural patterns allow for modular reuse, auto scaling, and operational monitoring.
• Contribute to CI/CD practices, data validation automation, and integration playbooks.

D. Governance & Strategic Alignment

• Partner with Data Governance team to embed stewardship, metadata, and controls into architecture.
• Ensure designs support lineage, audit, and regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR compliance).
• Participate in architecture review boards and provide strategic recommendations.

E. Innovation & Technology Leadership

• Evaluate emerging technologies and lead POCs for architectural innovation.
• Serve as technical advisor on system modernization and data platform evolution.
• Champion a product-oriented mindset to data—building for discoverability, trust, and reuse. About

About the Team

Will join the Global Underwriting Data & Analytics team – a talented, curious and collegial cohort committed to solving the biggest challenges facing the industry today. The team brings a deep understanding of the Underwriting problem statement and the technical purview necessary to solve it.



About You

You are an experienced data leader, passionate about building systems that last, solve real business problems, and enable others to innovate on top of trusted foundations.

 Qualifications and Experience Required:

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or other rigorous technical discipline.
• 5+ years of experience in data architecture, data engineering, or solution architecture within global, matrixed organizations.
• Deep expertise in data modeling (dimensional, canonical, normalized) and reference/metadata frameworks.
• Hands-on experience designing and implementing data pipelines and warehouse/lake architectures with proficiency in programming languages (eg. Python, SQL, Spark etc.)
• Strong proficiency in Azure, Snowflake, Databricks, or similar cloud platforms.
• Working knowledge of data governance practices, quality metrics, and stewardship integration.
• Track record of supporting regulated environments (e.g., GDPR) and enforcing privacy-by-design.
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder alignment skills.
• Proven ability to balance long-term vision with near-term deliverables under tight timelines.

About Swiss Re

Swiss Re is one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance, insurance and other forms of insurance-based risk transfer, working to make the world more resilient. We anticipate and manage a wide variety of risks, from natural catastrophes and climate change to cybercrime. We cover both Property & Casualty and Life & Health. Combining experience with creative thinking and cutting-edge expertise, we create new opportunities and solutions for our clients. This is possible thanks to the collaboration of more than 14,000 employees across the world.

Our success depends on our ability to build an inclusive culture encouraging fresh perspectives and innovative thinking. We embrace a workplace where everyone has equal opportunities to thrive and develop professionally regardless of their age, gender, race, ethnicity, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, skillset, thought or other characteristics. In our inclusive and flexible environment everyone can bring their authentic selves to work and their passion for sustainability.

If you are an experienced professional returning to the workforce after a career break, we encourage you to apply for open positions that match your skills and experience.