Senior Data Architect

About the role

M-PESA Africa is looking for a Senior Data Architect to design, govern, and evolve our enterprise data landscape across multiple markets. Operating at the intersection of mobile money, payments infrastructure, AI, and analytics, you will set architectural standards and strategic direction for data flow, governance, and value generation across M-PESA platforms.

Key responsibilities

• Own the enterprise data architecture across transactional, operational, analytical, and AI/ML domains, defining modelling standards and integration patterns.
• Establish and champion enterprise-wide data governance frameworks, data quality standards, and master data management policies.
• Design and govern streaming and change‑data‑capture pipelines using technologies such as Apache Kafka and Oracle GoldenGate.
• Enable AI/ML use cases by defining feature‑store designs, vector‑database strategies, and production model‑serving infrastructure.
• Serve as the senior data architecture voice in architecture review boards, mentor mid‑level engineers, and produce executive‑ready artefacts.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering or related field.
• At least 3 years of senior or lead experience in data architecture or engineering, preferably in financial services, fintech or telecommunications.
• Proven track record designing enterprise‑scale data platforms and implementing governance frameworks.

Required skills

• Data modelling (conceptual, logical, physical) for OLTP and OLAP systems.
• Cloud data platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and big‑data technologies (Apache Spark, Databricks, Google BigQuery, Amazon Redshift).
• Data integration patterns: ETL/ELT, Change Data Capture, event streaming, API‑driven exchange.
• Data governance frameworks and tools (DAMA‑DMBOK, Apache Atlas, Collibra).
• Streaming platforms (Apache Kafka) and CDC tools (Oracle GoldenGate).
• Feature‑store design, vector databases, and LLM‑ready data infrastructure.