Principal Data Architect & Technical Product Owner

SteerBridge is seeking a senior technical leader to set enterprise data architecture for the Modern Disability Claims (MDC) effort and to serve as the Technical Product Owner for the MDC data pipeline. The role combines architectural ownership with independent backlog prioritization and delivery accountability across Scrum-based data engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Own the target-state architecture for claims, clinical, and healthcare data, including conceptual, logical, and physical models, integration patterns, and cloud data platforms.
• Independently prioritize and maintain the technical product backlog, defining epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, dependencies, and delivery priorities in partnership with mission stakeholders.
• Own product decisions and sprint delivery outcomes for data engineering Scrum teams, guiding sprint planning, refinement, reviews, and continuous improvement in coordination with team facilitators.
• Provide experienced leadership and mentorship to MDC Scrum teams by establishing mature Agile delivery practices, strengthening backlog refinement, improving sprint planning and execution discipline, and increasing delivery predictability; coach engineers, junior architects, and Scrum team members on technical delivery, product ownership practices, and architecture standards.
• Design scalable batch and real-time ETL/ELT pipelines, including schema evolution, data quality controls, lineage, observability, and governance.
• Direct cloud platform architecture and technology decisions across AWS, Azure, or GCP and enterprise warehouse or lake technologies.
• Apply appropriate access controls, sensitive-data safeguards, and federal and healthcare data handling requirements.
• Enable analytics and AI/ML use cases through reliable, governed, reusable data infrastructure.
• Lead architecture reviews, resolve cross-system tradeoffs, and communicate roadmaps, risks, priorities, and technical decisions to executive and government stakeholders.

Requirements

• U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain a Public Trust clearance (an active Secret or Top Secret clearance satisfies this requirement).
• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Data Science, or a related field.
• At least six years of professional data architecture experience and at least two years of hands-on technical Product Owner experience, including independent responsibility for backlog prioritization, product decisions, and Scrum delivery; these can be concurrent if both capabilities are clearly demonstrated.
• Demonstrated enterprise-scale data architecture ownership in a cloud environment, including data modeling, platform design, and data integration.
• Actual experience independently prioritizing a technical product backlog, making backlog decisions, and guiding sprint execution for an engineering or data team (a formal Product Owner title is not required).
• Demonstrated experience improving Agile/Scrum team maturity through hands-on product ownership, coaching, mentorship, and implementation of effective backlog management, sprint planning, and delivery practices.
• Proficiency with SQL and Python, with practical experience using relevant data engineering tools and workflows such as Pandas, PySpark, and Git.
• Experience with enterprise data warehouses or lakes such as Databricks, Redshift, BigQuery, or Snowflake, or comparable platforms.
• Ability to brief senior executives and government stakeholders, explain architectural tradeoffs, and mentor technical teams.
• Ability to work in a hybrid arrangement based in Vienna, VA, with expected on-site presence of at least three days per week, subject to supervisor direction.

Technology

• AWS, Azure, GCP
• SQL, Python
• Pandas, PySpark, Git
• Databricks, Redshift, BigQuery, Snowflake

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with federal claims, healthcare, clinical, or other regulated and sensitive data environments, including HIPAA and federal data requirements.
• Experience establishing enterprise data modeling standards, master data management, metadata catalogs, lineage, and data governance.
• Familiarity with dimensional modeling, Data Vault, OLTP/OLAP architecture, and hybrid or multi-cloud design.
• Experience supporting AI/ML-ready data platforms, analytics, feature pipelines, and data science teams.
• Infrastructure as code, CI/CD, DevOps, and cost/performance governance for cloud data platforms.

Compensation

USD 170,000 - 190,000 per year.

Benefits

• Health insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Life Insurance
• 401(k) Retirement Plan with matching
• Paid Time Off
• Paid Federal Holidays

SteerBridge also offers benefits that may include health and life insurance, paid time off, paid holidays, disability coverage, retirement savings, and professional development opportunities. Benefits vary by position and eligibility.