How to hire a senior data architect

How to hire a senior data architect, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior data architect hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a senior data architect job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior data architect
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a senior data architect do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   The senior data architect hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A senior data architect's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, senior data architects from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list shows salaries for various types of senior data architects.

   Type of Senior Data Architect	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Data Architect		$43-76
   Data Engineer	A data engineer is someone who makes data science possible. This IT job requires the search for data set trends and algorithm development to make raw data more beneficial to the enterprise... Show more	$38-71
   Data Warehouse Developer	Data Warehouse Developers are information technology (IT) professionals assigned to manage company-related information or data. They are responsible for creating the company's data warehouse, where the company's data will be stored... Show more	$34-57

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Analytics
   • Data Lake
   • AWS
   • Python
   • Hadoop
   • Java
   • NoSQL
   • Cloud Computing
   • Amazon Web Services
   • Data Warehousing
   • ETL
   • Data Quality
   • BI
   • Emerging Technologies

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Develop shell scripts to automate some db maintaining and monitoring tasks.
   • Report procedures against SSAS are constructed and ExcelWriter templates are developed to automate and replace existing manually generate, client-contract reports.
   • Work at length with pycassa (python driver) and Astyanax (Java driver).
   • Implement enterprise grade platform (mark logic) for ETL from mainframe to NOSQL (cassandra).
   • Analyze the existing ETL application (python base), which is written using BTEQs to understand the ETL transformations.
   • Establish escalation policies for the db team.

   More senior data architect duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your senior data architect job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A senior data architect salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

   For example, the average salary for a senior data architect in Arkansas may be lower than in California, and an entry-level senior data architect usually earns less than a senior-level senior data architect. Additionally, a senior data architect with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

   Average senior data architect salary

   $120,247yearly

   $57.81 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior data architect salary

   $90,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 5, 2025

   Average senior data architect salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$147,934	$71
   2	Washington	$123,921	$60
   3	New Jersey	$123,132	$59
   4	New York	$121,578	$58
   5	Arizona	$119,600	$58
   6	Massachusetts	$117,111	$56
   7	Connecticut	$116,436	$56
   8	District of Columbia	$115,845	$56
   9	Pennsylvania	$115,005	$55
   10	Texas	$110,487	$53
   11	North Carolina	$110,327	$53
   12	Ohio	$108,234	$52
   13	Virginia	$108,132	$52
   14	Illinois	$107,847	$52
   15	Wisconsin	$107,655	$52
   16	Missouri	$105,234	$51
   17	Florida	$104,536	$50
   18	Michigan	$103,218	$50
   19	Georgia	$103,107	$50
   20	Colorado	$101,553	$49

   Average senior data architect salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Lyft	$164,255	$78.97	9
   2	Netflix	$160,211	$77.02	4
   3	Twitter	$156,230	$75.11
   4	PayPal	$155,438	$74.73	17
   5	Google	$153,985	$74.03	273
   6	McKinsey & Company Inc	$150,085	$72.16	91
   7	The Walt Disney Company	$149,910	$72.07	74
   8	Palo Alto Networks	$145,147	$69.78	22
   9	Netgear	$142,912	$68.71
   10	Logitech	$142,592	$68.55
   11	Amazon	$140,471	$67.53	853
   12	Avian	$140,103	$67.36	1
   13	Invesco	$139,145	$66.90	4
   14	Milliman	$137,888	$66.29	10
   15	Genentech	$137,192	$65.96	30
   16	Cloudera	$137,006	$65.87
   17	Citi	$135,441	$65.12	22
   18	Stanford Health Care	$135,273	$65.04	9
   19	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	$134,903	$64.86	310
   20	BNY Mellon	$134,823	$64.82	11

4. Writing a senior data architect job description

   A job description for a senior data architect role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a senior data architect job description:

   Senior data architect job description example

   Senior Data Analytics (Job Fair) - Santa Ana, Costa Rica
   Do your talents lie in simplifying and improving business processes? Are you ready to offer up your skills in a global business that's committed to moving money for the better? Join Western Union as a Senior Data Analytics.
   
   Motivated by our values: purpose driven, globally minded, and trustworthy & respectful
   We're a FinTech that's using insight from customers and colleagues worldwide to improve financial services for families, small businesses, multinational corporations, and non-profit organizations. We're a team of over 8,000 employees serving 200 countries and territories. We believe when money moves, better things happen.
   
   Better requires process discipline and simplification
   We are looking for someone who would excel at supporting our Data Analytics team. This role will focus on driving and supporting specific business growth initiatives at Western Union by utilizing efficient techniques to provide meaningful insights informing key business results.
   
   You will be partnering with resources from various internal Data teams to align on insights, recommendations, and steps forward. The role requires innovative systematic thinking, creative problem solving, and strong analytical skills. Most of your time will be spent working on solutions to critical problems, querying databases, and performing various analytic/statistical techniques.
   
   The ability to communicate in a cross-cultural environment (which makes English proficiency a must-have), create relationships, and influence stakeholders, are the key soft skills to succeed. From a core technical standpoint, proficiency in SQL, data modeling, statistics (using R or Python), and excel would be the minimal requirements for this role. You'll have the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and related hands-on experience for data analysis daily and will actively contribute to pushing for a data insight-driven organizational behavior.
   
   For this role, you will need to hold a bachelor's degree or be an advanced degree holder in STEM fields such as statistics, math, software engineering, computer science, or similar others. You will combine your education with at least 5 years of experience in similar roles managing data analytics, data modeling and interpretation, and delivering actionable insights.
   Relevant experience within the financial industry is preferred. You should demonstrate the ability to organize and manage multiple, time-sensitive projects. You should have excellent verbal and written communication skills (English C1). You should be driven and inquisitive and above everything carry a problem-solving attitude at your core.
   
   Join us, and let's connect the world
   Western Union is transforming its business and shaping the financial services sector by driving quality, convenience, and customer service to new levels of excellence. It's an exciting time for our organization, as the largest cross-border money transfer operator, trusted by millions of consumers around the world. If you're ready to unleash your potential to help drive change through bottom-up innovation, apply now.
   
   We're a company on the move, and we want our people to grow and develop. You'll have plenty of opportunities to learn new skills and build a career, as well as a great salary and benefits package.
   
   We are passionate about our diversity. Our commitment is to provide an inclusive culture that celebrates the unique backgrounds and perspectives of our global teams while reflecting the communities we serve. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, political affiliation, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, or veteran status. The company will provide accommodation to applicants, including those with disabilities, during the recruitment process, in accordance with applicable laws.
   #LI-YV

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find senior data architects for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any senior data architects they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level senior data architects with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   To find senior data architect candidates, you can consider the following options:

   • Post your job opening on Zippia or other job search websites.
   • Use niche websites that focus on engineering and technology jobs, such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post your job on free job posting websites.

6. Interview candidates

   During your first interview to recruit senior data architects, engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. During the following interview, you'll be able to go into more detail about the company, the position, and the responsibilities.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   While interviews are great, you will only sometimes learn enough from a conversation with a senior data architect applicant. In those cases, having candidates complete a test project can go a long way in figuring out who's the most likely to succeed in the role. If you aren't a technical person and don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new senior data architect

   Once you've decided on a perfect senior data architect candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new senior data architect. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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