Chief Data Architect

Job Title: Chief Data Architect

Job Code: 45932

Job Location: Melbourne, FL; Rochester, NY; Salt Lake City, UT; or remote

Job Schedule: 9/80: Employees work 9 out of every 14 days – totaling 80 hours worked – and have every other Friday off

Job Description:

L3Harris is undertaking one of the largest-scale Data/AI implementations in the defense contracting sector. This multi-year, transformative program is building state‑of‑the‑art AI applications on top of unified data. It is integrating ~100 legacy systems—including enterprise resource planning (ERP), product lifecycle management (PLM), supply chain, finance, operations, and specialized domain systems. The capabilities cover dozens of critical corporate use cases spanning program management, finance, operations, supply chain, engineering, and strategic planning.

The Chief Data Architect of the Unified Data Layer is a key senior contributor role that is foundational to the program's success. You will design the ontology strategy that enables seamless data integration and define the operating model and architectural principles and governance for cross‑functional teams.

Essential Functions:

As Chief Data Architect, you will own the strategic design of the entire data and ontology architecture for enterprise Palantir implementation. You will work with a team of experienced architects to leverage leading tools to create a high‑caliber, AI‑leveraged engineering core. You will work closely with IT leadership to establish enterprise standards, and embed architects within product teams to ensure consistent, rapid, compliant, and effective execution. Your decisions on data modeling, domain structures, metadata management, and system integration will directly enable the platform's ability to deliver value rapidly.

This is a hands‑on role: you will spend time selecting architectural tools, designing architectures, reviewing key technical decisions, mentoring architects, and engaging directly with key senior stakeholders. You will operate at the intersection of strategy and execution, ensuring both vision and implementation align.

Team Building & Leadership

• Build a strong technical culture emphasizing principled design, collaborative problem‑solving, continuous learning, and ability to balance speed, performance, and compliance.
• Develop a comprehensive training and mentorship program to rapidly build architect capability. Create architecture communities of practice and knowledge‑sharing mechanisms.

Ontology & Data Architecture Strategy

• Design and roll out the architecture operating model and governance framework to efficiently and effectively work with cross‑functional teams and ensure compliant, high‑performance designs.
• Design the enterprise data ontology strategy—the core conceptual model that represents the organization's entities, relationships, and business concepts. This ontology will serve as the foundation for all Palantir workspaces and integrations.
• Define data integration architecture across ~100 legacy systems, establishing patterns for real‑time and batch data flows, master data management, and data quality frameworks.
• Work with data teams to establish the metadata strategy, governance standards, and lineage tracking to ensure transparency and auditability across the platform.
• Define analytical and operational data models that support diverse use cases (financial analysis, supply chain optimization, engineering insights, strategic planning).

Enterprise Standards & Governance

• Partner with IT leadership to codify enterprise architecture standards, data governance policies, and integration patterns that all teams must follow.
• Define naming conventions, data classification schemes, security models, and compliance requirements (ITAR, etc.).
• Embed architectural standards in implementation teams to maintain consistency as teams implement independently.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration

• Embed architects within product teams (developers, scrum masters, domain SMEs) to guide implementation decisions and translate architectural vision into executable requirements.
• Work with product development teams to validate approach and resolve technical constraints.
• Participate in the engagement of key business stakeholders across finance, operations, supply chain, and engineering to understand use cases to ensure the architectural strategy meets business objec