Principal Data Architect (AI)

Location: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, or New York, United States

Salary: $168,500–$206,000 annualized in Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Texas; $191,000–$234,500 annualized in New York City. Other locations follow competitive geographic market rates.

Company

Bain & Company is a management consulting firm whose Enterprise Technology team helps clients modernize technology strategy, architecture, and systems.

What you will do

• Lead enterprise data architecture strategies, target states, reference models, and transformation roadmaps.
• Architect secure, resilient, scalable data platforms across cloud, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments.
• Define Data Office operating models, governance, ownership, delivery capabilities, and data-sharing standards.
• Shape data foundations for analytics and AI, including data engineering, feature engineering, model data pipelines, and MLOps.
• Advise senior executives, validate architecture proposals, and lead complex client workstreams and multi-office teams.
• Support proposals, go-to-market offerings, account expansion, thought leadership, recruiting, and people development.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in data architecture and technology leadership, including large-scale transformation programs.
• Deep enterprise data architecture expertise across multiple industries and experience shaping data strategies, target architectures, platform roadmaps, and operating models.
• End-to-end experience leading complex, multi-year data transformation programs from strategy and architecture through implementation and migration.
• Delivery experience across data engineering, feature engineering, model data pipelines, and MLOps enablement for AI.
• Hands-on experience with modern data stacks and cloud data services, including Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric, and AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Strong knowledge of data governance, metadata, data quality, Master Data Management, data integration, security, privacy, and responsible data use.
• Client leadership and business development experience covering pre-sales, go-to-market efforts, proposal shaping, and account expansion.
• Exceptional communication, influencing, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, independence, and ability to manage competing priorities in ambiguous environments.
• Ability to lead, mentor, and inspire diverse, cross-functional, and multi-office teams.

Culture & Benefits

• Permanent full-time employment in a supportive and inclusive environment.
• Annual discretionary performance bonus and potential additional discretionary compensation.
• 4.5% 401(k) company contribution, increasing after three years and fully vested upon start date.
• Company-paid individual medical, dental, and vision premiums, plus wellness benefits.
• Paid time off including parental leave, sick leave, and holidays.
• Paid life and long-term disability insurance.