Data Solutions Architect

Team: Digital & Tech
Store: London Support Office
Location: London, Greater London
Contract type: Permanent
Position type: Full Time
Salary: Competitive + Benefits; Closing date: 31st December 2024

How We Hire

Everyone is welcome at M&S. No exceptions. It’s your background, abilities and differences that make you, uniquely you. And when you’re part of M&S, that individuality has the potential to make waves.

About the role

This section tells you all you need to know about the position and its responsibilities, outlining everything we hope to see in a successful candidate.

All the details

Summary

M&S is harnessing the power of data. We’re using data analytics, data science and artificial intelligence to solve business problems, improve the customer experience, and drive commercial value. This role sits within the M&S Data Architecture & Design team, where we are enhancing our cloud-hosted (Azure) data platform to meet a growing dependency on these capabilities.

We are looking for an experienced Data Solutions Architect to provide architecture and design guidance across our portfolio of data projects. You will use your retail knowledge and design experience to guide projects developed within our data portfolio, and to manage impacts on our data estate caused by change initiatives elsewhere within M&S.

To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected.

What's in it for you

Being a part of M&S is exactly that – playing your part to bring the magic of M&S to our customers every day. We’re an inclusive, dynamic, exciting, and ever evolving business built on doing the right thing and bringing exceptional quality, value, service to every customer, whenever, wherever and however they want to shop with us.

Here are some of the benefits we offer that make working for M&S just that little bit more special…

After completing your probationary period, you’ll receive 20% colleague discount across all M&S products and many of our third-party brands for you and a member of your household.
Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days!
Discretionary bonus schemes awarded based on how you achieve your personal objectives and our performance as a business.
A generous Defined Contribution Pension Scheme and Life Assurance.
A dedicated welcome to our teams with a tailored induction and a wide range of training programmes to develop your skills.
Amazing perks and discounts via our M&S Choices portal to maximise your financial and personal wellbeing.
Industry-leading parental, adoption and neonatal policies, providing support and flexibility for your family.
Access to a fantastic range of wellbeing support for all colleagues including access to our 24/7 Virtual GP and PAM Assist to support you and your family.
A charity volunteer day to support a charity or cause you're passionate about through a dedicated day away from work.

What you'll do

Drive the design of data solution on our cloud-based data platform that support each of our business units in modernising decision making through data.
Represent the data platform on major organisation wide transformation programmes, supporting the whole data development systems life cycle from inception to implementation with data platform solution design and architecture expertise.
Provide thought leadership, interacting with various M&S teams (e.g., platform product owners, analytics team leads, data science team, internal business partners, Digital & Data leadership team, architects, Ops engineers, software engineers) to understand data use cases and requirements, and proposing design patterns and solution designs
Responsible for managing the technical design for components of the BEAM platform ensuring that scalability, high availability, fault tolerance, and elasticity are considered.
Contribute to POCs and RFPs to fairly assess and select suitable tools to improve our platform.
Own the architecture backlog and progress discussions relating to design decisions, standardised principles, and new features/patterns/capabilities.
Collaborate with our strategic partners, inputting into future roadmaps for data technology and tools.
Support the estimation, sizing and impact assessment of new solutions against current and target roadmap data architecture.

Who you are

Experience of designing secure, scalable, performant, functionally-rich data solutions in a complex environment
Experience of data warehouse, data lake and lake house solutions
Understanding of Analytics and Reporting, Data Engineering and Data Governance methodologies and technologies.
Understanding of enterprise security requirements and techniques along with enterprise application development and software engineering
Creating Key Design Principles (KDPs) and Key Design Decisions (KDDs)
Presenting technology proposals (including costs/benefits) to non-technical senior team members with the ability to gather, assimilate and document details of a complex data and technology estate

Everyone's welcome

We are ambitious about the future of retail. We’re disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We’re transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.

We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.

If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.

#LI-Hybrid #LI-MS2

Meet the Team

A group of colleagues gathered around a table, smiling and discussing work with laptops open in a modern office setting.

Being an in-person business

We're at our best when we're close to customers, and for many of us at M&S, that means working in store every day.

To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected. It also means we can solve problems as soon as they arise, learn and grow as a team, build trust, and get closer to our colleagues.

Halford Head of Technical Program Management

At M&S, we have Data Scientists, Analysts, and Technical Product Managers, who all share a genuine passion for harnessing data to improve people’s lives. And we’re in a unique position where we can actually help many different kinds of people, from our customers to our colleagues in store and in our support centre.

Deepak (He / Him) | Data Scientist Read full story

Being in third-party brands, working on things M&S hasn’t done before… that plays to my sweet spot. I’ve worked in many organisations throughout my career, and it’s rare to see such cause and effect in your work. The way we’re structured means you’re encouraged to solve problems and you have the autonomy to make progress quickly.

Halford (He / Him) | Head of Technical Program Management Read full story

I think all engineers just love solving puzzles and problems. At M&S, we’re constantly learning new things, whether it’s mastering Swift UI or understanding how customers interact with technology. But this is also a business that listens to engineers and values what we bring to the table. That’s different, believe me.

Janak (He / Him) | Staff iOS Engineer Read full story

Make Your Mark

Upcoming projects

Take part in our M&S Digital & Tech team days. Grow your digital and data skills through our BEAM Academy. Or challenge yourself at one of our business-wide hackathons. We also partner with Women in Data, Databricks and Cajigo to increase opportunities for women in digital and data.

Opportunities to be heard

Your voice and your ideas matter here. Our 8 colleague networks are places to find support, listen to each other and encourage debate. You can pitch ideas ‘Straight to Stuart’, our CEO, or get involved in our BIG (Business involvement Group).

Colleague Networks

We want you to feel supported, no matter what.

The Gender Equality Network

This group is focused on helping to create a workplace where gender-related challenges are addressed. They raise awareness of common barriers faced and offer support. They also challenge the business to act and empower individuals to ensure that everyone has equal access to opportunities.

The Cancer Network

This is a network driven by personal experiences, with the purpose of ensuring that anyone in the M&S family affected by Cancer feels supported and has access to the information they need.

The LGBTQ+ Network

Open to all members of the LGBTQ+ community and spectrum (and their allies), we promote equality, celebrate inclusivity and diversity, and encourage everyone to be themselves - whatever their sexual or gender identity.

The Culture and Heritage Network

Celebrating all faiths, cultures and ethnicities, this group promotes racial and religious equality. We create space to discuss, challenge and take action. And we mark key calendar moments - like Black History Month - to remember the past, promote the present and build for the future.

The Family & Carers Network

This group represents the different types of families that exist. We act as a support network and sounding board for ideas which help our colleagues as parents or carers. We also run an interactive blog, where you can write your own posts or hear about others' experiences.

The Health and Wellbeing Network

This network helps colleagues manage their own mental and physical health. We also support people with disabilities or health conditions throughout M&S. We're a safe place to share your personal journey, coping strategies and top tips.

The Menopause Network

Here, our colleagues can share their concerns, as well as interesting facts and articles. Our aim is to help everyone feel comfortable talking openly about the menopause - providing a listening ear and finding positives in the experience.

Forces Community Network

A community of colleagues who are affiliated with the Armed Forces in various ways. We work to support colleagues readjusting to civilian life, to be there for those who have friends or family members in the forces, and to make M&S attractive to those leaving the forces.

Benefits

Wellbeing hub

Get access to resources to support your wellbeing, including a free virtual GP service.
Giving back

Support your favourite charities by donating through your pay or even volunteering for them.
Pay

Earn a competitive salary.
Colleague discount

After completing your probation period, you'll receive 20% colleague discount across all M&S products and many of our third-party brands for you and a member of your household.

Please note only contracts of more than 12 weeks are eligible for this benefit.
Time off

Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days.
Bonus

We have discretionary bonus schemes depending on your role and our business performance.
Life assurance

Get cover for twice your salary up to age 70 (double with our Pension Plan).
Workplace savings

We’ll help you save through our Pension Savings Plan, Share Buy and Sharesave schemes.
My Choices

Save on everyday costs through discounts and offers and get access to great health benefits.
Cycle to work

Bike/accessory hire with Cycle to Work and save on tax and national insurance.
Smart tech

Buy the latest technology with interest-free financing directly from your salary.
Family friendly policy

Industry-leading maternity, paternity, adoption and neo-natal policies, providing support and flexibility for you and your family.

How to Apply

Here’s what to expect at each stage of the application process. This can change depending on the role you’ve applied to. If you need any reasonable adjustments made at any stage, let us know and we can help.

Send us your application

Fill in our short application form and hit submit.

Online assessment

Depending on the role you are applying for, you may be invited to do an assessment. Your Talent Acquisition Partner will guide and inform you along the way.

Interview

We'll invite you to join us for an interview. This could be remote or in person. Here, we'll ask you some role based technical questions and examine the behaviours we're looking for.

Decision

After we’ve made our decision, we’ll be in touch. If you’ve been successful, we’ll officially invite you to join the team and let you know the next steps.