Senior Data Architect (Health Data Infrastructure)

The Health Data Service (HDS) unit builds IT and data solutions that support registries, data collection platforms, and research studies at LIH. We work closely with researchers, principal investigators, and national partners such as the Ministry of Health.

The HDS currently operates with fragmented tooling — Apache NiFi on-premises and S3 storage — without a coherent, unified data platform. The Senior Data Architect will own the design and hands-on build-out of LIH’s health data infrastructure, creating a reliable, secure, and scalable on-premises platform that serves both patient data and omics data for research. Within a matrix-based organisation, this is a senior hands-on role: you will design the architecture and implement it yourself, working alongside data engineers, data modelers, and research teams to replace the current ad-hoc setup with a production-grade data platform.

Key Accountabilities

• Design the target-state data architecture for the Health Data Service, covering ingestion, storage, transformation, and delivery of patient and omics data.
• Evaluate, select, and implement on-premises data platform components (data warehouse, data lake, integration layer, API services) that meet institutional security and data protection requirements.
• Build and maintain core infrastructure components hands-on, including data pipelines, storage layers, and query interfaces.
• Define data flow patterns and integration standards across the organisation, replacing the current ad-hoc NiFi/S3 setup with a coherent platform.
• Establish technical standards for data storage, access control, lineage, and retention in compliance with GDPR and LIH’s data governance policies.
• Collaborate with data modelers to ensure openEHR-based clinical data structures are supported by the platform architecture.
• Work with data engineers to translate architectural blueprints into production-ready implementations.
• Advise the team lead on technology choices, capacity planning, and infrastructure roadmap.
• Document architectural decisions, maintain system diagrams, and ensure knowledge transfer within the team.
• Participate in code and design reviews, mentoring team members on infrastructure and architecture topics.
• Contribute to cross-functional coordination sessions, team planning, and process improvement.

Key Skills, Experience and Qualifications

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Software Architecture, or a related field.
• Minimum 5 years of professional experience in data architecture, data platform engineering, or infrastructure design.
• Proven track record of designing and building on-premises data platforms in environments handling sensitive or regulated data.
• Strong hands-on skills in SQL, Python or Java, and infrastructure tooling.
• Deep experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL, SQL Server) and data warehousing patterns.
• Solid understanding of data lake architectures, ETL/ELT patterns, and data integration frameworks (Apache NiFi, Airflow, dbt, or comparable).
• Experience with containerisation (Docker) and on-premises orchestration (Docker Compose, Kubernetes, or similar).
• Knowledge of API design (REST) and service-oriented architectures.
• Understanding of network security, access control, and data encryption in on-premises environments.
• Strong communication skills; able to collaborate with stakeholders across technical and non-technical backgrounds.
• Fluent in English (written and oral); French or German is an asset.
• Familiarity with health data standards (openEHR, HL7 FHIR) is a plus but not required.
• Experience in healthcare, research, or public sector data environments is a strong asset.
• Experience working in agile environments; ability to coordinate technical delivery across cross-functional and matrix-based teams.

Required Tech Stack

• SQL, Python or Java for hands-on implementation.
• PostgreSQL, SQL Server, data warehouse design.
• Apache NiFi, Airflow, dbt, or comparable orchestration/transformation tools.
• Docker, Docker Compose, on-premises Kubernetes or similar.
• S3-compatible object storage, MinIO, or comparable.
• RESTful API design, service-oriented integration patterns.
• Monitoring and observability (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, or comparable).
• Git, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code tooling.
• Familiarity with openEHR CDR (e.g. EHRbase), FHIR servers is a plus.

Gender Equality

The LIH is an equal opportunities employer. We are fully committed to removing any discriminatory barrier related to gender, and not only, in recruitment and career progression of our staff. The LIH is attentive to gender representation among its leadership staff and aims to eliminate obstacles to the recruitment and promotion of female leaders and their career development.