{"id":2123108,"url":"https://alion.io/job/xcel-energy-senior-data-architect","title":"Senior Data Architect","company":{"id":1754815,"name":"Xcel Energy","domain":"xcelenergy.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/xcelenergy","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":null},"role":"Data Science","role_family":"Data Science","seniority":"staff","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Denver, United States","United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":135000,"max":165000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":165000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"Databricks","optional":false},{"name":"GCP","optional":false},{"name":"RAG","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-08T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-08","last_verified_at":"2026-10-12T22:33:37Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":5,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":5},"description":"Xcel Energy (NASDAQ: XEL) is a leading energy provider and Fortune 500 company, dedicated to serving millions of electricity and natural gas customers across eight states: Minnesota, Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico and Texas. We make energy work better for our customers, helping them thrive every day. That means always raising the bar - delivering better service and providing more reliable, resilient, and sustainable energy. \nXcel Energy is a place where you’ll have opportunities to grow, expand your skills, and help lead the clean energy transition. We offer meaningful rewards, recognition, and support to help you build your career and make an impact - both on the job and beyond. Most importantly, it means you’ll be joining a company that knows employees are the driving force behind its success and is committed to helping you be your best.\nXcel Energy supports a hybrid work model to enable collaboration and flexibility. Many roles are expected to work onsite three days per week (Tuesday-Thursday); however, work location expectations vary based on role, team, and business needs.Position Summary\nThe Senior Data Architect is a key role within the IT organization and a hands-on architecture partner to delivery teams. This role advances enterprise data products and Xcel Data Fabric (XDF) adoption, with emphasis on Databricks Lakehouse, Unity Catalog, AWS, GCP, AI-ready data architecture, and governed integration and data-sharing patterns. The architect collaborates with peer architects, engineering teams, product teams, security, and data governance to translate business outcomes into practical, supportable solution designs across the full data lifecycle. The role develops reusable reference architectures, patterns, and implementation guidance; produces architecture deliverables; and performs technical prototypes to validate designs and reduce delivery risk. Delivery teams retain ownership of detailed solution implementation and approvals, while the Senior Data Architect provides standards-based guidance, identifies risks and tradeoffs, and recommends governance escalation when appropriate.\nEssential Responsibilities\nArchitectural Operations: Review and approve projects and work efforts to ensure that they are compliant with architectural standards. Track and manage exceptions to standards. Continuously improve operational processes. Assess, report, and make recommendations to eliminate operational risk related to technology or architecture.\nTechnical Expertise: Advise delivery teams on hands-on data and solution architecture. Design data products and AI-ready solutions using XDF, Databricks Lakehouse, Unity Catalog, AWS, and GCP. Define integration, API, event, and data sharing patterns. Create reusable guidance and technical prototypes that reduce delivery risk.\nLeadership: Lead work cross-organizationally through coaching and feedback, and through significant interactions and influence with leaders. Govern work efforts to ensure alignment with reference architecture, IT strategy, and policy. Collaborate cross-organizationally to influence alignment on and adoption of enterprise architecture standards.\nPlanning and Strategy: Participate in creation and renewal of an overarching IT strategy. Develop and enforce reference architecture standards that are aligned with IT strategies and principles. Contribute to architecture road maps and provide input to technology roadmaps. Ensure the domain IT Strategy aligns with Enterprise Architecture framework and standards.\nMinimum Requirements\nBachelor's degree in Technology, Science, Business or related field, or 4 years of experience equivalent to the position.\nTen years of related functional experience.\nArchitecture acumen across multiple domains including network, infrastructure, software, hosting models, mobile platforms, and security.\nExposure to diverse systems, technologies and processing environments in a large Corporate setting.\nProject solution architecture experience.\nGeneral knowledge of core aspects of enterprise architecture (Software, Hardware, Network, Integration, Data, hosting models, platform types, etc.) Strong analytical, problem-solving and troubleshooting skills.\nExtensive knowledge of future technology trends within area of expertise.\nDemonstrated leadership on technical aspects of large scale projects.\nExcellent communication skills, effective with varying organizational levels and skill sets.\nExcellent Relationship Management and collaboration skills, with a track record of working as one team cross-organizationally to drive innovation and business results.\nPreferred Requirements\n\nDemonstrated experience designing and delivering enterprise data products and advancing adoption of an enterprise data fabric or data product operating model.\nHands-on architecture experience with Databricks Lakehouse and Unity Catalog, including governed data access, cataloging, lineage, security, and data-sharing patterns.\nExperience architecting cloud-native data solutions on AWS and GCP, including cross-platform interoperability and governed data movement or sharing.\nExperience designing integration solutions using APIs, events, streaming, batch, and approved data-sharing patterns, with clear attention to source of truth, latency, freshness, resiliency, and long-term supportability.\nExperience creating AI-ready data architectures and AI solutions, including retrieval-augmented generation, vector search, semantic layers, agentic solutions, governed model access patterns, and responsible AI controls.\nAbility to produce high-quality solution designs, data-flow diagrams, architecture decision records, interface specifications, reference architectures, and implementation patterns.\nHands-on experience developing technical prototypes or proofs of concept in Databricks, AWS, or GCP to validate architecture decisions and reduce delivery risk.\nWorking knowledge of data modeling, metadata management, lineage, data quality, master data, and reference data practices.\nExperience with security, privacy, identity and access management, observability, operational support, and governance requirements across the full data lifecycle.\nDemonstrated ability to provide technical leadership, coaching, and mentoring to architects and engineers without direct management authority.\nUtility industry experience, including experience with SAP utility data, operational technology data, meter data, customer data, or regulated data environments.\nOur culture is grounded in shared values and employee commitments that guide how we work, support one another, and grow together.\nOur Values\nConnected, Committed, Trustworthy, Safe\nOur Employee Commitments\nWork that makes a difference\nA team you can count of\nOpportunities to grow\nRewards that help you thrive\nXcel Energy provides job applicants reasonable accommodations for disabilities throughout the application process. If you are in need of an accommodation to complete the application process, now or at any time in the future, please complete the Applicant Accommodation Request Form.\nNon-BargainingThe anticipated starting base pay for this position is: $135,000.00 to $165,000.00 per yearThis position is eligible for the following benefits: Annual Incentive Program, Medical/Pharmacy Plan, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Dependent Care Reimbursement Account, Health Care Reimbursement Account, Health Savings Account (HSA) (if enrolled in eligible health plan), Limited-Purpose FSA (if enrolled in eligible health plan and HSA), Transportation Reimbursement Account, Short-term disability (STD), Long-term disability (LTD), Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Fitness Center Reimbursement (if enrolled in eligible health plan), Tuition reimbursement, Transit programs, Employee recognition program, Pension, 401(k) plan, Paid time off (PTO), Holidays, Volunteer Paid Time Off (VPTO), Parental Leave\nBenefit plans are subject to change and Xcel Energy has the right to end, suspend, or amend any of its plans, at any time, in whole or in part.\nIn any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information including but not limited to dates of school attendance and graduation.You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.\nDeadline to Apply: 10/16/26EEO is the Law (PDF) | Equal Opportunity Statement (PDF) | Employee Rights (PDF)\nAll Xcel Energy employees and contractors share responsibility for protecting the company's information and systems by adhering to cybersecurity policies, standards, and best practices, recognizing that cybersecurity is everyone's responsibility.\nAccessibility Statement\nXcel Energy endeavors to make https://www.xcelenergy.com and https://jobs.xcelenergy.com accessible to any and all users. If you are in need of an accommodation to complete the application process, now or at any time in the future, please complete the Applicant Accommodation Request Form. For any other application related questions, including application follow-ups or technical issues, please use our Recruiting Assistance, Electra, for assistance. 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