Senior Data Architect – Security & Governance (Permanent – Hybrid – New York, NY; Holmdel, NJ; Stamford, CT; or Bethlehem, PA)

Senior Data Architect – Security & Governance (Permanent – Hybrid – New York, NY; Holmdel, NJ; Stamford, CT; or Bethlehem, PA)

Glocomms has partnered with a major mutual life insurance company that’s actively seeking a highly experienced and strategic Senior Data Architect – Security & Governance. This permanent position offers a flexible hybrid work model, requiring 3 days per week onsite in one of several key locations: Manhattan, NY; Holmdel, NJ; Stamford, CT; or Bethlehem, PA.

This role is absolutely pivotal in shaping the client’s data security posture, leading the design and implementation of robust data protection frameworks across the entire enterprise. You’ll ensure compliance with complex global regulations and safeguard sensitive information throughout its entire lifecycle. The ideal candidate will bring deep technical expertise in cutting-edge data security technologies, a strong understanding of emerging AI/ML security risks, and the ability to effectively influence executive stakeholders and diverse cross-functional teams.

What You’ll Be Doing: Leading Strategic Data Protection Initiatives

As a Senior Data Architect focusing on Security & Governance, you’ll be at the forefront of designing, implementing, and enforcing robust data protection frameworks across a major financial institution. Your role combines deep technical architecture with strategic leadership, ensuring data is protected at every stage and in every environment.

• Develop and Implement Enterprise-Wide Data Protection Strategies: You will take a leading role in developing and implementing enterprise-wide data protection strategies, policies, and frameworks. This involves creating a comprehensive roadmap for safeguarding sensitive information across the organization, ensuring alignment with business objectives and risk tolerance.
• Architect Secure Data Platforms, Pipelines, and AI/ML Workflows: You will be responsible for architecting secure data platforms, data pipelines, and AI/ML workflows, encompassing cutting-edge technologies like Generative AI (GenAI) and agentic systems. Your designs will integrate security controls from the ground up, ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of data throughout its lifecycle in analytical and AI/ML processing.
• Apply Advanced Data Protection Techniques: You’ll meticulously apply advanced data protection techniques across the entire data lifecycle. This includes implementing robust encryption (in transit, at rest, and even in use), deploying tokenization methods, utilizing data masking for non-production environments, and leveraging anonymization techniques to protect privacy while enabling data utility for analytics and development.
• Define and Enforce Data Retention and Destruction Policies: You will precisely define and enforce data retention and destruction policies in line with internal governance and critical compliance mandates. This ensures that sensitive data is kept only for as long as legally or business-required, and is securely and irrevocably destroyed when no longer needed, minimizing data footprint and associated risks.
• Conduct Adversarial Testing to Enhance System Resilience: You will actively conduct adversarial testing to rigorously assess and enhance system resilience against sophisticated attacks. This includes simulating emerging threats like prompt injection (for GenAI models), data leakage (unintended exposure of sensitive data), and data poisoning (manipulating training data to compromise AI models). Your proactive testing strengthens defenses against novel attack vectors.
• Ensure Compliance with Privacy Regulations and Support Audits: You will play a crucial role in ensuring stringent compliance with critical data privacy regulations such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), alongside other relevant jurisdictional regulations. You will also provide vital support for audit readiness and conduct cross-border data risk assessments, navigating the complexities of international data transfer and privacy.
• Secure Cloud Data Environments and Manage MLOps Security: You will secure cloud data environments across major providers like AWS (Amazon Web Services), Databricks (for data analytics and AI), and Snowflake (cloud data warehousing). This includes configuring robust security controls, access policies, and data protection mechanisms within these cloud platforms. You’ll also specifically manage MLOps (Machine Learning Operations) security, ensuring that the end-to-end ML pipeline, from data ingestion to model deployment and monitoring, is secure and compliant.
• Utilize Data Governance and Classification Tools: You will expertly utilize leading data governance and classification tools such as Collibra, Informatica, and Microsoft Purview. This involves leveraging these platforms for data cataloging, data lineage tracking, data quality management, and enforcing data classification policies across the enterprise.
• Develop and Maintain Reference Architectures and Executive Reporting: You will be responsible for developing and maintaining authoritative reference architectures and prescriptive blueprints for secure data environments. Additionally, you will create and deliver executive-level reporting on the data security posture, highlighting key risks, mitigation strategies, and the overall effectiveness of data protection controls for senior leadership.
• Stay Ahead of Emerging Threats and Technologies: You will continuously stay ahead of emerging threats and technologies in the rapidly evolving fields of AI/LLM security (securing Large Language Models), agentic security (securing autonomous AI agents), and data governance. Your proactive research and adaptation will ensure the firm’s data defenses remain cutting-edge against new attack vectors and compliance challenges.

Qualifications: Your Foundation for Data Security Leadership

To excel as a Senior Data Architect focusing on Security & Governance, you’ll need extensive experience in information security, deep expertise in data protection and cloud security, and strong leadership and communication skills, particularly in emerging areas like AI/ML security.

• Extensive Information Security Experience: You must possess 10+ years of verifiable experience in information security, with a significant focus of 5+ years specifically on data security and privacy. This extensive background demonstrates a seasoned professional with deep practical knowledge of securing sensitive information in complex enterprise environments.
• Proven Expertise in Secure Data Architecture: You have proven expertise in designing and implementing secure data architectures within complex enterprise environments. This includes experience across various data storage types (databases, data lakes, warehouses) and data processing pipelines, ensuring security is embedded by design.
• Strong Understanding of Data Privacy Laws and Compliance: You possess a strong understanding of data privacy laws, major compliance frameworks, and cloud-native security principles. This ensures you can build solutions that meet stringent legal, regulatory, and industry best practice requirements for data protection.
• Excellent Communication and Collaboration Skills: You will exhibit excellent communication and collaboration skills, both verbal and written. This is crucial for effectively influencing technical and executive teams, presenting complex security topics clearly, and fostering strong partnerships across the organization to drive data security initiatives.
• Relevant Certifications (Plus): Possession of relevant industry certifications is a significant plus, demonstrating validated expertise. This includes:
  • CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional): A globally recognized certification for information security professionals.
  • CIPP (Certified Information Privacy Professional): Demonstrates expertise in privacy laws and regulations.
  • CCSP (Certified Cloud Security Professional): Validates expertise in cloud security architecture and operations.
  • AWS Security – Specialty: Confirms expertise in securing data and workloads within Amazon Web Services.

If this Senior Data Architect – Security & Governance role, based in New York, Holmdel, Stamford, or Bethlehem, aligns with your extensive data security architecture experience, your expertise in AI/ML security, and your passion for shaping robust data protection frameworks within a major mutual life insurance company, we encourage you to learn more about this exceptional permanent, hybrid opportunity.

Please apply directly if you are interested. Please note: the client is not able to sponsor a visa now or in the future for this position.