Data Architect Jobs in Raleigh, NC (NOW HIRING)

Architect the future of data consumption across Apple's Wallet, Payments & Commerce by shaping metrics foundation, headless BI, and AI-driven insights strategy. Serves as a solution architect, driving alignment, standards, and long-term architecture for how data is modeled, accessed, and consumed.
Apple is where individual imaginations gather together, committing to the values that lead to great work. Every new product we build, service we create, or Apple store experience we deliver is the result of us making each other’s ideas stronger. That happens because every one of us shares a belief that we can make something wonderful and share it with the world, changing lives for the better. It’s the diversity of our people and their thinking that inspires the innovation that runs through everything we do. When we bring everybody in, we can do the best work of our lives. Here, you’ll do more than join something - you’ll add something.
Description
Our culture is about getting things done iteratively and rapidly, with open feedback and debate along the way; we believe analytics is a team sport, but we strive for independent decision-making and taking smart risks. Our team collaborates deeply with partners across product, design, engineering and business teams: our mission is to drive innovation by providing the business and data scientist partners best in class systems and tools to make decisions that improve the customer experience. This will include leveraging large and complex data sources, helping derive actionable insights, delivering dynamic and intuitive decision tools, and bringing our data to life via interactive self serve decision tooling with an eye to meet high standards of trust, accuracy, legal and privacy compliance.
The ideal candidate is a self-motivated team player, skilled in a broad set of data product tools and techniques with a strong sense of Apple design philosophy. The candidate will have the ability to adapt and learn quickly, provide results with limited direction, and choose the best possible path forward at all times.
This is a rare opportunity to define the analytics foundation for one of Apple's most strategically important business areas - Wallet, Payments & Commerce. You won't be maintaining the status quo; you'll be building the future - from metrics architecture to AI-driven decision intelligence - at a scale and quality standard that only Apple demands","responsibilities":"Metrics Foundation & Headless BI
Design and own the metrics layer - defining how metrics are modeled, governed, and consumed across the organization
Architect and implement a headless BI strategy decoupling metric definitions from visualization/consumption tools
Build and maintain a centralized metrics store ensuring single source of truth for all KPIs and business metrics
Define metric ownership, versioning, and certification standards to ensure trusted, consistent consumption across all teams
BI Architecture & Visualization Strategy
Own the future-state visualization strategy - including self-serve, embedded analytics, and AI-assisted insights
Serve as the BI Solution Architect - evaluating, selecting, and governing visualization and reporting tools
Establish BI tool standards, best practices, and governance frameworks
Lead the transformation of BI from legacy reporting to a modern, AI-driven data consumption model
Lead build vs. buy evaluations for BI and visualization capabilities, balancing innovation with Apple's standards
Partner with Legal, Privacy, and Compliance teams to ensure data consumption practices meet Apple's trust and privacy standards
Leadership & Strategy
Operate as a senior IC with organizational influence across multiple LOBs
Define the long-term vision and strategy for metrics engineering and data products
Influence and contribute to the data platform roadmap from an analytics and BI perspective
Drive organizational alignment on metric definitions, data literacy, and analytics standards
Present and communicate analytics strategy and roadmap to senior leadership
Stay ahead of industry trends in headless BI, metrics layers, and data visualization
Innovation & AI Readiness
Build the semantic foundation required for LLM-powered analytics - clean metrics, trusted definitions, governed access
Evaluate and adopt modern tools for semantic modeling and headless BI
Enable multi-modal data consumption - dashboards, APIs, embedded analytics, and AI assistants from a single source of truth
Act as a thought leader on emerging trends in BI + AI convergence, guiding long-term roadmap and investments
Drive transformation from reporting → insights → decision intelligence
Preferred Qualifications
Familiarity with payments, commerce, or fintech data - transaction metrics, funnel analytics, financial KPIs
Familiarity with AI-driven analytics / conversational BI
Knowledge of data governance, data cataloging, and metadata management
Strong SQL skills, with exposure to Python and large-scale data processing frameworks (e.g., Apache Spark)
Experience working closely with data engineering and platform teams to align on data models, and infrastructure/platform requirements
Experience navigating complex organization dynamics and driving cross-functional initiatives to completion in a fast-paced environment
Proven record in leading junior engineers to build metrics or BI foundation
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field or equivalent experience
10+ years of experience in designing, developing and deploying next-gen Analytical Data Products.
3+ years in a lead, architect, or senior IC role in Metrics foundation and BI solution design
Strong understanding of data warehousing, data modeling (dimensional/star schemas), and metric standardization.
Experience implementing or working with headless BI / semantic layer tools
Demonstrated ability to influence without authority across engineering and business teams
Excellent Executive communication skills with both technical and non-technical audiences
Pay & Benefits
At Apple, base pay is one part of our total compensation package and is determined within a range. This provides the opportunity to progress as you grow and develop within a role. The base pay range for this role is between $212,000 and $318,400, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.
Apple employees also have the opportunity to become an Apple shareholder through participation in Apple's discretionary employee stock programs. Apple employees are eligible for discretionary restricted stock unit awards, and can purchase Apple stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in Apple's Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You'll also receive benefits including: Comprehensive medical and dental coverage, retirement benefits, a range of discounted products and free services, and for formal education related to advancing your career at Apple, reimbursement for certain educational expenses - including tuition. Additionally, this role might be eligible for discretionary bonuses or commission payments as well as relocation. Learn more about Apple Benefits
Note: Apple benefit, compensation and employee stock programs are subject to eligibility requirements and other terms of the applicable plan or program.