Sr. Principal, Data Architect

Alignment Health is breaking the mold in conventional health care, committed to serving seniors and those who need it most: the chronically ill and frail. It takes an entire team of passionate and caring people, united in our mission to put the senior first. We have built a team of talented and experienced people who are passionate about transforming the lives of the seniors we serve. In this fast-growing company, you will find ample room for growth and innovation alongside the Alignment Health community. Working at Alignment Health provides an opportunity to do work that really matters, not only changing lives but saving them. Together.

The Senior Principal, Data Architect serves as the strategic leader and technical authority for enterprise data architecture across our Medicare Advantage operations. This role designs and governs data frameworks that enable provider data management, clinical analytics, risk adjustment, regulatory compliance, and member experience initiatives while ensuring alignment with CMS requirements and HIPAA standards. You will partner with clinical, actuarial, IT, and business leadership to architect scalable, secure, and compliant data solutions that drive population health outcomes and operational excellence. This position is critical to our organization's ability to harness data as a strategic asset, enabling predictive analytics, AI/ML capabilities, and real-time decision-making across our Medicare Advantage lines of business.

Job Duties/Responsibilities

Enterprise Data Architecture & Strategy (30%)

• Define and maintain the enterprise data architecture vision, principles, and standards across all Medicare Advantage operations.
• Develop comprehensive data models and integration patterns that support clinical workflows, risk adjustment programs, Star ratings optimization, and regulatory reporting (RADV, HEDIS, encounter data submissions).
• Drive adoption of modern data platforms including cloud-based solutions, data lakes, and real-time streaming architectures.

Data Governance, Security & Compliance (25%)

• Establish and enforce data governance policies, in partnership with Data Governance team, ensuring data quality, lineage, and regulatory compliance across PHI and PII datasets.
• Create and maintain clear, accurate technical documentation, including API references, system architecture diagrams, and developer guides, to ensure seamless onboarding and knowledge sharing across the engineering team
• Design security architectures that meet HIPAA, CMS, and SOC 2 requirements while enabling appropriate data access for analytics.
• Partner with compliance and privacy teams to implement data classification, retention policies, and audit mechanisms that protect member information and withstand regulatory scrutiny.

Technical Leadership & Solution Design (20%)

• Architect end-to-end data solutions for complex business challenges including Provider Data Management, Medicare risk adjustment, Star ratings analytics, utilization management, and member engagement platforms.
• Design data pipelines that integrate claims data, clinical records, pharmacy data, and social determinants of health from multiple sources.
• Evaluate and recommend technology platforms and vendors that align with organizational strategy.

Cross-Functional Partnership & Stakeholder Engagement (15%)

• Serve as the primary data architecture liaison to clinical operations, actuarial, finance, and compliance teams.
• Translate complex technical concepts into business language for executive leadership.
• Partner with data science and engineering teams to enable self-service analytics capabilities while maintaining architectural integrity.

Team Development & Mentorship (5%)

• Mentor data architects, data engineers, and analytics professionals on architectural principles and best practices.
• Lead architecture guilds, conduct technical training, and build organizational capability in modern data architecture practices and healthcare-specific data management.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement (5%)

• Research and evaluate emerging data technologies and architectural patterns relevant to healthcare and insurance.
• Drive innovation through pilots of new capabilities including generative AI for clinical documentation, graph analytics for care coordination, and real-time streaming for member interventions.

Job Requirements

Experience:

• 12+ years of progressive experience in data architecture, data engineering, or enterprise architecture roles
• 5+ years of experience in healthcare, health insurance, or Medicare Advantage environment
• Demonstrated experience architecting enterprise-scale data platforms supporting regulated, audit-sensitive environments
• Proven track record designing data solutions for healthcare analytics including risk adjustment, quality measures, or population health
• Experience leading multiple cross-functional architecture initiatives and influencing senior stakeholder decision-making
• Direct experience with cloud data platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and modern data architecture patterns

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Deep knowledge of Medicare Advantage regulations, CMS reporting requirements (encounter data, RADV audits, HEDIS, Star ratings, interoperability mandates), and value-based care models
• Experience implementing AI/ML platforms and enabling data science capabilities at scale
• Hands-on experience with healthcare interoperability standards including FHIR APIs and patient data exchange
• Background in Agile/DevOps methodologies and experience with DataOps practices
• Certifications in data management (CDMP), healthcare IT (CHDA), or enterprise architecture (TOGAF)
• Experience with master data management (MDM) and customer data platforms (CDP) in healthcare settings
• Track record of thought leadership through speaking engagements, publications, or open-source contributions
• Experience leading large-scale data modernization or cloud migration programs ($5M+ budgets)

Education:

Required -

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science, Engineering, or related technical field required

Preferred -

• Master's degree in a related technical field
• Advanced certifications in cloud architecture (AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Azure Solutions Architect, or Google Professional Cloud Architect)

Training:

Required –

Preferred -  

Specialized Skills -

• Data Modeling & Architecture - Expertise in dimensional modeling, data vault methodologies, and healthcare-specific data models including claims schemas, clinical terminologies (ICD-10, CPT, SNOMED), and CMS data standards.
• Cloud Computing & Platforms - Deep proficiency with cloud data platforms (AWS Redshift/S3/Glue, Azure Synapse/Data Lake, or GCP BigQuery), including infrastructure-as-code, cost optimization, and multi-region architectures.
• Database Technologies - Expert knowledge of relational databases (SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Oracle), NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Cassandra), and data warehousing platforms. Proficiency in SQL optimization, indexing strategies, and performance tuning.
• Data Integration & ETL - Strong experience with modern data integration tools and frameworks including Apache Spark, Kafka, Airflow, and cloud-native ETL services. Understanding of CDC, batch processing, and real-time streaming architectures.
• Data Governance & Security- Knowledge of data governance frameworks, metadata management tools, data quality platforms, and security protocols including encryption, tokenization, and role-based access control specific to healthcare data.
• Analytics & BI Tools - Familiarity with enterprise BI platforms (Tableau, Power BI) and understanding of analytics use cases to inform architectural decisions that enable self-service analytics.
• Healthcare Data Standards - Expertise in healthcare data standards including HL7, FHIR, X12 transactions, CMS file formats, and value-based care reporting requirements.

Essential Physical Functions:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

1.  While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee regularly is required to stand, walk, sit, use hand to finger, handle or feel objects, tools, or controls; and reach with hands and arms.

2. The employee frequently lifts and/or moves up to 10 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and the ability to adjust focus.

Pay Range: $172,364.00 - $258,547.00

Pay range may be based on a number of factors including market location, education, responsibilities, experience, etc.

Alignment Health is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

*DISCLAIMER: Please beware of recruitment phishing scams affecting Alignment Health and other employers where individuals receive fraudulent employment-related offers in exchange for money or other sensitive personal information. Please be advised that Alignment Health and its subsidiaries will never ask you for a credit card, send you a check, or ask you for any type of payment as part of consideration for employment with our company. If you feel that you have been the victim of a scam such as this, please report the incident to the Federal Trade Commission at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/. If you would like to verify the legitimacy of an email sent by or on behalf of Alignment Health’s talent acquisition team, please email [email protected].