National Hockey League (NHL)
Data Architect
National Hockey League (NHL) - Director
New York, NY · Hybrid
Technology · Computer Information Systems · IT Database Management/CRM
$175,000 - $200,000 / year
0
1
day ago
ABOUT THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Founded in 1917, the National Hockey League (NHL®) is the premier professional ice hockey league in the world and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada.
Founded in 1917, the National Hockey League (NHL®) is the premier professional ice hockey league in the world and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada.
With more than 1500 employees across the US and Canada, the NHL is a global sports and entertainment organization committed to building healthy and vibrant communities using the sport of hockey. At the NHL, we are looking for dynamic, energetic and impactful individuals who are committed to doing the same by sharing in our philosophy that Hockey is for Everyone.
WHAT WE EXPECT OF YOU
SUMMARY
The role of Data Architect is to design and evolve the NHL's enterprise data architecture across relational, warehouse, and streaming platforms, with hands-on responsibility for the underlying infrastructure that supports it in both on-premises and cloud (AWS) environments. The Data Architect partners with application, analytics, and platform teams to ensure data systems are scalable, secure, performant, and aligned with long-term technology and compliance strategy.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Define and maintain the target-state data architecture across OLTP, data warehouse, data lake, and streaming platforms.
- Design logical and physical data models, integration patterns, and reference architectures for new and existing applications.
- Architect the infrastructure supporting data platforms — compute, storage, networking, HA/DR topology — across on-prem and AWS.
- Establish standards for data platform deployment, backup, replication, and recovery, and validate that operational teams can execute them repeatably.
- Partner with development teams on schema design, query patterns, and performance tuning; serve as senior escalation point for architectural and performance issues.
- Define data security, access, and governance standards aligned with SOC 2 control requirements — including least-privilege access, encryption at rest and in transit, audit logging, change management, and handling of PII (masking, tokenization, obfuscation).
- Partner with Security, Risk, and Compliance teams to evidence data-platform controls during SOC 2 audits and other regulatory reviews.
- Evaluate and recommend database engines, data platforms, and infrastructure services; lead proofs-of-concept and migration planning with an emphasis on MySQL technologies.
- Coordinate with Infrastructure, DevOps, and Security teams on capacity planning, patching cadence, upgrade paths, and platform lifecycle for database related infrastructure with emphasis on MySQL.
- Produce architecture documentation, diagrams, and decision records to guide implementation teams and satisfy audit requirements.
QUALIFICATIONS
Knowledge Areas/Experience
Required
- 7+ years of experience in data engineering, database administration, or data architecture roles, with at least 2 years in an architect or lead capacity.
- Hands-on experience across multiple database engines (MySQL required; PostgreSQL, SQL Server, or NoSQL platforms a plus).
- Demonstrated experience designing data solutions in both AWS and on-premises Linux environments.
- Experience operating data platforms in a SOC 2 (or comparable audited) environment, including participation in control design and evidence collection.
- Experience with data warehouse and/or analytics platforms (e.g., Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery) and modern data pipeline tooling.
- Deep understanding of HA, replication, backup, and disaster recovery strategies across on-prem and cloud.
- Working knowledge of infrastructure fundamentals — Linux, networking, storage, IAM, VPC design — sufficient to architect the platforms that host data systems.
- Strong knowledge of least-privilege access models, segregation of duties, and data-protection practices for regulated and sensitive data (including PII).
- Familiarity with SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria (Security, Availability, Confidentiality) and how they translate into data-platform controls.
- Experience leading migrations, major upgrades, and platform consolidations.
- Understanding that occasional after-hours and weekend support will be expected for major changes and incident escalation.
Education/Certifications
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field, or equivalent professional experience.
Required Skills
- SQL, Python, Bash/PowerShell.
- AWS data and infrastructure services (RDS, Aurora, S3, EC2, VPC, IAM, DMS, Glue, or equivalents).
- Infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, CloudFormation) and CI/CD for database change management with auditable change history.
- Data modeling and diagramming tools (e.g., ER/Studio, dbdiagram, Lucid).
- Familiarity with monitoring/observability and audit logging tools (CloudWatch, Prometheus, Datadog, or similar).
- Strong data modeling skills (normalized OLTP, dimensional, and denormalized analytics models).
- Ability to translate business, application, and compliance requirements into scalable, cost-aware data solutions.
- Strong written and verbal communication; able to present architectural direction to both engineering teams and non-technical stakeholders.
CORE COMPETENCIES
These core competencies reflect the underlying values that are necessary to represent the National Hockey League:
- Accountability
- Adaptability
- Communication
- Critical Thinking
- Inclusion
- Professionalism
- Teamwork & Collaboration
The NHL offers U.S. regular, full-time employees:
Time to Recharge: Utilize our generous Paid Time Off (PTO) to focus on your well-being and ensure a healthy work/life balance. PTO includes paid holidays, vacation, personal and sick days, plus an extra day off for your birthday.
Ability to Focus on your Health: Along with competitive salaries, the NHL offers comprehensive health benefits to employees and their eligible dependents effective on their first day with us – there is no waiting period. The NHL subsidizes a large portion of the health benefits costs, therefore your cost for medical, dental and vision coverage is minimal.
We also offer our employees and members of their household access to our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to support mental, physical, and financial health. In addition, employees have access to a digital wellness resource designed to improve health and happiness through courses in sleep, movement, and focus. These services are confidential and at no-cost to our employees.
Childcare Leave: Because your family is the NHL family, employees are offered comprehensive Childcare Leave to welcome your new addition. The primary caregiver to the child is entitled to up to 12 weeks of paid Childcare Leave, at full pay, following the birth, adoption, or placement of a child.
Employees that are not the primary caregiver to the child are entitled to up to 6 weeks of paid Childcare Leave, at full pay, which must be taken within the first 6 months following the birth, adoption, or placement of a child.
Confidence in your Retirement Goals: Participate in the NHL’s Savings Plan which includes a 401K (pre-tax and Roth options) plus non-elective (employer) contributions to keep your retirement goals on track.
A Hybrid Work Schedule: The NHL recognizes the value of flexibility in work locations/schedules to help our employees balance work/life priorities. Hybrid work schedules are available for a majority of our roles.
Our New Headquarters: Our new, state of the art, offices are located at One Manhattan West in Hudson Yards. When you’re in the office, you can conduct meetings in one of our high-tech conference rooms, have lunch with a view or play in the game room. Employees can also enjoy New York’s newest neighborhood that is home to more than 100 shops, culinary experiences, and public artwork.
A Savings for Commuting: Participate in the NHL’s pre-tax commuter benefit plan which helps offset the financial cost of traveling to and from our office.
NHL Partner Rates: Unlock exclusive pricing from our Partners that include savings on travel, consumer goods and services, plus the NHL Store.
Life at the NHL: In your first few days, you meet with your new teammates and the HR Team. You have the opportunity to learn more about the NHL and our workplace culture. Employees are invited to play hockey during our Tuesday Night Skate at Chelsea Piers, join our Employee Resource Groups and more. You are a part of our team and we encourage you to be your authentic self, adding to our dynamic workplace culture.
SALARY RANGE:
$175-200k
Actual base pay for a successful candidate will be determined based on a variety of job-related factors, including but not limited to: experience/training, market demands, and geographic location.
When applying, please be sure to include a cover letter with your salary expectations for this role. We thank all applicants for their interest in this opportunity, however only qualified candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. NO EMAILS OR PHONE CALLS PLEASE.
We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital or veteran status, or any other protected class.
