Director, Data Architecture
Houston, TX, US, 77042
Phillips 66 & YOU - Together we can fuel the future
As the Director, Data Architecture you will be the founding architect for the commercial knowledge layer. It is a principal-level role that owns the semantic and data architecture unifying market, operational, and trading data into governed, reusable data products that traders and data scientists can trust. The value here is the trading-specific model of the data, not the infrastructure beneath it: you will partner with Enterprise Analytics' Data-as-a-Service platform and build on it rather than rebuild it.
Phillips 66 Commercial is standing up its data science and analytics capability, and this is a rare chance to design its data architecture from the ground up and own it end to end. Traders, market analysts, and data scientists are ready to move faster; what they need is a unified knowledge layer they can all trust — one canonical, point-in-time-correct model of the entities that drive trading: grades, curves, cargoes, vessels, locations, counterparties, and assets.
What You’ll Do
- Design the commercial semantic layer and ontology: canonical entities, relationships, and business definitions shared across desks.
- Establish golden-source master and reference data for commodities (instruments, curves, grades, locations, counterparties, assets) with clear ownership and stewardship.
- Define data products and contracts (schema, SLA, quality, lineage) on top of the enterprise medallion and Gold layer, so consumers get documented, trusted datasets.
- Build point-in-time and bitemporal correctness into the foundation so research and backtests are reproducible and free of lookahead bias.
- Drive entity resolution across messy physical and financial data (the same vessel, cargo, or counterparty across sources).
- Set data modeling, quality, and governance standards, and push validation upstream instead of leaving it to strategists.
- Partner with the enterprise data team as the delivery engine, while serving traders, market analysts, and data scientists as the primary consumers, so one knowledge layer feeds both human decisions and ML/GenAI.
What success looks like
- One trusted, governed source of truth for commercial data, so teams stop rebuilding and reconciling
- Traders, analysts and data scientists consume documented data products with known lineage, freshness, and quality
- Research is reproducible: point-in-time correct, auditable, and free of lookahead
- The semantic layer measurably accelerates new desk use cases and the trader interface
- Duplicate knowledge systems retired against a single shared model
What You’ll Bring – Required
- Legally authorized to work in the job posting country
- Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business, Engineering, or a related field
- 7 or more years of experience as a principal-level data architect designing semantic layers, canonical data models, or master/reference data for a data-intensive business
- Advanced proficiency in data modeling, ontologies, and data-product and data-contract design
- Advanced proficiency in point-in-time and bitemporal data and why it matters for trustworthy analytics and research
- Travel up to 5% of the time
What Makes You Stand Out – Preferred
- Track record building golden-source reference data and entity resolution across messy, multi-source data
- Experience with modern lakehouse and governance stacks (e.g., Databricks/Unity Catalog, medallion architecture, catalog and lineage tooling)
- Experience with commodities, energy, or financial trading data (curves, instruments, positions, physical logistics)
- Background architecting data for both BI/human consumption and ML/quant research
- Experience standing up data governance and stewardship operating models
- Familiarity with knowledge graphs and semantic or natural-language query enablement
- Hands-on Databricks and Unity Catalog experience
- Ability to set standards and influence across teams without formal authority
- Clear communication with both technical teams and commercial stakeholders
Compensation Range
This position has a base salary range of $220,500 – $269,500.
At Phillips 66, we are committed to pay transparency and competitive, equitable compensation. Each role is assigned a salary grade with a defined pay range, benchmarked against industry peers. Where a candidate offer falls within the posted range depends on the candidate's experience, skills, and alignment with the role’s requirements. Offers are made to ensure internal equity and market competitiveness. Our compensation programs are designed to reward performance and support career growth.
Total Rewards
At Phillips 66, providing access to high quality programs and care for you and your family is important to us. Maintaining a culture of well-being — physical, emotional, social, and financial — is essential for a high-performing organization. When we are at our best, we are poised to deliver exceptional results — personally and professionally. Benefits for certain eligible, full-time employees include:
- Annual Variable Cash Incentive Program (VCIP) bonus
- 8% 401k company match
- Cash Balance Account pension
- Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits with an annual company contribution to a Health Savings Account for employees on HDHP
- Total well-being programs and incentives, including Employee Assistance Plan, well-being reimbursement, and backup family care services
Learn more about Phillips 66 Total Rewards.
Phillips 66 has more than 140 years of experience in providing the energy that enables people to dream bigger and go farther, faster. We are committed to improving lives, and that is our promise to our employees and our communities. We are sustained by the backgrounds and experiences of our diverse teams, which reflect who we are, the environment we create and how we work together. We have been recognized by the Human Rights Campaign, U.S. Department of Labor and the Military Times for our continued commitment to inclusive practices and policies in the hiring and retention of those in the LGBTQ+ community and military veterans. Our company is built on values of safety, honor and commitment. We call our cultural mindset Our Energy in Action, which we define through four simple, intuitive behaviors: We work for the greater good, cultivate an environment of trust, seek different perspectives and pursue excellence.
Learn more about Phillips 66 and how we are working to meet the world's energy needs today and tomorrow, by visiting phillips66.com.
To be considered
In order to be considered for this position you must complete the entire application process, which includes answering all prescreening questions and providing your eSignature on or before the requisition closing date of 10/21/2026.
Candidates for regular U.S. positions must be a U.S. citizen or national, or an alien admitted as permanent resident, refugee, asylee or temporary resident under 8 U.S.C. 1160(a) or 1255(a)(1). Individuals with temporary visas such as E, F-1, H-1, H-2, L, B, J, or TN or who need sponsorship for work authorization now or in the future, are not eligible for hire.
Phillips 66 is an Equal Opportunity Employer
Nearest Major Market: Houston