Senior Information Architect
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Summary
Senior Information Architect (via Upstaff) for the Government of Ontario: builds enterprise information architecture frameworks, taxonomies, business glossaries, semantic models, and metadata standards from scratch to support data governance, interoperability, and digital transformation, using tools like Microsoft Purview, Informatica, or Collibra.
Position Overview
The Government of Ontario is seeking a Senior Information Architect to develop and implement enterprise information architecture frameworks, standards, and documentation that support information management, enterprise data governance, interoperability, and digital transformation initiatives.
The successful candidate will work closely with business stakeholders, technical teams, enterprise architects, and information governance professionals to define common business terminology, establish standardized information architecture artefacts, and align information assets across multiple business domains and organizations.
This role requires hands-on experience creating information architecture frameworks, models, standards, and documentation from the ground up, rather than simply reusing existing templates. The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in enterprise taxonomies, controlled vocabularies, business glossaries, semantic models, metadata management, and information governance, with experience using Microsoft Purview, Informatica, Collibra, or equivalent metadata management solutions.
Key Responsibilities
- Define, identify, document, and validate information architecture requirements with business and technical stakeholders, obtaining appropriate approvals from I&IT management and governance authorities.
- Develop enterprise information architecture frameworks, principles, standards, policies, roadmaps, and implementation plans aligned with organizational objectives and enterprise architecture requirements.
- Design and implement enterprise taxonomies, controlled vocabularies, business glossaries, classification frameworks, metadata standards, and semantic structures.
- Develop conceptual information models, information domain models, information domain maps, semantic concept models, and common business definitions to establish consistent interpretation of information across business domains.
- Establish common business terminology and semantic alignment across participating organizations to improve interoperability, information sharing, information discovery, and enterprise data governance.
- Create and maintain metadata models, metadata standards, information asset inventories, and information architecture documentation using Microsoft Purview, Informatica, Collibra, or equivalent metadata management platforms.
- Conduct complex information architecture assessments and reviews to support enterprise modernization, digital transformation, and evolving business priorities.
- Translate strategic business objectives, business capabilities, business processes, and business requirements into actionable information architecture deliverables and implementation roadmaps.
- Establish traceability between information architecture artefacts, business requirements, business capabilities, processes, and enterprise data models.
- Support enterprise data governance initiatives, including information stewardship, information lifecycle management, metadata governance, and consistent management of information assets.
- Facilitate stakeholder workshops to define common business concepts, terminology, information requirements, classification structures, and metadata standards.
- Research, develop, implement, and maintain information architecture policies, standards, and industry best practices while ensuring alignment with corporate and client-cluster requirements.
- Provide expert advice and interpretation on information architecture matters to project teams, senior management, business stakeholders, technical teams, and external service providers.
- Support architecture governance processes, architecture review boards, project checkpoints, and the preparation of required checkpoint deliverables and supporting artefacts.
- Develop information architecture specifications for Requests for Proposals (RFPs), contribute to bid evaluations, and support contract and service-level agreement (SLA) discussions with vendors and service providers when required.
- Participate in enterprise-wide and cross-jurisdictional architecture initiatives involving information management, common data models, and information sharing.
- Manage competing priorities and deliver high-quality architecture documentation within established timelines.
Requirements
Mandatory Qualifications and Experience
Candidates must demonstrate the following skills and experience:
- Information Architecture Requirements: Proven experience defining, identifying, documenting, and validating information architecture requirements with business and technical stakeholders and obtaining the necessary approvals.
- Enterprise Information Architecture: Demonstrated experience developing enterprise information architecture frameworks, principles, standards, and roadmaps.
- Taxonomies and Business Glossaries: Hands-on experience designing and implementing enterprise taxonomies, controlled vocabularies, business glossaries, classification frameworks, and metadata standards.
- Metadata Management Tools: Experience with Microsoft Purview, Informatica, Collibra, or an equivalent metadata management solution.
- Enterprise Data Governance: Experience supporting enterprise data governance initiatives, including information governance, metadata governance, and consistent information management practices.
- Hands-on Artefact Development: Demonstrated ability to create original information architecture documentation, standardized templates, frameworks, models, and deliverables from the ground up rather than merely copying or populating existing templates.
- Semantic Modelling and Information Domains: Experience developing conceptual information models, semantic concept models, information domain models, information domain maps, and common business definitions.
- Metadata Standards and Information Inventories: Experience establishing metadata standards, metadata models, information asset inventories, and structured information classification approaches.
- Interoperability and Information Sharing: Experience aligning business concepts and terminology across multiple business domains or organizations to support interoperability, information sharing, and common data models.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Strong experience facilitating workshops and collaborating with business stakeholders, technical teams, information governance teams, and senior management to establish shared information requirements and terminology.
- Architecture Governance and Documentation: Experience preparing information architecture artefacts, supporting architecture reviews and governance checkpoints, and maintaining traceability to business requirements, capabilities, and processes.
- Analytical and Communication Skills: Strong analytical, problem-solving, documentation, collaboration, and communication skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and deliver within tight timelines.
Key Deliverables
The successful candidate will be responsible for developing and maintaining the following deliverables:
- Controlled Vocabulary Framework
- Enterprise Business Glossary
- Semantic Concept Models
- Information Domain Models
- Information Domain Maps
- Metadata Standards and Frameworks
- Information Asset Inventories
- Semantic Alignment of Business Concepts Across Participating Organizations
- Information Architecture Artefacts Supporting the Development of Common Data Models
- Enterprise Information Architecture Frameworks, Principles, Standards, and Roadmaps
- Supporting Architecture Documentation, Governance Artefacts, and Checkpoint Deliverables
Desirable Qualifications
- Previous experience supporting Government of Ontario or other public-sector information architecture programs.
- Experience with enterprise data governance initiatives and information stewardship practices.
- Knowledge of semantic technologies, ontology concepts, semantic modelling, and knowledge graph initiatives.
- Knowledge of information management principles, concepts, policies, and practices.
- Familiarity with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and related accessibility regulations and standards.
- Experience working within enterprise architecture governance frameworks and large-scale digital transformation programs.
Ideal Candidate Profile
The ideal candidate is a hands-on Senior Information Architect who can independently design and develop enterprise information architecture frameworks, standardized documentation, semantic models, taxonomies, business glossaries, and metadata standards. They must be comfortable engaging with stakeholders across multiple business domains, establishing common definitions, supporting enterprise data governance, and producing original, high-quality artefacts that can be adopted as organizational standards.