Data & AI Architecture Lead - Africa at KPMG Nigeria

KPMG is a global network of independent professional services firm with deep expertise in the provision of audit, tax and advisory services to clients in various industries and sectors of the economy. The Firm is well represented in Nigeria and across the African continent, with the objective of providing exceptional and quality services to multinational, regional and local clients and to enhance the product offerings in certain previously under-serviced markets.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Data & AI Architecture Lead - Africa

Location: Lagos
Job type: Full-time
Career level: Associate Director

Position Summary

• The Data & AI Architecture Lead is a Senior Manager-level role responsible for the architecture, solution design, and technical governance of KPMG T&I's data modernisation, artificial intelligence, and intelligent automation engagements.
• As AI and data become central to digital transformation mandates across financial services, government, and energy sectors in Africa, this role establishes KPMG T&I's technical authority in data architecture and AI solution design - ensuring that all data and AI proposals are robust, implementable, and ethically sound before delivery commences.

Base location:

• Your location will be determined based on your location. Our main hubs are located in Johannesburg, Lagos and Nairobi.

Key Roles and Responsibilities
Data and AI Solution Architecture (55%):

• Design and review data architecture and AI/ML solution blueprints for all major T&I data and AI pursuits - ensuring technical soundness and delivery feasibility before contract signature.
• Produce high-quality data architecture documents, AI solution designs, and analytics-as-a-service proposals for client engagements.
• Lead client-facing data architecture workshops, demonstrating KPMG's capability in data platform engineering, AI/ML model deployment, and intelligent automation.
• Define KPMG T&I's standard data architecture patterns - including data mesh, data lakehouse, MLOps pipelines, and analytics-as-a-service models.
• Review and approve all data and AI scopes of work, ensuring they are correctly scoped, priced, and aligned to cloud-native data platform capabilities (Azure Fabric, Databricks, AWS, GCP).

Delivery Governance and Quality (30%):

• Provide architecture oversight on active data and AI delivery engagements - attending design reviews, sprint reviews, and client technical steering committees.
• Serve as KPMG T&I's technical authority on AI ethics, model governance, and responsible AI frameworks - ensuring all AI solutions meet appropriate standards.
• Conduct formal architecture health checks at key delivery milestones to identify data quality issues, model performance risks, and scope deviations.
• Maintain KPMG T&I's data and AI asset library - documenting reusable pipelines, model frameworks, analytics dashboards, and automation components with Block E.
• Stay current with evolving African data regulation (POPIA, GDPR-equivalents) and ensure all data architectures are compliant.

Market and Capability Development (15%):

• Contribute to KPMG T&I's Data and AI thought leadership - publishing insights on AI/ML, data modernisation, and analytics trends relevant to African markets.
• Build KPMG T&I's internal data and AI capability through training, knowledge-sharing, and technical mentorship.
• Develop go-to-market propositions for Data and AI services, working with Domain Leads and Alliance Market Leads to position KPMG's capability with clients.
• Maintain certifications and stay current with the evolving AI/ML platform landscape (Azure AI, AWS SageMaker, Google Vertex AI, Databricks).

Requirements
Academic/ Professional qualifications and Experience:

• Degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, or related quantitative discipline.
• Cloud data platform certification required: Azure Data Engineer (DP-203), AWS Data Analytics, or Databricks Certified Data Engineer.
• AI/ML certification preferred: Azure AI Engineer (AI-102), AWS Machine Learning Specialty, or Google Professional ML Engineer.
• Minimum 8 years of experience in data engineering, analytics, or AI/ML, with at least 4 years in a client-facing architecture or consulting role.
• Proven experience designing and delivering data platform migrations, analytics programmes, or AI/ML deployments for enterprise clients.
• Familiarity with African data protection regulation and responsible AI frameworks.

Technical competencies & Personal attributes:

• Demonstrate and articulate KPMG values as well as proven capability in:
• Data and AI depth: recognised technical expert in data architecture and AI/ML solution design with demonstrated implementation experience.
• Architecture clarity: able to translate complex data and AI concepts into clear, structured, implementable solution designs.
• Ethics and governance - understands the responsible AI implications of model deployment and applies appropriate guardrails.
• Client engagement: comfortable leading data strategy and AI roadmap discussions with CDOs, CTOs, and business executives.
• Commercial awareness: designs data and AI architectures that are commercially viable and scalable without unnecessary cost.
• Curiosity and learning stays current with the rapidly evolving AI and data platform landscape.
• Market Intelligence: Demonstrate commercial awareness with sound knowledge of matters affecting the market.
• Business development entrepreneurial mind-set and ability to identify opportunities and develop high quality proposals.
• Personal effectiveness - Excellent report-writing and presentation skills.
• People management - Leadership & management skills.
• Performance management - Be a performance manager to the team in line with performance management guidelines.
• Risk management-lead in ensuring full compliance with KPMG quality & risk management requirements
• Capacity building - Takes a lead in building capability of team to future proof workforce and full utilization of existing workforce.

Benefits
We offer:

• An exciting opportunity to work with a Big 4 firm on cutting edge clients across Africa.
• Continuous learning and development.
• Exposure to multi-disciplinary client service teams.
• Unrivalled space to grow and be innovative.
• Opportunity for international travel.

Application Closing Date
24th May, 2026.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidiates should:
Click here to apply online