Whether you dabble in data, have an existing degree, or are brand new to the discipline, this data science course is for you. No matter where you are in your career, our course takes you from foundational…
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Written byBrennan Whitfield
UPDATED BY
Brennan Whitfield | Dec. 07, 2022
What Is a Data Architect? How to Become One, Salary, Skills.
Data architects leverage programming and information technology (IT) expertise to design the theoretical blueprints of data management systems. Here’s what to know about a data architect’s needed skills, salary and how to become one.
What Is a Data Architect?
Data architects create the initial drafts of data architecture and data management frameworks according to business and technical requirements. Data architects also largely define a company’s baseline policies and procedures for data infrastructure, which can help direct the work of data engineers.
What Do Data Architects Do?
Data architects review, analyze, plan and optimize data management and storage infrastructure to ensure information is accessible and secure for those using the systems.
Data Architect Responsibilities
- Create and define data infrastructure policies, procedures and processes.
- Design and build data architecture frameworks based on business and technical requirements.
- Define reference architectures and data flow for future infrastructure development.
- Analyze and improve existing data infrastructure to ensure proper data handling.
- Research and apply data acquisition sources.
Day-to-Day Responsibilities of Data Architects
- Use data modeling tools like ER/Studio to visualize and design data architecture.
- Use programming languages like Python to code, test and troubleshoot data architecture applications.
- Document data pipeline procedures or queries for metadata and reference data cases.
- Communicate with data analysts and database administrators to implement procedures and determine infrastructure needs.
Data Architects Within a Company
Data architects are usually part of a data science team within a company. They may be tasked with leading data system projects, and frequently collaborate with data analysts, data engineers and data scientists to accomplish their work. They also tend to report to data infrastructure and data science leads.
Importance of Data Architects
Data security compliance or data flow needs may be neglected without data architects, as they create a foundation for data infrastructure protocols, setting expectations for how the rest of a data science team and company will build these systems and handle stored data.
What Skills Are Needed to Be a Data Architect?
Qualifications to Be a Data Architect
- Several years of experience in database administration, system administration, systems engineering or a similar role.
- Ability to design and model database, data warehouse and data flow infrastructures.
- Ability to research and develop strategies for data acquisition, migration and recovery.
- Understanding of data security and implementation measures for data systems.
- Proficiency in C, C++, Java, Python or SQL as well as software engineering principles.
Data Architect Prerequisites
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, data science, management information systems or a similar field.
- Master’s degree in data architecture, data science, information systems or a similar field.
Data Architect Hard Skills
- Expertise in data management and storage systems (database, data container, data lake, data warehouse).
- Expertise in data modeling and design tools.
- Expertise in data flow and Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) tools.
- Expertise in data security and compliance procedures.
- Expertise in programming languages (C, C++, Java, Python, SQL).
- Experience in data analysis tools and techniques.
- Knowledge of big data tools and databases.
- Knowledge of cloud computing technologies.
- Familiarity with DevOps practices.
Data Architect Soft Skills
- Agile methodologies.
- Critical thinking skills.
- Problem-solving skills.
- Verbal and written communication skills.
Tools and Programs Data Architects Use
- Amazon RDS
- Apache Kafka
- Apache Spark
- C
- C++
- ER/Studio
- Erwin Data Modeler
- IBM Db2
- Java
- Microsoft Azure SQL Database
- NoSQL
- Python
- Spring Batch
- SQL
How to Become a Data Architect
Data Architect Education and Experience
Data architect candidates are often expected to have a bachelor’s degree in computer science, data science, management information systems or a similar field. They also may have a master’s degree in data architecture, data science, information systems or a similar field to enter competitive or higher-level roles.
Candidates will often need to obtain several years of experience in data administration, programming, system administration or systems engineering before entering the data architect role. Knowledge in the areas of data management and storage systems, data modeling, data security, programming languages (C, C++, Java, Python, SQL), cloud computing, big data and effective communication are also recommended.
Data Architect Certificates and Courses
- Data Warehouse ETL Testing & Data Quality Management A-Z
- Data Warehouse - The Ultimate Guide
- Intro to Data Analytics Webinar
- Mastering Data Modeling Fundamentals
- The Complete Database Design & Modeling Beginners Tutorial
Data Architect Career Path
Professionals may begin their careers in database administration, system administration or systems engineering before entering the data architect role. After experience as a data architect, professionals can become a senior data architect. From here, professionals may move into management and leadership roles like principal data architect, director of data infrastructure or chief technology officer.
Data Architect Salary and Job Outlook
Data architect is an in-demand role. An employment increase of nine percent by 2031 is expected for data architects, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The full compensation package for a data architect depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s experience and geographic location. See below for detailed information on the average data architect salary.
Courses
Expand Your Data Architect Career Opportunities
Expand your capabilities by taking top-tier data science courses from Udemy.
Flatiron School
Whether you dabble in data, have an existing degree, or are brand new to the discipline, this data science course is for you. No matter where you are in your career, our course takes you from foundational…
General Assembly
Regardless of your industry or role, fluency in the language of data analytics will allow you to contribute to data driven decision making.
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General Assembly
In this two hour live workshop you will walk through the typical data science workflow and see how the pros identify powerful business predictions. You’ll get first-hand experience to explore the key tools and…
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Certifications
Data Architect Certifications + Programs
Take your career in an exciting new direction by earning in-demand data science certifications from Udacity.
Whether you have coded before or are brand new to the world of programming, this course will put you on the fast track to building confidence with this intuitive, object- oriented language. Learn programming fundamentals and build a custom application. Graduate with the ability to start applying Python within high-growth fields like analytics, data science, and web development.
What you'll accomplish
This is a beginner-friendly program with no prerequisites, although some students may have coded previously. First-time programmers will have access to pre-course preparatory lessons and additional resources to boost their confidence with key concepts and set up their development environments. Throughout this expert-designed program, you’ll:
- Learn object-oriented programming fundamentals and Python basics that get you coding from day one.
- Build a Python program and add on increased complexity throughout the course.
- Troubleshoot Python code and practice common debugging techniques.
- Push your skills to the next level by adding scripting, modules, and APIs to your Python toolkit.
- Explore introductory data science and web development as potential career directions for Python programmers.
- Demonstrate your Python skills by creating apps that pull in data with Pandas or integrate functionality from APIs with Flask.
Why General Assembly
Since 2011, General Assembly has graduated more than 40,000 students worldwide from the full time & part time courses. During the 2020 hiring shutdown, GA's students, instructors, and career coaches never lost focus, and the KPMG-validated numbers in their Outcomes report reflect it. *For students who graduated in 2020 — the peak of the pandemic — 74.4% of those who participated in GA's full-time Career Services program landed jobs within six months of graduation. General Assembly is proud of their grads + teams' relentless dedication and to see those numbers rising. Download the report here.
Your next step? Submit an application to talk to the General Assembly Admissions team
Note: reviews are referenced from Career Karma - https://careerkarma.com/schools/general-assembly
General Assembly
General Assembly’s Data Science part-time course is a practical introduction to the interdisciplinary field of data science and machine learning, which lies at the intersection of computer science, statistics, and business. You will learn to use the Python programming language to acquire, parse, and model data for informing business strategy.
This is a fast-paced course with some prerequisites. Students should be comfortable with programming fundamentals, core Python syntax, and basic statistics. There is an option to complete up to 25 hours of online preparatory lessons. Talk to the General Assembly Admissions team to discuss your background and confirm if this is the right fit for you..
What you'll accomplish
A significant portion of the course is a hands- on approach to fundamental modeling techniques and machine learning algorithms. You’ll also practice communicating your results and insights by compiling technical documentation and a stakeholder presentation. Throughout this expert-designed program, you’ll:
- Perform exploratory data analysis with Python.
- Build and refine machine learning models to predict patterns
- from data sets.
- Communicate data-driven insights to technical and non-technical audiences alike.
- Apply what you’ve learned to create a portfolio project: a predictive model that addresses a real-world data problem.
Why General Assembly
Since 2011, General Assembly has graduated more than 40,000 students worldwide from the full time & part time courses. During the 2020 hiring shutdown, GA's students, instructors, and career coaches never lost focus, and the KPMG-validated numbers in their Outcomes report reflect it. *For students who graduated in 2020 — the peak of the pandemic — 74.4% of those who participated in GA's full-time Career Services program landed jobs within six months of graduation. General Assembly is proud of their grads + teams' relentless dedication and to see those numbers rising. Download the report here.
Your next step? Submit an application to talk to the General Assembly Admissions team
Note: reviews are referenced from Career Karma - https://careerkarma.com/schools/general-assembly
General Assembly
General Assembly’s Data Science Immersive is a transformative course designed for you to get the necessary skills for a data scientist role in three months.
The Data Science bootcamp is led by instructors who are expert practitioners in their field, supported by career coaches that work with you since day one and enhanced by a career services team that is constantly in talks with employers about their tech hiring needs.
What you'll accomplish
As a graduate, you will be ready to succeed in a variety of data science and advanced analytics roles, creating predictive models that drive decision-making and strategy throughout organizations of all kinds. Throughout this expert-designed program, you’ll:
- Collect, extract, query, clean, and aggregate data for analysis.
- Gather, store and organize data using SQL and Git.
- Perform visual and statistical analysis on data using Python and its associated libraries and tools.
- Craft and share compelling narratives through data visualization.
- Build and implement appropriate machine learning models and algorithms to evaluate data science problems spanning finance, public policy, and more.
- Compile clear stakeholder reports to communicate the nuances of your analyses.
- Apply question, modeling, and validation problem-solving processes to data sets from various industries to provide insight into real-world problems and solutions.
- Prepare for the world of work, compiling a professional-grade portfolio of solo, group, and client projects.
Why General Assembly
Since 2011, General Assembly has graduated more than 40,000 students worldwide from the full time & part time courses. During the 2020 hiring shutdown, GA's students, instructors, and career coaches never lost focus, and the KPMG-validated numbers in their Outcomes report reflect it. *For students who graduated in 2020 — the peak of the pandemic — 74.4% of those who participated in GA's full-time Career Services program landed jobs within six months of graduation. General Assembly is proud of their grads + teams' relentless dedication and to see those numbers rising. Download the report here.
Your next step? Submit an application to talk to the General Assembly Admissions team
Note: reviews are referenced from Career Karma - https://careerkarma.com/schools/general-assembly
General Assembly
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