What Is A Data Architect? A Basic Insight (2021)

Introduction

Maintaining and managing big data in big companies is a very risky task for large businesses. Thanks to the data architect, because of him/her, companies can think properly about their right business strategy to go ahead with their competitors.

1. What is the Data Architecture’s role?
2. What are the Data Architecture’s responsibilities?
3. What are the differences between the data engineer and the data architect?
4. How do I become a data architect?
5. What to look for in a data architect?
6. What are the skills of the data architect?
7. Data Architect Certifications
8. Data Architect Salary 
9. Data Architect Jobs 

1. What is the Data Architecture’s role?

The role of data architect is to create, manage, maintain, visualize, design, deploy and organize the data frame of the company.  He/she makes a strategy based upon the needs of data,  creates high standard data designs for integration,  takes decisions regarding the data according to the related company’s business ideas and strategy, and creates his/her business vocabulary merging with that company’s strategic data. 

2. What are the Data Architecture’s responsibilities?

The data architecture’s responsibilities should be as following:

• The data architecture should know about the principles and standards of his/her company related to the designing of the data architect. She/he should know about factors such as data modelling, metadata, data security, the master data included employees, vendors, clients, materials, and the referenced data consisted of categories of clients and products codes.
• He/ she should know about the actual reference data architecture, which can be followed by others for improving and designing data systems.
• He/she be always conversational with the company’s other important members such as business partners, external vendors, clients, stack holders, and different departments of companies/ businesses. 
• He/ she should be known about the data flow of his/her company.   He/ she must know about certain factors about the data flow, such as which data should be functional, which data will be generated by the company, management of that data flow, and changes in the data flow during the transition.
• He/she works to transform the requirements and strategies of the related company/ business into the technical procedure.  This technical procedure transform requirements of the related business into certain factors such as databases, data streams, data warehouses, transformations, and integration. 

3. What are the differences between the data engineer and the data architect?

There is no difference between data architect and the data engineer. These positions are closed to each other. The data engineer and the data architect collaborate to create, visualize, maintain, manage and organize the data framework of the company. 

The data engineer helps to build the blueprint regarding the data framework of the company created by the data architect. 

The data engineer uses the data in the data framework, which has been created, organized, designed and visualized by the data architect. The Data Architect works for creating the data framework with the help of the data engineer. This data framework can be used for data retrieval and data search. 

4. How do I become a data architect?

You should have a bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, or a similar field. You should have known about the basic requirements to become a data architect. These requirements include such as technology architecture, big data developments, programming, data management coverage, and system analysis. 

The data architect can learn by experience while working in the company. He/She can start to work from roles such as solution architect, data scientist, or data engineer. He/She can become a data architect by having experience in objects such as data storage, data design, and data management.

5. What to look for in a data architect?

Though many data architects persuade a degree in computer engineering, computer science, or in a similar field, the company should have considered the following factors before selecting the one for its data management:

• The data architect should understand the functions of cloud databases, programs, and applications used by these databases.
• He /She should be aware of database optimization,  data modelling, and conceptualization of the data.
• Good communication ability with the clear and simple tone.
• He/they should know how to create diagrams that represent main data components. 
• The data architect should be able to collect data components to design and manage the data frame.
• He/She must know about designing data processing models which represent the business model of the related company.
• And the most important factor, the data architect should tend to learn while working. 

6. What are the skills of the data architect?

Following skills are required for becoming a data architect:

• Data designing and modelling – The data architect must have skills such as database administration and SQL Development.
• He/she must know about project management skills, data system developments, designing, and testing techniques.
• He/She should have good soft skills such as good written/verbal communication with other parties. The ideal data architect should have a good salesperson who convinces and persuades others to understand data strategy related to the business/ company.
• Analytical problem solver- the data architect should solve high-level data challenges by analyzing the proper method or technique. He/She uses the right tactics for using more human resources and time. 
• Expert management skills – The data architect should be able to direct and manage a team consisting of junior architects, data engineers, data administrators, and data modellers. 
• Knowledge of the related industry – The data architect must understand the industry in which he/she works.  He/ she has to know about the functions of that industry. Also, the data architect should have aware of certain things regarding the related industry, such as data management, collection, analysis, and utilization. 
• The data architect should know about the following technical skills:

1. Python, C/C Java, Perl
2. Predictive modelling, NLP, and text analysis
3. Data mining
4. Data modelling tools
5. Application server software
6. Database management system software
7. Enterprise application integration software
8. Data visualization
9. ETL tools
10. UNIX, Linux, Solaris, and MS-Windows 
11. Hadoop and NoSQL databases
12. User interface and query software
13. UML
14. Development environment software
15. Agile methodologies
16. ERP implementation
17. Backup Software
18. Columnar
19. Data management and reporting techniques
20. Predictive analysis
21. Unstructured data

7. Data Architect Certifications

Though you pursue a degree in computer engineering, computer science, or in similar fields for becoming a data centre architect, you can think about certifications programs in data architecture to growing your career. 

Certifications programs for data architecture:

• IBM Certified Data Architect- Big Data 
• Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP)
• TOGAF 9 Certification Program
• Salesforce Certified Data Architecture and Management Designer
• Arcitura Certified Big Data 
• Simplilearn’s Big Data Architect Master’s Program

8. Data Architect Salary 

The basic salary of the data architect is around Rs. 18, 96,272 per year In India. This salary goes low as Rs. 1,015,000 per year and as high as Rs. 3,131,000 per year. 

9. Data Architect Jobs 

If you search online job portals like Glassdoor or Indeed.com, you will see countless positions are available for the job of the data architect. These positions are for businesses/ industries ranging from technology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, gaming, entertainment, consulting, financial services, higher education, and many more. 

The sample of the job description for the data architect indicates the following responsibilities for the role like identifying database structural necessities based upon applications, programming and client operations, prepare architecture reports and database designing for management teams, big data, implementing database solutions and models to store data, etc. 

Companies look for 10-15 years of experience for this position.  Some companies check if he/she has a degree in computer engineering, computer science, or in a similar field.

If you are an excellent communicator, great innovator, good collaborator, highly efficient, always motivated for your job, then you are a perfect candidate to apply for such companies. 

Conclusion

The data architect is responsible for the company’s growth ahead of its competitors within its related industry. It is a big responsibility for the data architect to represent his/ her company’s business ideas or strategies through database management. That’s why most companies/ businesses are in search of highly efficient data architects. 

If you are interested in making a career in the Data Science domain, our 11-month in-person Postgraduate Certificate Diploma in Data Science course can help you immensely in becoming a successful Data Science professional. 

ALSO READ

• Computer Science and Engineering: A Basic Comparison (2021)