🔍 The Role of 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗔 𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗦 Today - An Open Discussion 🔍
The more projects and companies I work with, the more people I interview, the blurrier the role and related expectations and accountabilities become for a Data Architect.
How is it possible that when reading the resumes of two candidates for a Data Architect position, you see clearly different backgrounds, skills, expertise, and experiences? 🤔 At the same time, why are job offerings for Data Architect roles so varied in terms of requirements and expected responsibilities?
As a Data Architect, I've faced this struggle multiple times, with different stakeholders and team members having widely different views (and expectations!) on this role.
In the era of Cloud Data Platforms, Lakehouses, Data Mesh, and more, this role's scope has become, in my opinion, too broad to have a single definition.
Let's try to list down some of the most common areas of influence:
1. 🏗️ System & Integration Architecture, including FinOps model
2. 🛠️ Data Platform Architecture, including DataOps and processes
3. 💻 Software Architecture
4. 📝 Data Modeling
5. 🔒 DevSecOps
6. 📊 Data Governance, including support on integration, metadata definition, tooling, and processes
7. 📋 Requirement Engineering for (new) use cases
8. 👨💻 Tech leading of Data Engineering teams, including PR & code review
9. 🎓 Upskilling and hiring of talents
10. 🤝 Contributing to SME communities in the Organization
... and more, especially when you start scoping Enterprise Data Management practice at scale, as part of an overall Data Strategy to be followed (and influenced?).
How do you think should, and how in your experience have, all these expectations be(en) successfully framed and executed? Any other accountabilities to add here?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts...oh yeah and happy holidays! 🎄
#DataArchitecture #DataArchitect #DataEngineering #DataStrategy
