Data Architect Duties and Skills Needed

Hi,
Our company is creating a new position, that of a Data Architect.
This is something that greatly intrigues me and in addition would be a promotion from my current position as an SAP Application consultant. I come from an application development background.

Nearly all applications I have designed and built are data driven applications.
However would this gear me up for a career as a data architect?

I just read Wyntec.com's very informative reply to another quesrion posed on here.
However what are the responsibilities of a Data Architect and the skills needed?

Regards
Matello

A data architect needs to understand where data comes from, and how to structure it in such a way that it is readily consumable, regardless of it's source system (system independent). A Data Architect needs to understand concepts like denormalization or, re-normalization.

Outside of that, it doesn't hurt to understand dimensional modeling and use of tools like ERwin. Personally, I am a Data Architect and rely very heavily on Excel, as mundane as that sounds, to do attribute mappings (mapping from a source system to a target system or database. I design all my tables, initially, in Excel.

Any excuse to visit the UK is welcome :-)

Thanks Andy. I'm familiar with normalisation and de-normalisation.
I've also heard of ERwin, I think we might even have licences for it where I work.

Andy Knudsen in Saint Louis, Missouri said: A data architect needs to understand where data comes from, and how to structure it in such a way that it is readily consumable, regardless of it's source system (system independent). A Data Architect needs to understand concepts like denormalization or, re-normalization.

Outside of that, it doesn't hurt to understand dimensional modeling and use of tools like ERwin. Personally, I am a Data Architect and rely very heavily on Excel, as mundane as that sounds, to do attribute mappings (mapping from a source system to a target system or database. I design all my tables, initially, in Excel.

Any excuse to visit the UK is welcome :-)

Hello Andy, i'm a prospective student in the field of Architecture. and I have a question about Data Architects/Architecture.

what kind of business would Data Architect be considered as?
would it be considered within architecture, or IT?
and, any degrees required?

Role : Database Architect

Location : Rockville, MD

Start Date: 11/23/2009

End Date: 04/15/2011

Looking for a start as soon as possible

Scope of Position:

The Database Architect will design, maintain and build conceptual, logical
and physical database models. The Database Architect will be responsible for
database architecture, design, and creation, optimization, deriving
conversion and migration methods for existing data, and developing automated
conversion and migration methods. The Database Architect will be responsible
for the planning, installation, configuration, maintenance and production
monitoring of database instances.

Main Responsibilities:

1. Meet with business stakeholders and other technical team members to
gather and analyze application requirements

2. Design database solutions to satisfy application (business and
technical) requirements

3. Implement database solutions using available database development tools

4. Provide first level operational support for development and production
database systems

5. Provide written status reports to management regarding project status,
task, and issues/risks

Required Skills:

1. Bachelor's degree or Master's degree in Computer Science, or equivalent
experience

2. 5 years working experience in Oracle

3. Oracle RAC 11g experience from the development perspective (database
and application), PL/SQL, Solaris, etc.

4. Ability to analyze existing ETL code in both PL/SQL and shell script,
and determine impacts and remediation.

5. Ability to analyze existing database schema DDL/instance layout and
determine impacts migrating to new target schema/instance environment.

6. Strong experience in Informatica ETL tools

7. Strong experience in Business Process Modeling (BPM)

8. Ability to provide guidance to offshore developers and to lead certain
design activities.

9. Ability to interact with external DBAs and help

What difference between Data Architect and Information Architect?

I've recently launched a training course on data architecture, it might be of interest?

The link is: www.koios-associates.com/DataArchitectureCourse.htm