Data is the new black gold. Thanks to the rise in data-driven decision making, the demand for data professionals is outpacing the supply — and data architecture is one of the emerging jobs in this field.
In order to create more supply for qualified professionals to fill these emerging jobs, Udacity has released the all new Data Architect Nanodegree program.
In this Nanodegree program, you’ll learn to plan, design and implement enterprise data infrastructure solutions and create the blueprints for an organization’s data management system.
What is a Data Architect?
A data architect is a senior-level data professional skilled enough to create the data infrastructure for an entire organization — all the data management, infrastructure, systems, models, implementation and requirements for data engineers.
These professionals use creative thinking, design, and programming skills to create innovative solutions to manage and store data for organizations.
Additionally, data architects help organizations to achieve strategic data management goals. Their job responsibilities include:
- Evaluating an organization’s current databases and data architecture
- Planning complete data models for analysis and consumption
- Coding data architecture and integrating existing databases
- Exploring new data collection methods
- Updating and monitoring databases to maintain accuracy and efficiency
- Creating database standards to ensure the safety of the database
- Identifying data needs and goals with top executives and stakeholders
What Data Architect’s Can Expect to Make
According to Indeed.com, data architect is one of the top 20 in-demand IT jobs that pay well.
Indeed also found that average salary for data architects in the US is $133,536
According to Glassdoor, the average salary for data architects is $108,278 per year yr. Irrespective of the data you are looking at, this career path is a lucrative one.
Become a Data Architect with Udacity’s Data Architect Nanodegree Program
Udacity’s Data Architect Nanodegree program will help you learn how to plan, design and implement enterprise data infrastructure solutions and create the blueprints for an organization’s data management system.
In this program, you’ll create a relational database with PostGreSQL, design an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) data model to build a cloud-based data warehouse, and design scalable data lake architecture that meets the needs of Big Data.
Don’t miss your chance to learn how to apply the principles of data governance to an organization’s data management system.
You’ll also get in-depth knowledge of the various aspects of data architecture backed by some real-world projects.
Course 1: Data Architecture Foundations
Learn the principles of data architecture, characteristics of good data architecture and how to apply them. You’ll also learn data modeling, designing a data model, normalizing data, and creating a professional ERD. Finally, you will take everything you learned and create a physical database using PostGreSQL.
PROJECT 1: Designing an HR Database
In this project, you’ll design, build, and populate a database for the Human Resources (HR) Department at the imaginary Tech ABC Corp, a video game company. This project is a scaled-down simulation of the kind of real-world assignments data architects work on every day.
Course 2: Designing Data Systems
Learn new skills to help you design enterprise data architecture. In fact, you can build a cloud-based data warehouse with Snowflake in this course.
PROJECT 2: Design a Data Warehouse for Reporting and OLAP
Design end-to-end data architecture, learn how to ingest data from Yelp and Climatic source systems, design Operational Data Store and Data warehouse systems, and transform data from staging to ODS and finally from ODS to data warehouse system.
Course 3: Big Data Systems
Get the in-demand skills to help organizations with massive amounts of data, including identification of Big Data problems and how to design Big Data solutions. This course will also teach you about the internal architecture of many of the Big Data tools such as HDFS, MapReduce, Hive and Spark, and how these tools work internally to provide distributed storage, distributed processing capabilities, fault tolerance and scalability.
PROJECT 3: Design an Enterprise Data Lake System
Act as a Big Data Architect, and work on a real-world use case faced by a Medical Data Processing Company. This is an actual scenario where you will act as an expert data infrastructure consultant to the company and solve the challenges the company is facing today.
COURSE 4: Data Governance
Learn how to design a data governance solution that meets your company’s needs. First, you’ll learn about the different types of metadata, and how to build a Metadata Management System, Enterprise Data Model, and Enterprise Data Catalog.
You’ll also learn how to perform data profiling using various techniques including data quality dimensions, how to identify remediation options for data quality issues, and how to measure and monitor data quality using data quality scores, thresholds, dashboards, exception and trend reports.
Finally, you’ll learn the concepts of Master Data and golden record, different types of Master Data Management Architectures, as well as the golden record creation and master data governance processes.
PROJECT 4: Data Governance at SneakerPark
Implement data governance solutions for an online shoe reseller SneakerPark to better manage their data now and in the future. In this project, you’ll sketch out a proposed MDM implementation architecture, define a set of matching rules for the creation of customer and item master data, and define the data governance roles and responsibilities that are necessary to oversee this data governance initiative.
Enter an In Demand Field and Become a Data Architect
A data architect is a senior data role in high demand. So, it’s a great opportunity for not only individuals, but also for enterprises as more organizations move towards being data-driven.
The following career steps can help you become a data architect:
- Get basic knowledge of computer programming, computer science, web development, system analysis, operating systems and technology architecture
- Get an internship either during college or immediately after college to learn skills such as network management, application architecture and performance management
- Build three to five years of experience in IT or data administration related roles before moving to a data architect career
- Complete an industry-oriented certification that can give you a specialization in data architecture and also help you with some hands-on projects like Udacity’s Data Architect Nanodegree program
If you think Data Architecture is your preferred career path then check out our Data Architect Nanodegree program now.
