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The data architect role

Thor Olavsrud says that data architects are senior visionaries who translate business requirements into technology requirements and define data standards and principles. The data architect is responsible for visualizing and designing an organization's enterprise data management framework. This framework describes the processes used to plan, specify, enable, create, acquire, maintain, use, archive, retrieve, control, and purge data. The data architect also "provides a standard common business vocabulary, expresses strategic requirements, outlines high-level integrated designs to meet those requirements, and aligns with enterprise strategy and related business architecture," according to DAMA International's Data Management Body of Knowledge.

The data architect responsibilities

According to Panoply, typical data architect responsibilities include:

• Translating business requirements into technical specifications, including data streams, integrations, transformations, databases, and data warehouses

• Defining the data architecture framework, standards and principles, including modeling, metadata, security, reference data such as product codes and client categories, and master data such as clients, vendors, materials, and employees

• Defining reference architecture, which is a pattern that others can follow to create and improve data systems

• Defining data flows, i.e., which parts of the organization generate data, which require data to function, how data flows are managed, and how data changes in transition

• Collaborating and coordinating with multiple departments, stakeholders, partners, and external vendors