"Senior Architect, Data Solutions"

Overview

The University Data Office at Yale University, led by our new Chief Data Officer (CDO), is on an exciting multi-year journey to transform how data is leveraged across the university as a strategic asset. The newly established University Data Office will play a critical role in promoting the use of data across the university in decision-making, safely utilizing advances in AI, and ensuring the security and privacy of the university’s data. Yale has a wealth of data from its teaching and research activities, but the effectiveness of utilizing data to make informed decisions is limited today by a fragmented data environment and cross-domain analytics conducted mostly on an ad hoc basis. The mission of the University Data Office is to develop a cohesive data strategy and federated governance model that will enable integrated insights for deans and other key stakeholders at the university.

As an early hire in the new University Data Office reporting to the CDO, the Senior Architect, Data Solutions, will have the opportunity to be a part of this transformative initiative to shape the future of data-driven insights at one of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions.

In this role, the successful candidate will develop and implement, in partnership with ITS, a multi-year roadmap to mature/modernize our enterprise data architecture to support scalable data solutions.

Key responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Act as the primary technical liaison between the University Data Office and ITS, fostering collaboration to enhance data architecture and solution development.
• In collaboration with ITS teams, lead the design and implementation of scalable, secure, and high-performing data solutions aligned with business goals and best practices.
• Drive discovery and solutioning phases by translating business needs into technical strategies.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend tools to optimize data operations and analytics.
• In partnership with ITS, develop, implement and maintain a multi-year roadmap for migrating the enterprise data warehouse to a modern, cloud-based lakehouse architecture.
• Build and advocate for business cases supporting architectural investments and data governance tools.
• Oversee data integration efforts, reviewing and improving data pipelines to support solution development.
• Ensure architectural compliance with security, privacy, performance, and cost requirements in collaboration with ITS.
• Design solution enabling self-service access to structured and unstructured data while upholding data governance standards.
• Lead data quality assurance initiatives and partner with system owners to address root causes of data issues.
• Create and present architectural documentation to stakeholders at all levels, securing alignment and buy-in.
• Support implementation of data governance and lifecycle policies in partnership with ITS.

Required Skills and Abilities

Required Skill/Ability 1: Proven experience designing, developing, and maintaining enterprise-scale data platforms, including large-scale, multi-year implementations. Strong background in enterprise data architecture and analytics in evolving data environments.

Required Skill/Ability 2: Expertise with cloud-based data platforms such as Microsoft Fabric, Databricks, Snowflake, Apache Spark, Azure Data Factory, and Azure Synapse. Experience implementing both data warehouse and lakehouse architectures.

Required Skill/Ability 3: Fluency in data platform design and agile development, including CI/CD best practices.

Required Skill/Ability 4: Familiarity with tools for data analysis, data science, and reporting (e.g., R, Python, Jupyter notebooks, Power BI, Tableau). Strong understanding of data privacy, security, and governance best practices.

Required Skill/Ability 5: Strategic thinker with excellent communication skills and the ability to engage stakeholders at all levels. Hands-on experience with performance tuning and optimization of data systems. Comfortable in a consulting role within cross-functional teams. Skilled at leading through influence and collaborating with internal and external partners.

Preferred Skills and Abilities

Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science or related field, 10+ years of data architecture experience in a professional environment, in addition to strong data analysis background. Relevant certifications in data/enterprise architecture and cloud platforms. Experience with MS Fabric is a strong plus.

Principal Responsibilities

1. Examine and validate broader subsystems standards and assure that inter-system architectures are both efficient and consistent with existing institutional standards and practices. Identify Technical Gaps / and Technical Debt within your area of formal expertise.
2. Establishes new paradigms for their area expertise.
3. Develops, documents, and disseminates standard assemblies of technologies to flexibly and efficiently solve University needs.
4. Responsible for establishing design decisions and assuring that the implementations are socialized and understood by the effected parties.

Required Education and Experience

Bachelor's Degree and seven years of experience or equivalent education and experience.