What Does a Data Warehouse Architect Do?

Key takeaways

Data warehouse architects create customized warehouses for storing, retrieving, and analyzing company data.

• The median annual wage for data warehouse architects in the United States is $135,980 [1].

• Along with expertise in programming languages, data warehouse architects are skilled in data modeling, database management, and data visualization.

• You can enhance your career prospects by earning certifications offered by industry leaders. 

Explore the job responsibilities and earning potential of a data warehouse architect. Afterward, enroll in IBM’s Data Warehouse Engineer Professional Certificate to learn how to design and populate data warehouses. The program also provides practical experience with business intelligence (BI) tools, such as Cognos Analytics. 

What is a data warehouse?

A data warehouse is a system that collects and stores data from various sources. It organizes this data so that various professionals, such as data analysts, engineers, and scientists, can use it in their work. 

Data warehouses can store and manage immense amounts of data in addition to extracting data, ensuring it’s usable, and maintaining it within the database. While you might manage data warehousing systems using an in-office mainframe, you could also use remote options, like cloud storage, for modern warehouses.

What is the data warehouse architecture?

Designers typically use a three-tier structure for data warehouses. These include:

• A bottom tier, which collects and manages data from its different sources

• A middle tier, which offers fast queries using online analytical processing (OLAP)

• A top tier, which typically includes a user interface designed for data analysis and reporting

Data warehouses use a star or snowflake schema, which refers to how the data is organized within the database. A data warehouse architect is responsible for considering a business’s needs before choosing components like the online analytical processing (OLAP) software or the schema. You might find data warehouses, sometimes called databases, data lakes, and data marts, though each has its differences. For example, a data lake has a different internal structure than a warehouse.

Read more: What Is a Data Scientist? Salary, Duties + How to Become One

What is a data warehouse architect?

Data warehouse architects play an essential role in managing and applying a business’s data. In this role, you will design the data warehouse’s framework and systems to ensure the data is usable and accessible. You may also oversee the management of data streams, define data flows, and collaborate with other departments.

Data warehouse architects consider a company’s specific data needs and develop a warehouse with customized storage, retrieval, and analytics options so that other professionals can access the data whenever they need to.

The specific tasks you’ll engage in vary based on the business’s needs, but some typical day-to-day responsibilities include:

• Designing plans and models for a data warehouse structure

• Evaluating current warehouse frameworks and systems for efficacy

• Monitoring data security

• Coding the actual databases

• Improving and upgrading existing systems

• Writing procedures for database use

• Ensuring data structures follow all regulations

As a data warehouse architect, you’ll also effectively communicate information about these frameworks and processes to the professionals who need to use them.

What tools do data warehouse architects use?

Data warehouse architects use a wide variety of software and coding applications to successfully create, manage, and maintain a data warehouse. These tools include:

• Oracle

• Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE)

• Cognos Analytics

• Java

• Structured query language (SQL)

• Data management systems

Did you know? Data warehousing tools help facilitate the extract, transform, and load (ETL) process, which helps collect relevant data, adjust it for use in the data warehousing system, and load it for observation and analysis. Tools can be on-site or cloud-based. When selecting them, you should consider factors like performance, scalability, and integrations to choose the one that best meets your company's needs.

Data warehouse architect salary and job outlook

The job outlook for data warehouse architects is positive, with the field highly in demand and growing. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects a 4 percent job growth for database administrators and architects between 2024 and 2034 [2]. The median annual salary for a data warehouse architect is $135,980 [1].

How to become a data warehouse architect

Becoming a data warehouse architect requires a strong coding and technology background. Many professionals acquire these skills through a four-year degree. However, you could also pursue certifications and online courses to learn the fundamentals needed to be successful in this role. Data warehouse architect education for many also includes a master’s degree. 

Once you have a background that provides foundational skills, you’ll want to get an entry-level role as a data warehouse architect to gain the experience necessary to advance through your career into senior, management, and director roles. Keeping a detailed resume outlining hands-on experience and your educational and professional background can help secure a data warehouse architect role.

Education requirements

According to Zippia, 63.8 percent of data warehouse architects have a bachelor’s degree, and 29 percent have a master’s degree [2]. Degrees in computer engineering, information technology, or computer science are excellent choices for learning essential skills. 

Many employers also seek candidates with specific certifications to demonstrate expertise in the software and programming systems required within this role. Companies like IBM and Google offer credentials that can offer a chance to learn more about the different applications needed and earn a resume-building credential. These certifications help to set you apart from other professionals and make you more competitive in the data warehouse architect space.

Essential data warehouse architect skills

Data warehouse architects need a wide range of technical and workplace skills to fulfill their expected roles. Some of these skills include:

Technical skills

• Data modeling

• Data strategy

• Programming language experience, such as Python, Java, C, and C++

• Experience with application server software, such as Oracle

• Data policies development

• Database management

• Data visualization tool

Workplace skills

• Attention to detail

• Communication skills

• Multitasking

• Time management

• Analytical thinking

Data warehouse architect career advancement

Data warehouse architects have the opportunity for robust career advancement. Once you have experience managing databases, you can move into a solutions architect or program manager role. From there, you might advance into an information technology manager role or a director of information infrastructure.

Explore our free resources for data warehouse architects

Subscribe to Career Chat on LinkedIn to get weekly updates on popular skills, tools, and certifications in data engineering. Check out these other free digital resources:

• Watch on YouTube: What Is Data Wrangling? The Key to Clean Data

• Hear from an expert: 7 Questions with a Data Analytics Professor

• Bookmark for quick access: Data Science Terminology and Definitions

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