About the Opportunity

This job description isintended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this isnot intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities duties and skills required of personnel so classified.

Job Summary

The Senior Data Architect is responsible for architecting Northeastern Universitys transition from legacy data structures to a modern scalable AIready data architecture. This role conducts deep assessments of existing systemsincluding Banner Workday Salesforce ServiceNow Snowflake and Azureand designs future-state structures that support data products analytics automation and AI/ML enablement. Establishes enterprise data standards models governance structures and integration patterns ensuring that data is trustworthy discoverable interoperable secure and prepared for advanced use cases such as RAG vector search semantic layers and agentic workflows.

*Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States. The University is unable to work sponsor for this role now or in the future.

Minimum Qualification

Knowledge and skills required for this position are typically acquired through the completion of a Bachelors degree in Information Systems Computer Science Engineering or a related field and ten or more years of progressive experience in data architecture enterprise data modeling or data engineering.

• Proven experience modernizing legacy data environments and designing cloud-native AI-ready data architectures.

• Experience working with large complex enterprise systems (e.g. Banner Workday Salesforce ServiceNow Snowflake Azure).

• Demonstrated leadership in cross-functional initiatives involving data governance analytics and platform modernization.

• Ability to translate complex technical concepts into business-aligned architectural decisions.

• Strong communication and data storytelling skills for senior leadership and non-technical stakeholders.

• Effective collaborator with demonstrated ability to drive alignment across distributed teams. Strong problem-solving analytical thinking and architectural documentation skills.

• Ability to set and enforce standards patterns reusable components and governance practices.

Technical Competencies:

• Expertise in modern data architecture patterns (data products lakehouse domain-driven design semantic layers).

• Deep knowledge of Snowflake Azure SQL Databricks or similar cloud data platforms.

• Proficiency with DBT Fivetran Informatica or equivalent ELT/ETL tools.

• Experience with event-driven and API-based integrations (Kafka EventHub microservices).

• Knowledge of AI/ML foundational components: vector databases feature stores RAG pipelines metadata management.

• Strong understanding of data modeling (conceptual logical physical) master data management and data quality frameworks.

Key Responsibilities

1) Modern Data Architecture & Strategy Development

• Assess existing data structures integrations and legacy platforms.

• Define the enterprises future-state data architecture aligned with AI automation and analytics needs.

• Establish standards patterns and reusable frameworks

2) Data Modeling Products & Platform Enablement

• Create conceptual logical and physical data models across domains.

• Partner with data owners to deliver scalable data products.

• Support Snowflake Azure Salesforce Banner and ServiceNow data alignment

3) AI/ML Enablement & Advanced Capabilities

• Design datasets and metadata structures supporting AI RAG vector search and agentic workflows.

• Collaborate with AI Studio and analytics teams to enable model training and inference at scale

4) Data Integration Quality and Governance

• Lead ingestion architecture streaming frameworks and API integrations.

• Implement data quality lineage tracking and governance practices.

• Support FERPA GDPR and institutional compliance.

5) Serve as trusted advisor to academic and administrative partners

• Communicate roadmaps and architectural decisions to ITS leadership

Position Type

Additional Information

Northeastern University considers factors such as candidate work experience education and skills when extending an offer.

All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race religion color national origin age sex sexual orientation disability status or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Compensation Grade/Pay Type:

Expected Hiring Range:

With the pay range(s) shown above the starting salary will depend on several factors which may include your education experience location knowledge and expertise and skills as well as a pay comparison to similarly-situated employees already in the role. Salary ranges are reviewed regularly and are subject to change.