Data Solutions Architect

The University System of Georgia (USG) is comprised of 26 higher education institutions as well as the University System Office (USO). Within the USO, our administrative operations are primarily housed in the Trinity Washington Building located in downtown Atlanta. Our Information Technology Services (ITS) division is located in Athens. The University System of Georgia Shared Services Center (SSC) is located in Sandersville. The Georgia Public Library System is located in Atlanta. The Georgia Archives is located in Morrow. The State of Georgia Records Center is located in Austell.

The Enterprise Data Management and Analytics (EDMA) team at Information Technology Services (ITS) within the University System of Georgia is currently seeking an individual to fulfill a position as a Data Solution Architect. The Data Solutions Architect is responsible for assisting in designing, developing, and maintaining the architecture and strategy roadmap required for data storage, processing, and analysis for the University System of Georgia (USG) data warehouse, data lake, and data lakehouse. By working with those responsible for the data sources systems, EDMA team members, and data stewards, the individual will play a crucial role in building and managing the data pipelines that enable efficient and reliable data integration, transformation, and delivery for all data users across the USG system office and USG institutions. The Data Solutions Architect will also work with the Senior Data Solutions Architect in building and managing cloud-based solutions and data pipelines that enable efficient and reliable data integration, transformation, and delivery for all data users across USG.

Primary Job Responsibilities
- Understand USG data needs in align with strategic initiatives and map these needs to software and process requirements.
- Review and analyze the effectiveness and efficiency of existing systems, develop and implement processes and standards for improving or further leveraging these systems.
- Assist with data architecture and design of cloud-based data solutions for USG, aligning with business objectives and technical requirements.
- Designs and develops data pipelines that extract data from various sources, transform it into the desired format, and load it into the appropriate data storage systems.
- Integrates data from different sources, including databases, data warehouses, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and external systems.
- Develop and maintain data architecture diagrams, documentation, and best practice guidelines for cloud implementations.
- Ensures data consistency and integrity during the integration process, performing data validation and cleaning as needed.
- Implement security best practices, including access controls, encryption, and compliance measures, to safeguard University System of Georgia data.
- Architect the ETL process, mappings, and error reporting and monitoring functions with the appropriate team members.
- Assist with design and implementation of highly available, scalable, and fault-tolerant data cloud infrastructure to support USG visualizations and other analytic solutions.
- Assist with implementing automation solutions for provisioning, configuration, and management of cloud resources using tools defined.
- Perform other duties as assigned.

Educational Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, data science, information systems, or a related technical field with minimum of 8 years of experience in Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, and Data Engineering disciplines in an enterprise IT environment.
Qualifications
- Expert knowledge of current and emerging data management and analytics technologies and strategic application to business needs.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to explain technology solutions in business terms, establish rapport and persuade others.
- Knowledge of higher education data with strong experience in student information systems.
- Experience in conceptualizing, visualizing, and communicating complex solution designs with functional and technical audiences across all levels of the organization.
- Experience in Microsoft Fabric, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Data Factory.
- Experience in PowerBI, including modeling, administration, role-based security, dataflows, Power Query, and DAX.
- Experience in designing and managing enterprise data warehouses and information systems.
- Advanced experience working with the Oracle DBMS, ODI, APEX, PL/SQL, SQL, Unix.
- Experience working with Ellucian Banner, PeopleSoft, Oracle, Workday etc.

• Ability to design, build, and deploy data solutions that capture, explore, transform, and utilize data to support Business Intelligence (BI).
• Strong ability in programming languages such as SQL, Python, or Javascript.
• Experience in the design and implementation of modern data architectures and concepts such as cloud services (AWS, Azure, GCP) and modern data warehouse tools (Snowflake, Databricks, Synapse, Redshift).
• Extensive experience with database technologies such as SQL, NoSQL, Oracle, Hadoop, or Teradata.
• Expert problem-solving skills, including debugging skills, allowing the determination of sources of issues in unfamiliar code or systems, and the ability to recognize and solve repetitive problems.
• Ability to describe business use cases/outcomes, data sources and management concepts, and analytical approaches/options.
• Knowledge in technologies such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, Airflow, Azure Data Factory and DevOps to build scalable and efficient data pipelines.
• Knowledge of ETL process design methods and practices, both custom-developed and vendor-packaged
• Ability to translate among the languages used by executive, business, IT, and quant stakeholders.

The University System of Georgia is comprised of our 26 institutions of higher education and learning as well the System Office. Our USG Statement of Core Values are Integrity, Excellence, Accountability, and Respect. These values serve as the foundation for all that we do as an organization, and each USG community member is responsible for demonstrating and upholding these standards. More details on the USG Statement of Core Values and Code of Conduct are available in USG Board Policy 8.2.18.1.2 and can be found on-line at https://www.usg.edu/policymanual/section8/C224/#p8.2.18_personnel_conduct .

Additionally, USG supports Freedom of Expression as stated in Board Policy 6.5 Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom found on-line at https://www.usg.edu/policymanual/section6/C2653 .

Offers of employment are contingent upon completion of a background investigation including a criminal background check demonstrating your eligibility for employment with the University System Office as determined by the University System Office in its sole discretion; confirmation of the credentials and employment history reflected in your application materials; and, if applicable, a satisfactory credit check. Offers are made expressly subject to the applicable federal and state laws, to the statutes, rules and regulations of this institution and to the Bylaws and Policies of the Board of Regents (BOR) of the University System of Georgia (USG), which are available for your inspection upon request.

The University System Office is an equal employment, equal access, and equal educational opportunity, and affirmative action institution. It is the policy of the University System Office to recruit, hire, train, promote and educate persons without regard to race, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or veteran status as required by applicable state and federal laws (including Title VI, Title VII, Title IX, Sections 503, and 504, ADEA, ADA, E.O. 11246, and Rev. Proc. 75-50).

For questions or more detailed information regarding this policy please contact the University System Office Human Resources at 404.962.3242. Individuals requiring disability related accommodations for participation in any event or to obtain print materials in an alternative format, please contact Human Resources.

This is not a supervisory position.
This position does not have any financial responsibilities.
This position will not be required to drive.
This role is not considered a position of trust.
This position does not require a purchasing card (P-Card).
This position will not travel
This position does not require security clearance.