How To Become An Enterprise Data Architect: What It Is and Career Path

What is an enterprise data architect and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Alfredo Fernandez-Gonzalez

Enterprise data architects are IT experts who define and manage the enterprise data architecture and strategic roadmap of a business. They work within the enterprise systems and services team to implement modernizing data governance, metadata management, and data quality into the company's architectural approaches and patterns. This is to promote efficiency and ensure consistent access to data. Their job is to ensure that the organization complies with data standards and data management practices. Additionally, they are to train staff in the guiding principles for data management practices.

Enterprise data architects work in finance, technology, pharmaceutical, and healthcare companies. Employers require at least a bachelor's degree in a related discipline with a minimum of eight years of professional work experience. These experts earn an average annual salary of $114,197, which is about $54.9 per hour. It ranges between $87,000 and $148,000. Candidates must possess leadership, organization, problem-solving, interpersonal, and analytical skills.

What general advice would you give to an enterprise data architect?

Alfredo Fernandez-Gonzalez

Professor of Architecture, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

It is important for recent graduates to recognize that Architecture is no longer limited to the physical realm, as transformative technologies are providing interesting career opportunities in the digital realm as well. This rapidly evolving context offers many opportunities and new directions for the discipline and remaining (or becoming!) current in new developments in computing power, digital visuals, manufacturing technologies, and robotics, are ways in which a recent graduate can secure a good paying job.

ScoreEnterprise Data ArchitectUS Average

Salary

8.3

Avg. Salary $127,432

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.9

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.51%

Asian 11.99%

Black or African American 6.24%

Hispanic or Latino 8.82%

Unknown 4.70%

White 67.73%

Gender

female 22.83%

male 77.17%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

5.9

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.0

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.3

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an enterprise data architect

Explore enterprise data architect education requirements

Most common enterprise data architect degrees

Bachelor's

65.9 %

Master's

25.4 %

Associate

5.0 %

Start to develop specific enterprise data architect skills

Skills	Percentages
Analytics	7.27%
Cloud	5.44%
Python	4.12%
Data Management	3.88%
Data Quality	3.77%

Complete relevant enterprise data architect training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New enterprise data architects learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an enterprise data architect based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real enterprise data architect resumes.

Research enterprise data architect duties and responsibilities

Lead the effort to create Splunk indexing cluster from requirements gathering to implementation in AWS.
Report procedures against SSAS are constructed and ExcelWriter templates are developed to automate and replace existing manually generate, client-contract reports.
Develop strategies for business intelligence, analytics, and enterprise reporting.
Set design patterns for application integration, data governance, and analytics development.

Get enterprise data architect experience

Prepare your enterprise data architect resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your enterprise data architect resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an enterprise data architect resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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