Title: Data Architecture Lead

Position Type: Professional Tech Full time

College: Arapahoe Community College

Division: Strategy & Institutional Initiatives

Department: ACC AI & Data Initiatives

Campus: Littleton Campus

Location: Littleton

Salary Range: $96,450 - $109,603

Who We Are:

ACC Careers: Where You Can Move Mountains

Nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains sits one of the oldest community colleges in Colorado, Arapahoe Community College. With a rich history of educational excellence, ACC embraces a culture that values diversity, individualized support, and unwavering commitment to student success, without exception.

Job Summary:

The Data Architecture Lead provides technical leadership for the design, stewardship, and continuous improvement of Arapahoe Community College’s college-wide data architecture and ecosystem. Reporting to the Director of Data & AI Initiatives, this role is responsible for ensuring college data is reliable, accessible, secure, well-documented, and capable of supporting reporting, analytics, operational decision making, automation, and responsible use of emerging AI technologies.

The position leads the development of scalable data environments, data models, data pipelines, integrations, and data standards that connect college systems, data sources, reporting platforms, and analytical tools. Working closely with Institutional Research, technology teams, application developers, systems analysts, college leadership, and operational departments, the Data Architecture Lead translates organizational needs into sustainable data solutions and helps establish the data foundation that supports data-informed decision making, operational effectiveness, and technology-enabled innovation.

This is an opportunity to help shape an emerging data and AI ecosystem at Arapahoe Community College. The Data Architecture Lead will play a key role in building the data foundation, standards, and technical practices that enable the college to make better use of data, analytics, automation, and emerging AI technologies. This role offers the opportunity to work across a complex higher education environment while helping establish practices and infrastructure designed for the college’s future.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and continuous improvement of college-wide data architecture and data integration strategies.
• Develop, maintain, and improve data models, data pipelines, integrations, and other foundational data solutions.
• Establish and advance data governance practices related to data quality, documentation, metadata, data stewardship, security, and responsible data use.
• Partner with Institutional Research, technology teams, and academic, student services, and operational areas to translate business and organizational needs into sustainable data solutions.
• Evaluate and recommend technologies, architectures, and approaches that improve the reliability, accessibility, usability, and security of college data.
• Support data environments and solutions that enable analytics, reporting, automation, and responsible AI initiatives.
• Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and knowledge sharing to colleagues working across data, analytics, and technology initiatives.
• Contribute to data strategy, standards, documentation, architecture roadmaps, and long-term planning for the college’s data ecosystem.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Six years of progressively responsible experience in data architecture, data engineering, database administration, data integration, analytics, business intelligence, or a related technology field; or a combination of relevant education, certifications, and experience.
• Experience designing, implementing, maintaining, or improving databases, data systems, reporting environments, data integration, data architectures, or related technology solutions.
• Experience developing, maintaining, or supporting data reports, dashboards, queries, data workflows, analytical solutions, data models, data pipelines, or other data-driven solutions.
• Experience designing or improving data architectures, data models, data integrations, data pipelines, or other data infrastructure.
• Experience translating business or organizational requirements into data, analytics, or technology solutions.
• Experience providing technical leadership, mentoring colleagues, leading projects, or coordinating cross-functional technology initiatives.
• Experience applying principles of data quality, data documentation, metadata, data stewardship, data security, or data governance.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with business intelligence, data visualization, reporting tools, data warehouse or lakehouse environments, or related analytical technologies.
• Experience with data integration technologies, including ETL processes, APIs, relational databases, cloud-based data environments, or automated data workflows.
• Experience supporting automation, emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, or data-enabled innovation initiatives.
• Experience working in a complex, multi-system environment with multiple data sources, technology platforms, and stakeholder groups.

Application Instructions: 

All applicants must submit:

1. Resume
2. Detailed letter of interest (cover letter) addressing the job announcement. Please include any experiences you may have embedding equity and inclusion in your work, see below.

At ACC, we seek to hire candidates who are committed to fostering respectful, welcoming, and supportive environments for all individuals. In your cover letter, please describe how you have worked to create such environments in your current or previous roles, and share what this commitment means to you in your professional practice

Additional Information/Benefits:

All benefits information can be found at the Benefits tab on the top of the page.