Data administration — a high-level function that is responsible for the overall management of data resources in an organization, including:
- Data definition, policies, procedures and standards
- Data conflict resolution
- Database planning, analysis, design, implementation, and maintenance
- Data protection
- Data performance assurance
- User training, education, and consulting support
What does a data administrator do?
A data administrator, or database administrator, has a number of responsibles. These include the creation of data models – as well as defining the semantic relationships between these models. They also oversee data security and the access control and permissions for different end users within the organisation.
The administrator effectively acts as the data steward for the business, ensuring the security and integrity of the data. Additionally, they are on hand to provide data consultancy in real-time to organisational stakeholders so that metrics can be understood and outlined, ensuring that data is used to best effect within the business.
Distinguishing Data Roles: Engineers, Analysts, and Scientists
Data Engineer
Traditionally, data engineers have been the number one hire for a company to start seriously working with data. It doesn’t really make sense to think about how to perform data analysis until you actually have data to analyze. A data engineer is responsible for figuring out how to gather data, organize it, and maintain it, so they are a vital role to have on a data team.
Data engineers frequently have to contend with messy or incomplete data and make decisions on how that data will be processed and maintained. The engineer needs to know how data applications are structured, test data pipelines, and monitor how data is being used. Done well, the data engineer’s work makes sure that data users are able to access what they need, and that their queries’ outputs are generated in a timely fashion.
Data Analyst
One way that you can think about the distinction in data roles is whether they act before the data is collected or after the data is collected. Data engineers and data architects are responsible for operations before the data is collected, while data analysts and data scientists are responsible for operations after the data is collected. Just as there can be some confusion between the roles of data engineer and data architect, there also exists confusion between the roles of data analyst and data scientist.
Business Analyst
One data role that data analysts may cross over into is that of a business analyst. When a data analyst performs their explorations and creates their reports, they may not necessarily be required to interpret their findings in terms of company actions. On the other hand, a business analyst will be primarily focused on their use of data to answer business questions and suggest future actions to take.
Data Scientist
One rule of thumb that is often put forth considers data analysts and data scientists to be in the same general domain – gathering insights from data – but that the data analyst is basically a junior role to the data scientist. This isn’t exactly wrong, but there’s definitely more nuance to the two roles than just that.
