Master of Science in Data Architecture and Management
Master of Science in Data Architecture and Management
Become a Next Generation Data Engineer
The Master of Science, MS, in Data Architecture and Management degree at Northeastern University is designed to prepare you for the evolving and growing field needing data engineers. You will gain the holistic knowledge and technical skill to engineer big data systems, curate data, and integrate and process data so that data scientists and business analysts can access and interpret data in context to provide meaningful results to management.
Businesses across industries have a rising need for data engineers—those who can integrate gigantic amounts of fragmented data, often from thousands of data sources, and transform it into useful information used to identify business opportunities and avoid risk.
Innovative Curriculum - MS in Data Architecture and Management
Marrying business intelligence, data warehousing, and software engineering, Northeastern’s broad and experiential master’s, MS, in Data Architecture and Management curriculum will give you sought-after knowledge, while machine learning techniques will prepare you for the next generation of data integration tools.
With a variety of cutting-edge courses, the MS in Data Architecture and Management program is flexible, allowing you to develop expertise in an area aligned with your career interests, such as:
- Data Science Engineering Methods and Tools
- Data Management and Database Design
- Designing Advanced Data Architectures for Business Intelligence
- Engineering Big Data Systems
The MS in Data Architecture and Management program offers a multitude of courses in data engineering in addition to supplementary courses that are required to deliver the data results in a meaningful way to management. It covers data management, advanced data management, data warehousing and business intelligence, column data bases, data science engineering, and big-data engineering. On the software engineering side, the program offers advanced big-data programming using the powerful Scala language and a course on advanced data science as well as cloud computing. Multi-thread concurrent computing is also offered as it is important for synchronizing a huge set of servers working in parallel to do large scale analytics to make things run faster by 100’s fold increase in speed. Due to the high-level mathematical operations required to make these programs run, only software engineers have the capacity to work in these complicated areas. Only they can make the necessary mathematical algorithms execute quickly enough to get the finest results.
The need for data engineers spans all domains—business intelligence, data warehousing, and master data management of enterprises, as well as for cloud, Big Data, and data science applications. Your ability to perform complex aggregations for a variety and vast array of data will also be applicable in any industry you choose to work, from healthcare to e-commerce.
Offered at the Boston, Seattle campuses, and Toronto, Canada.
A subset of courses may be offered at campuses outside of Boston.
Toronto, Canada Campus: This institution has been granted a consent by the Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research, Excellence and Security to offer this program for a five-year term starting April 4, 2025. Prospective students are responsible for satisfying themselves that the program and the degree will be appropriate to their needs (e.g., acceptable to potential employers, professional licensing bodies, or other educational institutions).
- Ability to design, implement, and evaluate data management solutions
- Exhibit a strong technical foundation and proficiency to engineer and curate big data systems as it specifically relates to the integration and processing of data
- Understand and apply concepts and theory regarding data integration use cases to communicate effectively with senior data engineering leadership
Over 15 graduate certificates are available to provide students the opportunity to develop a specialization in an area of their choice. Certificates can be taken in addition to or in combination with a master’s degree, or provide a pathway to a master’s degree in Northeastern’s College of Engineering. Master’s programs can also be combined with a Gordon Engineering Leadership certificate. Students should consult with their faculty advisor regarding these options.
Experiential Learning
Northeastern combines rigorous academics with experiential learning and research to prepare students for real-world engineering challenges. The Cooperative Education Program, also known as a “co-op,” is one of the largest and most innovative in the world, and Northeastern is one of only a few that offers a Co-op Program for graduate students. Through this program, students gain up to eight months of professional experience employed in their field of interest as part of the academic curriculum, giving them a competitive advantage after graduation. Northeastern has over 2,000 co-op employer partners, from large companies to entrepreneurial start-ups, and dedicated co-op coordinators to guide students through the process.
Program Goals
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, database administrators and architect position will grow 9% from 2023 to 2033, much faster than the average, with the mean salary of database architects $135,980 in May 2024.
Area of Focus: Program director for the information systems-bridge and data architecture and management master's programs, as well as administration operations management for multidisciplinary engineering master's program unit.
Academic Advising
We have a variety of advisors to help make your graduate career a success, so use the link below to determine which one will help you the best.
Admissions & Aid
Ready to take the next step? Review degree requirements to see courses needed to complete this degree. Then, explore ways to fund your education. Finally, review admissions information to see our deadlines and gather the materials you need to Apply.