student pointing to data charts on wall

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.

  • 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

Offered at the Boston and Seattle campuses.

A subset of courses may be offered at the regional campus.

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 3,000 co-op employer partners, from large companies to entrepreneurial start-ups, and dedicated co-op coordinators to guide students through the process.

Program Goals

Career Outlook

PayScale reports that data engineers make an average of $93,000 a year, and reports from Burning Glass Technologies list “data engineer” as the tech position with the most openings (with an 101% increase in such positions from 2018 to 2019).


    Maricla Pirozzi Quartey
    Program Director of Master of Science in Information Systems Bridge, and Data Architecture,  Multidisciplinary Graduate Engineering Programs

    Area of Focus: Information Systems and co-op program director for Cyber-Physical Systems, Data Architecture and Management, Information Systems, Software Engineering Systems, and Telecommunication Networks

    Academic Advising

    The Academic Advisors in the Graduate Student Services office can help answer many of your questions and assist with various concerns regarding your program and student record. Use the link below to also determine which questions can be answered by your Faculty Program Advisors and OGS Advisors.

    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.