How To Become A BI Architect: What It Is and Career Path

What is a bi architect and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted Expert

Martin Gold FAIA

A BI (business intelligence) architect uses their extensive expertise and various business tools to develop business management systems and architecture. To be more specific, they are responsible for developing scalable and sustainable BI applications; maintaining technical architectural documents and ensuring their accuracy; as well as performing basic troubleshooting for BI tools.

Additional duties of a BI architect may include recommending strategies to improve BI tools, training junior staff, collaborating with other BI professionals (analysts, developers, administrators, etc.), and communicating directly with clients if needed.

Individuals who want to become a BI architect need to put in the work for their degree, as this role usually prefers applicants with a master's degree in computer science or computer engineering. While a bachelor's degree may suffice, having postgraduate education can be a great edge.

Furthermore, an aspiring BI architect needs to have impressive skills in analytics, business development, business architecture, and diagnosis. Ideal soft skills include communication, problem-solving, collaboration, and time management.

A BI architect makes an average salary of $103,000, making it one of the most sought-after positions in business. With more experience and expertise, a BI architect's salary can even go up to $136,000 and beyond.

What general advice would you give to a BI Architect?

Martin Gold FAIA

Associate Professor | Architect, University of Florida

The most widespread complaint from people in the field is that it consumes ones attention, requires long hours, and relative to other professions, such as medicine, law, accounting, or engineering, the pay is lower on a per hour basis. On the other hand, architecture is more of an art than other professions and offers opportunities for creative people to have prosperous careers. The famous French architect Le Corbusier would say, architecture is a way of life.

ScoreBI ArchitectUS Average

Salary

8.0

Avg. Salary $116,482

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

4.0

Growth Rate 21%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 34.03%

Black or African American 4.29%

Hispanic or Latino 8.01%

Unknown 4.76%

White 48.74%

Gender

female 12.31%

male 87.69%

Age - 38

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 - 38

Stress Level

4.0

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

7.9

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

6.6

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

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Key steps to become a bi architect

Explore bi architect education requirements

Most common bi architect degrees

Bachelor's

59.0 %

Master's

34.0 %

Associate

3.7 %

Start to develop specific bi architect skills

Skills	Percentages
Power Bi	9.39%
Analytics	8.93%
Dashboards	5.80%
ETL	5.61%
Tableau	5.40%

Complete relevant bi architect training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New bi 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 a bi architect based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real bi architect resumes.

Research bi architect duties and responsibilities

Lead framework design to enable parallel loading for multiple sources data to warehouse using teradata global temporary table.
Implement SharePoint portals to manage application development projects.
Implement QlikView desktop and publisher, manage user authentication, establish publisher tasks, streamline loading procedures and review log.
Develop SharePoint solutions with SSRS reports and web parts for external clients base on data render by SSAS cubes.

Prepare your bi architect resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your bi 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 a bi architect resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable BI Architect Resume templates

Build a professional BI Architect resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your BI Architect resume.

Apply for bi architect jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a bi architect job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do bi architects rate their job?

-/5

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BI Architect reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2020

Pros

The challenges and opportunities offered by the role where I get to learn & apply new skills.

Cons

Mostly a sitting job with no opportunity to travel and interact with the business.

A zippia user wrote a review on Oct 2019