This position is being filled under an excepted hiring authority, Title 21, Section 3072 of the 21st Century Cures Act. The candidate selected for this position will serve under a career or career-conditional appointment and be paid under the provisions of the authority.

Additional information on 21st Century Cures Act can be found here: https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/selected-amendments-fdc-act/21st-century-cures-act 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or Agency) is the regulatory, scientific, public health and consumer protection agency responsible for ensuring all human and animal drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, foods, food additives, drugs and medicated feeds for food producing animals, tobacco and radiation emitting devices safe, and effective.

The mission of CDRH is to protect and promote the public health by performing essential public health tasks by making sure that medical devices and radiological health products are safe for people in the United States. Within CDRH, the Office of Strategic Partnerships and Technology Innovation (OST) provides leadership for all scientific collaborative and emerging technology related activities at the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH). The Division of Technology and Data Services (TDS) within OST directs and oversees the Center’s data, technology, and transformation services to ensure effective design, integration, and utilization of information systems, electronic data, and analytic capabilities to optimize regulatory business processes.

Position Summary:

Reporting directly to the Assistant Director of the TDS Data Services team, the is responsible for designing, creating, deploying, and managing the Center’s data architecture. This individual provides, researches, and advises on data storage, consumption, integration, and management for different data entities and IT systems as well as any applications using or processing that data. This individual also assists in the design and modernization of relational and non-relational databases that fully support the Center’s operational and analytical data needs.

Duties/Responsibilities: 

The Data Architect performs the following:

• Serves as a recognized authority on data architecture and assists in leading the Center’s data transformation, including how data is collected, stored, transformed, distributed, and consumed.
• Evaluates the effectiveness of the current data architecture and associated database technologies and provides insights on future data infrastructure and how it aligns with the Center’s mission requirements.
• Oversees the analysis, design, development, and implementation of new data systems to replace or upgrade current systems, including designing, orchestrating, implementing, and maintaining databases, data warehouses, and/or data lakes.
• Analyzes and make recommendations for improvements to existing software regarding database performance, stability, usability, and scalability, while leading legacy data integration and migration efforts, including mapping schemas, defining domain-specific ontologies, establishing transformation rules, and more. 
• Utilizes overall data modeling standards, guidelines, best practices and approved modeling techniques and contributes to and supports the management of data for multiple systems across the Center.
• Helps to build and maintain a catalog of all data assets across all components of the Center and other relevant Agency components, including metadata, data definitions, data owners, source systems, etc.
• Applies data standards and data governance policies within the Center to ensure that all information references the same set of definitions and data lineage.
• Works closely with data stewards and business process owners on data quality while working with the Center’s IT contractors to identify and repair any data quality issues.

Professional Experience/Key Requirements:

To qualify for this position, you must demonstrate in your resume the necessary qualifying experience for this position, which is equivalent to the following:

• Expertise in established data management and reporting technologies and knowledge of emerging technologies, such as NoSQL databases, predictive analytics, data visualization, and unstructured data.
• Knowledge of development, support, and analysis of complex data systems, including evaluating their effectiveness and determining appropriate enhancements/improvements to the systems.
• Defining reference architecture and data flows to create and improve data systems
• Translating business requirements into technical specifications, including data streams, integrations, transformations, databases, and data warehouses.
• Documenting and promoting data governance and analysis best practices.

Desirable Qualifications/Experience: 

• Ability to articulate concepts clearly and in a compelling manner.

Prior to applying, please see the following instructions:

• Documents to submit: electronic resume or curriculum vitae, cover letter containing a brief summary of accomplishments related to the position.
• Compile all applicant documents into one combined document (i.e. Adobe PDF)
• Include Job Reference code “OST-TDS-2020-LKI-01” in the email subject line.
• Email comprehensive applicant package/document to CDRHRecruitment@fda.hhs.gov by Friday, January 15, 2021.