Analytics Architect

Purpose of the Position

The Analytics Architect cum Administrator owns both the design and the operational health of the enterprise MicroStrategy (Strategy One) landscape. The role architects end-to-end BI solutions — from dimensional data model and semantic layer through dashboards, dossiers and self-service enablement — while simultaneously administering the Intelligence Server estate across Dev, QA and Production, including clustering, upgrades, security, governance and performance tuning.

The person is expected to translate functional and technical business requirements into conceptual and logical data models, define architecture and development standards, and act as the single point of technical accountability for BI environment stability, scalability and cost efficiency. Strong database and data warehousing depth is non-negotiable: the architect must be able to read, write and optimise complex SQL, review execution plans, and design schemas that push the workload to the right layer.

Key Result Areas and Activities

1. Solution Architecture: Own the end-to-end BI architecture — logical/physical data models, semantic layer, project schema, security model and delivery patterns. Evaluate business requirements and translate them into scalable, reusable MicroStrategy designs aligned to enterprise architecture standards.

2. Schema & Semantic Layer Design: Design and govern schema objects (facts, attributes, hierarchies, transformations, partitions) and public objects (metrics, filters, prompts, consolidations, custom groups) that map warehouse structures to the business view.

3. Platform Administration: Install, configure, maintain and govern MicroStrategy environments (on-premise, MCE/Cloud) — Intelligence Server, Web, Library, Mobile, Workstation and Distribution Services — across the full Dev/QA/Prod landscape.

4. Environment Reliability & Clustering: Configure and operate Intelligence Server clusters for high availability, failover and load balancing; monitor node health, cache synchronisation and metadata consistency; own DR drills and backup/restore procedures.

5. Upgrades & Migrations: Plan and execute platform upgrades, hotfix/patch application and cloud migrations (on-prem to MCE/Azure/AWS/GCP), including pre-upgrade impact assessment, metadata backup, regression validation and rollback planning.

6. Performance Engineering: Diagnose and resolve performance bottlenecks across the stack — SQL generation, VLDB settings, caching, intelligent cubes, aggregate tables, indexing and warehouse query plans. Define benchmarks and drive measurable improvements in report and dashboard response times.

7. Security & Governance: Implement and maintain the security model — users, groups, roles, ACLs, privileges, security filters, LDAP/SSO/SAML integration, row- and object-level security — and enforce audit, licence compliance and data-access governance.

8. Release & Change Management: Define and enforce object migration and change-control procedures between environments using Object Manager, Command Manager, System Manager and REST APIs; drive automation of routine administrative tasks.

9. Documentation & Standards: Produce and maintain architecture blueprints, HLD/LLD, environment runbooks, naming conventions, development guidelines, troubleshooting guides and modernisation roadmaps.

10. Technical Leadership: Mentor developers and administrators, conduct design and code reviews, support pre-sales and estimation activities, and act as escalation point for critical production incidents.

Roles and Responsibilities

Work and Technical Experience — Must Have

• MicroStrategy Architecture: Deep knowledge of the MicroStrategy/Strategy One architecture and components (3-tier and 4-tier), metadata repository, project schema, object model and the interaction between Intelligence Server, Web and Library.
• Schema & Project Design: Proven hands-on expertise with MicroStrategy Architect / Workstation — Warehouse Catalog, fact and attribute definition, hierarchies, transformations, logical views, table sizing/logical table size and schema validation.
• Development Depth: Ability to build complex reports, documents, dossiers and dashboards using Developer, Web and Workstation — templates, filters, prompts, consolidations, custom groups, derived metrics, level metrics and Freeform SQL / Query Builder.
• Administration Suite: Strong command of Command Manager, Object Manager, Integrity Manager, System Manager, Enterprise Manager / Platform Analytics, Distribution Services and the MicroStrategy REST API.
• Server Operations: Installation, configuration and tuning of Intelligence Server and Web/Tomcat on both Windows and Linux/UNIX; governing settings, job/user monitoring, cache and cube management, subscription and schedule administration.
• Clustering & HA: Hands-on configuration of Intelligence Server clusters, load balancing, failover testing and cache/metadata synchronisation across nodes.
• Security Implementation: LDAP / Active Directory / SSO / SAML integration, security filters, ACL design, privilege modelling and Transaction Services security.
• Database & SQL Depth: Expert-level SQL (analytical functions, window functions, complex joins, set operations) with the ability to read execution plans, identify expensive operations and tune queries.
• Data Warehousing: Strong grounding in dimensional modelling (star/snowflake), slowly changing dimensions, aggregate and partitioned fact design, surrogate keys, indexing and partitioning strategy on enterprise RDBMS/MPP platforms (Oracle, SQL Server, Teradata, Netezza, Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery or Redshift).
• VLDB & SQL Generation: Practical use of VLDB properties and database instance settings to control MicroStrategy SQL generation, temp table strategy, join behaviour and performance.
• Environment Lifecycle: Demonstrated ownership of at least two full-cycle MicroStrategy upgrades or platform migrations in a production environment.
• Delivery Experience: 10+ years overall in BI/Data Analytics with proven delivery in large, complex, multi-project warehouse environments under Agile/Scrum.

Work and Technical Experience — Good to Have

• Experience with MicroStrategy Cloud Environment (MCE) and cloud-hosted deployments on Azure, AWS or GCP.
• Automation of administrative workflows using Python, PowerShell or Shell scripting in combination with Command Manager and the REST API.
• Exposure to a second visualisation platform — Power BI, Tableau, ThoughtSpot or SSRS.
• Experience with BI migration/rationalisation programmes (e.g. Business Objects or legacy BI to MicroStrategy, or MicroStrategy to Power BI).
• Familiarity with ETL/ELT tooling (Informatica, Talend, dbt, ADF) and how upstream design affects BI performance.
• Working knowledge of DevOps practices, CI/CD for BI artefacts, Git-based version control and infrastructure monitoring tooling.
• Exposure to AI/GenAI-assisted analytics capabilities within the modern Strategy platform.
• Domain experience in Banking & Financial Services, Retail, Pharma/Life Sciences or Media.

Qualification

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems or a related field; Master's degree is a plus.
• Minimum 10 years of relevant experience in Business Intelligence and Data Analytics, with substantial time in a combined architect and administrator capacity.
• Demonstrated continued learning through technical certifications or equivalent.
• Preferred certifications: MicroStrategy Certified Platform Administrator (MCPA), MicroStrategy Certified Master Analyst (MCMA), Certified Project Designer (CPD), Certified Report Developer (CRD), plus a relevant cloud fundamentals certification.

Qualities

• Self-motivated and outcome-focused in a fast-paced, multi-project environment with minimal supervision.
• Able to communicate and influence persuasively through speaking, writing and client presentations.
• Comfortable operating as the technical authority in front of senior business and IT stakeholders.
• Strong problem-solving and root-cause analysis skills under production pressure.
• Able to work in a self-organised, cross-functional team and across multiple time zones.
• Mentoring mindset with a track record of building team capability.
• Able to iterate based on new information, peer reviews and feedback.