Principal Architect - Research Data

SUMMARY:

Reporting to the Vice President and Chief Data Analytics Officer, the Principal Architect – Research Data will be responsible for leading the architecture, design, and technical implementation of Brown University Health’s research data ecosystem. This role will help build a modern, scalable, secure, and governed data environment that enables researchers to efficiently discover, access, integrate, and analyze clinical and biomedical data.

The Principal Architect will provide technical leadership across the architecture, design, and implementation of cloud-based research data platforms, including enterprise research data repositories, common data models, structured and unstructured clinical data, data integration, and capabilities that support advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

This is a senior, hands-on technical architecture role for an individual who combines deep healthcare and research data expertise with strong software and data engineering experience. The Principal Architect will be expected not only to define architecture and technical direction, but also to work directly with engineering teams to design and implement critical components of the research data ecosystem.

The Principal Architect will work closely with researchers, clinicians, Data & Analytics, Information Services, research administration, security, privacy, and other stakeholders to translate research needs into scalable, reusable, and sustainable enterprise data capabilities.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Define and lead the technical architecture and roadmap for the enterprise research data ecosystem, including scalable, secure, and interoperable cloud-based platforms that integrate clinical, biomedical, operational, and other research data.

• Architect reusable research data capabilities supporting cohort discovery, feasibility analysis, data extraction, retrospective and observational research, real-world data analyses, and other research use cases, including the use of established models such as i2b2, OMOP, or comparable approaches.

• Provide hands-on technical leadership in the design and development of data platforms, pipelines, transformations, services, applications, and data products supporting the research environment.

• Architect scalable capabilities for ingesting, integrating, organizing, and making available structured and unstructured clinical data, including clinical notes and other narrative information, and enable its use for advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing.

• Design integration approaches across enterprise source systems, including batch and, where appropriate, real-time data flows and healthcare interoperability technologies.

• Translate researcher, clinician, and stakeholder needs into scalable technical architectures and reusable data capabilities, working closely with Information Services and other technology teams to align research solutions with enterprise infrastructure, security, identity, and operational requirements.

• Partner with data governance, privacy, security, compliance, and research leadership to ensure research data solutions meet appropriate requirements for data access, privacy, security, provenance, quality, and responsible data use.

• Evaluate emerging technologies and architectural approaches relevant to research data, healthcare interoperability, advanced analytics, AI, and clinical informatics, and incorporate appropriate technologies into the research data ecosystem.

• Provide technical direction to engineers, developers, analysts, and other contributors and maintain appropriate architectural and technical documentation for key platforms, data flows, integration patterns, and design decisions.

• Perform other duties as assigned.

EDUCATION:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Computer Engineering, Biomedical Informatics, Health Informatics, Information Systems, or a related technical field required.

Master’s degree in Computer Science, Biomedical Informatics, Data Science, Engineering, or a related field preferred.

Equivalent combinations of education and relevant professional experience may be considered.

EXPERIENCE:

A minimum of 15 years of progressively responsible experience in data architecture, data engineering, software engineering, healthcare informatics, or related technology disciplines, including significant experience designing and leading complex data platform initiatives.

Required Qualifications

Senior-level experience architecting and delivering complex data platforms, preferably within a large healthcare, academic medical center, life sciences, or biomedical research environment.

Deep expertise in modern data architecture, data engineering, data modeling, data integration, and the design and implementation of large-scale clinical or research data platforms.

Demonstrated experience architecting or engineering data platforms that support clinical or biomedical research.

Experience with i2b2, OMOP, or similar clinical research common data models and research data architectures.

Strong understanding of healthcare and biomedical data, including electronic health record data and the complexities associated with using clinical data for research and analytics.

Demonstrated hands-on software or data engineering experience developing data platforms, pipelines, services, applications, or other production data capabilities.

Experience translating complex researcher and stakeholder needs into scalable technical architectures and reusable enterprise capabilities.

Demonstrated ability to evaluate technologies, develop architectural recommendations, and move from architecture and design through hands-on implementation.

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to navigate complex technical and organizational environments.

Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with demonstrated ability to engage effectively with researchers, clinicians, technical teams, operational leaders, and senior stakeholders.

Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership and work effectively across organizational and disciplinary boundaries.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience designing and implementing solutions using modern cloud data platforms and services, including Microsoft Azure, Snowflake, Databricks, or comparable technologies.

Experience designing or implementing batch and real-time healthcare data integration, including familiarity with interoperability standards and technologies such as HL7 and FHIR.

Programming experience in Python; experience with C#, Java, C++, or other object-oriented programming languages is also desirable.

Experience working with structured and unstructured healthcare data, including clinical notes, reports, documents, and other narrative clinical information.

Experience architecting, developing, or enabling data platforms that support artificial intelligence, machine learning, clinical natural language processing, or related advanced analytic applications.

Familiarity with the use of large language models or other advanced natural language processing approaches to extract, classify, summarize, or otherwise analyze clinical and biomedical text.

Experience designing healthcare data solutions within privacy, security, governance, data-quality, and access-control requirements.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY:

None. This position serves as a senior technical leader and is expected to provide architectural direction, technical leadership, and guidance across multidisciplinary teams and initiatives without direct supervisory responsibility.

Pay Range:

EEO Statement:

Brown University Health is committed to providing equal employment opportunities and maintaining a work environment free from all forms of unlawful discrimination and harassment.

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About Us

As Rhode Island's largest health system and private employer, Brown University Health is the state's premier provider of health services and includes the only Level I Trauma Center for southeastern New England. Today, more than 20,000 people work at Brown University Health and bring their unique skills, experiences, and compassion to their jobs every day.

Formed in 1994, Brown University Health is a not-for-profit health system based in Providence, RI comprising three teaching hospitals of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University: Rhode Island Hospital and its Hasbro Children's; The Miriam Hospital; and Bradley Hospital, the nation’s first psychiatric hospital for children; Newport Hospital, Saint Anne's Hospital and Morton Hospital, community hospitals offering a broad range of health services; Gateway Healthcare, the state’s largest provider of community behavioral health care; and Brown Health Medical Group, the largest multi-specialty practice in Rhode Island.

Brown University Health is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity of cultural background, race, gender, age, religion, identity, ability, and perspectives - we are actively committed to a diverse workforce that represents the patients and community that we serve. We are invested in creating a respectful, inclusive, and equitable environment that supports the holistic well-being of our employees and their families.

Join us and help build a healthier future for our patients - and for yourself.