Data Architect

Position: Data Architect

Organization: National Association of Counties (NACo)

Location: Washington, D.C.

Reports To: Chief Technology Officer & Managing Director

About NACo:

The National Association of Counties (NACo) is a mission-driven national association focused on strengthening America’s county governments in the pursuit of public service excellence. The Association is uniquely distinguished by our membership of general-purpose county governments, led by nearly 39,000 publicly elected officials and supported by a dedicated professional county government workforce of more than 3.6 million public servants. America’s county governments currently budget and invest more than $750 billion each year.

The Association plays a vital leadership role within the intergovernmental framework of the United States. Our nation’s unique federalism-based system emphasizes the balance, division, and sharing of power and responsibilities among federal, state, local, and tribal government officials.

Founded in 1935, the Association brings county officials together to: (1) Advocate for county priorities in federal policy making (2) Promote exemplary county policies and practices (3) Enhance leadership skills and expand knowledge networks (4) Optimize county and taxpayer resources and cost savings, and (5) Enrich the public’s understanding of county government.

Position Overview:

The National Association of Counties (NACo) is seeking a Data Architect to join its Information Technology team. This position plays a critical role in developing and managing NACo’s data infrastructure to support accurate reporting, enhanced analytics, secure integrations, and streamlined operations across platforms including Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365), E-Index, and County Explorer (CE).

The Data Architect will be responsible for designing scalable data models, maintaining high standards of data quality, and implementing integrations across systems to support organizational objectives such as member engagement, strategic reporting, and cybersecurity readiness. This individual will work cross-functionally with internal departments to ensure consistent and actionable data is accessible enterprise-wide.

Location:

This position is based in Washington, D.C., with opportunities for travel to conferences, meetings, and partner engagements. The Association currently offers hybrid workplace options, based on job function and performance, with an emphasis on leadership and teammate engagement and performance. Starting base salary $110,000 annually

Position Responsibilities and Activities:

Data Accuracy, Integration & Governance

• Lead the cleanup, normalization, and continuous validation of membership, committee, event, and awards data in D365.
• Design and manage integrations between D365, E-Index, County Explorer (CE), SQL servers and third-party systems, ensuring real-time syncs and actionable reporting.
• Conduct quarterly data audits to maintain at least 90% data accuracy, aligned with departmental OKRs.

Enterprise Data Modeling & Architecture

• Design scalable and flexible data structures for D365 and SQL that support evolving needs across programs, events, awards, and membership engagement.
• Design a unified data layer that serves both individual and county-level views across the E-Index and CE.
• Develop schema standards, documentation, and data dictionaries to support internal collaboration and system development.

Analytics & Strategic Insights Enablement

• Build the backend infrastructure to support E-Index enhancements, including the individual engagement layer and featured official tracking.
• Collaborate with the Power Platform administrator and cross-functional teams to deliver monthly data snapshots and county trend reports to NACo leadership.
• Partner with membership and research teams to develop dashboards that inform outreach strategies, track engagement gaps, and monitor retention efforts.

Robotic Process Automation & System Optimization

• Enable robotic systems that automatically ingest, clean, and tag member engagement and profile updates (e.g., award intake, program participation, event attendance).
• Serve as the key technical lead for syncing updated rosters into new GPT tools, ensuring accurate and up-to-date individual and committee data is reflected when syncing with other platforms, exporting reports, and executing D365 Journey e-blasts.
• Provide data structure recommendations for new systems and tools to ensure future reporting, automation, and data consistency across platforms.

Cybersecurity and AI Readiness

• Collaborate with the CTO and cybersecurity leads to ensure data integrity and secure data flows across segmented environments.
• Design secure, permission-based access layers for sensitive datasets used in AI-driven tools and analytics platforms.
• Support NACo’s AI integration goals by preparing clean, labeled datasets for training and monitoring models.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, or a related field.
• Minimum five years of experience in data architecture, enterprise system integration, or advanced database design.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365), Power Platform, and SQL Server.
• Strong understanding of ETL pipelines, data governance, and data validation methodologies.
• Proven experience designing scalable, centralized data architectures.
• Ability to support executive-level reporting and organization-wide data analytics.
• Understanding of secure data practices and AI-ready infrastructure.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Why Join NACo:

• Opportunity to lead impactful, mission-oriented public affairs efforts at a national level.
• Work alongside a dedicated team committed to helping county government officials in the pursuit of excellence in public service, ultimately helping people and places to thrive.
• Competitive salary and benefits package.