What are the responsibilities and job description for the System Administrator position at Synapse Tech Services Inc?
Job Description: Senior Alation Administrator
Location: [Dallas, Texas / Hybrid]
Position Type: Contract
Experience: 10 Years
Position Summary
We are seeking a highly experienced and strategic Senior Alation Administrator to take full ownership of our Alation Data Catalog platform. This is not just an administrative role; it is a strategic position critical to the success of our data governance and data intelligence initiatives. The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of Alation's architecture, possess extensive experience in deploying and managing the platform at an enterprise scale, and have a proven track record of integrating Alation into complex data ecosystems. You will be the go-to expert, ensuring the platform's health, performance, and alignment with our business objectives.
Key Responsibilities
Platform Administration & Management:
- Serve as the primary system owner and subject matter expert for the Alation platform.
- Perform all core administrative tasks, including user management (SSO/SAML), group/role configuration, and permissions management.
- Manage installation, upgrades, patching, and overall system health in on-premise, cloud, or hybrid environments.
- Monitor platform performance, troubleshoot issues, and optimize configurations for scalability and reliability.
- Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation for the Alation environment, including operational runbooks and disaster recovery procedures.
Configuration, Customization & Integration:
- Design and implement complex customizations using Alation's APIs, Open Connector Framework, and Compose SDK.
- Lead the technical integration of Alation with a wide variety of data sources (e.g., Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, SAP, Oracle), BI tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI), and other enterprise systems (e.g., Collibra, Jira, Slack).
- Develop and deploy custom data quality rules, badges, and workflows to enforce data governance policies.
- Configure and tailor the user interface, homepage, and search functionality to enhance user experience and adoption.
Data Governance & Stewardship:
- Partner with the Data Governance office to translate policy into technical implementation within Alation.
- Configure and manage stewardship workflows, data curation processes, and lineage harvesting.
- Champion the use of Alation for data quality measurement, policy compliance, and trust flags.
- Establish and manage a community of power users and data stewards, providing them with training and support.