Data Governance Specialist

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Job Title: Senior Data Governance Specialist

Location: Houston, TX

Position type: Contract on C2C 

Summary

The Senior Data Governance Specialist is responsible for establishing, driving, and maturing the enterprise data governance framework. This role ensures the organization’s data is trustworthy, compliant, secure, and aligned to business strategy. The Senior Specialist provides cross‑pillar leadership across metadata, lineage, DQ, access governance, policies, MDM, compliance, and change‑management initiatives, working with senior business partners, technical teams, Legal/Security, and audit stakeholders.

Job Responsibilities:

Data Governance Strategy & Framework

• Develop and maintain the enterprise DG strategy, policies, standards, and processes.
• Define and implement scalable operating models (centralized, federated, hybrid).
• Lead DG KPI development, maturity assessments, and continuous‑improvement cycles.

Data Quality Management

• Define enterprise DQ dimensions, rules, controls, and remediation workflows.
• Drive organization‑wide identification and governance of Critical Data Elements.
• Oversee issue triage, RCA, and remediation with clear business/technical ownership.

Metadata, Lineage & Catalog Management

• Lead enterprise adoption of metadata standards and quality expectations.
• Oversee Atlan catalog governance (domains, glossary, lineage, personas/policies).
• Partner with architecture and engineering to expand automated and governed manual lineage.

Data Ownership & Stewardship

• Establish and operationalize Data Owner, Steward, Custodian roles and accountability models.
• Lead the Data Governance Council and steward communities; ensure alignment on definitions, usage, and controls.

Policy, Controls & Compliance

• Ensure compliance with internal DG policies and external regulations (GDPR/CCPA/SOX/HIPAA depending on industry).
• Partner with Legal, Security, and Compliance to define and maintain privacy, access, retention, and risk controls.
• Lead audit evidence collection and regulatory readiness for data‑related controls.

Master & Reference Data Governance

• Drive governance for master‑data domains in partnership with MDM/architecture teams.
• Oversee enterprise reference‑data lifecycle, definitions, and approved values.

Data Access & Security Governance

• Define and govern classification schemes, access policies, and protection controls.
• Work with Security/IT on RBAC, entitlement reviews, and data protection validation.

Technology & Tools Enablement

• Evaluate and implement DG technology stack: Atlan, Monte Carlo, MDM tools, workflow automation, ITSM integrations.
• Lead Atlan/MC enablement, ensuring enterprise adoption of metadata, lineage, DQ, and certification workflows.
• Integrate metadata/QoS signals into BI dashboards; champion automation via APIs.

Stakeholder Engagement & Change Management

• Serve as a primary ambassador for DG, translating technical governance concepts into business impact.
• Lead education sessions, awareness campaigns, onboarding for DG roles.
• Influence senior stakeholders and drive organization‑wide adoption.

Skills & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Management, MIS, or related field.
• 7–10+ years relevant experience in data governance, data management, analytics engineering, or data quality.
• Deep expertise in metadata, master data, data quality, lineage, and regulatory compliance.
• Hands‑on experience with Atlan and Monte Carlo or comparable platforms is strongly preferred.
• Strong SQL + BI background, with experience in integrating catalog/observability data into dashboards.
• Proven stakeholder leadership with ability to influence senior leaders across business, engineering, Legal, Security, and Compliance.
• Excellent communication and ability to simplify complex data concepts.