Data Governance Catalog Steward (Unity Catalog + Alation)

Data Governance Catalog Steward (Unity Catalog + Alation)

Duration: 12+ months

Location: Johnston, IA - Hybrid, so would prefer to be local, but open to candidates relocating

Visa:

Interview: Skype

Please go through the JD

Role Summary:

Own end to end metadata completeness and governance adherence from post-ingestion in Databricks (raw→refined→presentation) to business consumption in Alation. This is a hands on, platform focused role that embeds with platform engineering and business teams, ensures certifiable data products, and keeps the catalog accurate and usable.

Top Outcomes (What Success Looks Like)

•             Unity Catalog is standardized and reliable for data product growth (naming, tags, ownership, lineage conventions consistently applied).

•             Metadata flows cleanly into Alation; priority data products are certified, owned, and discoverable with complete business context.

•             Clear, business friendly governance standards are published and followed across teams.

Core Responsibilities (People + Platforms)

•             Embed with Databricks platform and ingestion/modeling teams; attend build/prioritization meetings; guide teams to follow platform governance standards.

•             Publish and maintain Unity Catalog standards (with emphasis on Refined→Presentation product readiness); monitor UC activity for adherence and remediate drift.

•             Ensure all certifiable data products have complete ownership, assignments, and required metadata in Unity Catalog and Alation.

•             Monitor and maintain UC→Alation metadata flow; resolve connection issues; ensure domain tags, owners, and governance attributes transfer and remain complete.

•             Track catalog completeness/adoption metrics (e.g., Power BI over Snowflake/Databricks sources) and report progress to stakeholders.

•             Audit catalog content for business completeness (domain, product, process linkage, business glossary alignment); drive remediation with Domain Stewards.

•             Partner with the Data Governance Lead to define and evolve business friendly governance standards, policies, and playbooks; communicate updates to teams.

•             Collaborate closely with the Business Domain Steward to align certification, deprecation, and status changes across UC and Alation.

Must Have Experience:

•             Deep, hands on Databricks Unity Catalog experience (RBAC/policies, tags, lineage, naming conventions, productization across bronze/silver/gold).

•             Proven metadata management experience and familiarity with enterprise data catalogs (Alation experience preferred; strong equivalents acceptable).

•             Experience working with platform/ingestion teams and translating governance requirements into day to day engineering practices.

•             Ability to build/maintain adoption and completeness dashboards (e.g., Power BI) and drive follow through with technical teams.

Nice to Have:

•             Prior experience standing up or maturing Unity Catalog and/or Alation at scale.

•             Exposure to data product / data mesh operating models and certification workflows.