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
The client preference for candidates with Databricks and Unity Catalog experience, especially those who have played a steward or governance liaison role.
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.
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