From time-to-time I get asked to provide a job description for the person that will run an organization’s Data Governance program. My experience is that there are several approaches to data governance and the approach that you follow will indicate the type of person you will need. My experience also has shown me that the reasons why organizations put data governance programs in place and the size, complexity, and political landscape also can be used to indicate the necessary qualifications, skills and leadership capabilities for the job.
Therefore, I believe it is difficult to address every organization’s requirements in a single Data Governance Manager’s Job Description that is generic enough to be applied to every organization. I will try to be general. Please feel free to use the following job description as a general outline and template to start to construct your very own Data Governance Management Job Description.
Job Description
The following is a job description that can be customized to match your organization’s Data Governance Manager job requirements:
- Our company will require that a Data Governance Manager lead and manage all organization-wide data governance activities and will have responsibility for improving the quality and managing the protection of sensitive data and information assets. The position will focus on establishing and ensuring adherence to an enterprise data governance framework for data policies, standards and practices, both at the department and Business and Functional areas level, to achieve the required level of consistency, quality and protection to meet overall business needs.
- The Data Governance Manager serves as a point of escalation for governance, data quality and protection issues and will work closely with Business and Functional area leadership to improve the quality and value of core data assets, respond to regulatory protection requirements as well as support the strategic requirements of the department.
Roles and Responsibilities
- Establish and govern an enterprise data governance implementation roadmap including strategic priorities for development of information-based capabilities
- Roll out an enterprise wide data governance framework, with a focus on improvement of data quality and the protection of sensitive data through modifications to organization behavior policies and standards, principles, governance metrics, processes, related tools and data architecture
- Define roles and responsibilities related to data governance and ensure clear accountability for stewardship of the company’s principal information assets
- Serve as a liaison between Business and Functional areas and technology to ensure that data related business requirements for protecting sensitive data are clearly defined, communicated and well understood and considered as part of operational prioritization and planning
- Develop & maintain inventory of the enterprise information maps, including authoritative systems, owners
- Facilitate the development and implementation of data quality standards, data protection standards and adoption requirements across the enterprise
- Define indicators of performance and quality metrics and ensure compliance with data related policies, standards, roles and responsibilities, and adoption requirements
- Lead Senior Management, comprising resources from the Business and Functional areas and IT business and operations functions, to achieve their objectives; resolve issues escalated from Business and Functional areas data governance representatives
- In conjunction with the IT, provide progress reports to Board management and oversee periodic updates to the Department Data Governance Roadmap
- Coordinate external data sources to eliminate redundancy and streamline the expense related to those services
- Identify new business opportunities pertaining to the use of information assets to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in the marketplace / represent data as a strategic business asset at the Senior Management table
Qualifications
- Minimum of XXX years of experience in a major services organization, with large-scale data or project management and oversight experience. Minimum of x years (of the xxx) in a major organization.
- x years in a senior management role, with Board level change or transformation leadership experience.
- Knowledge of industry leading data quality and data protection management practices
- Knowledge of data governance practices, business and technology issues related to management of enterprise information assets and approaches related to data protection
- Knowledge of data related government regulatory requirements and emerging trends and issues
- Demonstrated consulting skills, with change management concepts and strategies, including communication, culture change and performance measurement system design
- Knowledge of risk data architecture and technology solutions
- Internally and externally recognized subject matter expert that influence the way things are done
- Bachelors or Masters in Computer Science, MIS, or Information Management
Desired Skills
Leadership
- Highest personal and professional integrity and strong work ethics
- Ability to articulate vision of transformation efforts and a sense of mission
- Willingness to take change and provide direction
- Results orientation, willingness to commit to a direction and drive operations to completion
- Demonstrated ability to manage adversity and challenging situations
Relationship Management
- Ability to manage senior relationships across all the Business and Functional areas
- Ability to develop cooperative and constructive working relationships
- Ability to handle complaints, settle disputes and resolve conflicts and negotiate with others
- Collaborative team player orientation towards work relationships, strong culture awareness
Project Oversight and Decision-ing
- Highly developed skills in priority setting and alignment of project priorities with Departmental strategy
- Ability to break down complex problems and projects into manageable goals
- Ability to get to the heart of the problem and make sound and timely decisions to resolve problems
People Management and Development
- Ability to develop people, skills in coaching, mentoring, and teaching on the job
- Ability to identify and recruit talent, including identifying right people for both technical and non-technical jobs
- Skills at performance management, recognizing and rewarding performance and identifying development needs
- Effectiveness in building trust, respect and cooperation among teams
This template is obviously generic and will need to be customized to match the requirements of your organization. Comments are welcome below and please feel free to share your job description for your Data Governance Manager position. Thank you.
Copyright (c) 2016 – Robert S. Seiner and KIK Consulting & Educational Services
