Associate Data Governance Analyst

American Century Investments • Kansas City, MO

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

American Century Investments is seeking an Associate Data Governance Analyst to support and scale enterprise-wide governance efforts for unstructured data. This role involves partnering with business and technology teams to ensure unstructured content is trusted, compliant, and AI-ready. The analyst will focus on metadata management, information lifecycle management, records and retention, security standards, cataloging, and stewardship enablement, working closely with structured data teams to ensure consistent governance. Success requires executing the data governance operating model, leveraging governance tools for automation, and addressing challenges like content sprawl, data discoverability, sensitivity labeling, retention, legal hold, and regulatory compliance across various unstructured data types. The role involves translating governance concepts for business audiences and contributing to scalable solutions under the guidance of senior team members. This is a hybrid position based in Kansas City, MO.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant work experience.
• 2+ years of experience in data governance, data management, or data operations including exposure to classification, tagging, retention, and access controls.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to translate complex data governance concepts for both business and technical audiences.
• Proven problem solver with an analytical, methodical approach and comfort operating in dynamic, fast‑paced, and ambiguous environments.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively and communicate clearly with stakeholders at all levels of the organization.
• Demonstrates the American Century Investments Winning Behaviors: Client Focused, Courageous and Accountable, Collaborative, Curious and Adaptable, Competitively Driven.

Nice To Haves

• Experience governing unstructured metadata and content controls (e.g., sensitivity labels, classification, tagging, retention schedules), with the ability to align to structured metadata standards as needed.
• Experience governing unstructured data in platforms such as SharePoint, Teams, file shares, or cloud content repositories.
• Experience using data governance or cataloging tools (e.g., Collibra, Informatica, IBM IGC) for content inventory, data mapping, metadata management, and traceability.
• Familiarity with AI‑ready data concepts, including governance of unstructured data used in AI, search, and RAG‑based solutions.
• Experience with information lifecycle management, records management, and legal hold processes.
• Familiarity with data security and data protection principles.
• Background in policy and standards development for data classification and retention.
• Experience in financial services or asset management environments.
• Familiarity with cloud technologies and automation supporting unstructured data governance.
• Project Management, Agile, or Six Sigma skills.
• Experience with Python and SQL.

Responsibilities

• Execute the firm’s data governance operating model by partnering with business and technology teams to implement enterprise policies and standards across unstructured data (primary focus) and structured data (secondary), including data used for AI and advanced analytics.
• Support and help monitor the rollout of unstructured data governance practices across key content repositories (e.g., SharePoint/Teams, file shares, and cloud content platforms), ensuring metadata quality, accurate classification and sensitivity labeling, retention readiness, and AI fitness.
• Ensure unstructured data complies with regulatory, legal, privacy, and records‑management requirements throughout the information lifecycle.
• Support governance oversight activities for Data Domain teams, including review of data maps, content inventories, metadata documentation, data quality issues, access and security controls, SLAs, and audit, retention, and legal‑hold readiness.
• Partner with Data Owners, Data Stewards, and technology teams to support the design and implementation of workflows, dashboards, and automation for unstructured data classification, metadata generation, retention controls, access governance, and eDiscovery readiness.
• Support governance enablement through training by partnering with HR Learning & Development to curate and deliver Data Governance, Data Stewardship, and tool‑specific education.
• Support Collibra administration and help drive user adoption, including assisting with training and onboarding users, and promoting consistent, effective use of governance tooling.
• Collaborate with governance technology vendors and support discussions on roadmap enhancements related to unstructured metadata, classification, lineage, and policy enforcement.
• Support the management and maintenance of internal data products, including unstructured content repositories and AI‑ready metadata assets (e.g., taxonomies, labels, ownership, and classification outputs), coordinating with structured data teams when shared reference data is required.
• Partner with data platform and cloud engineering teams to contribute to defining governance guardrails for AWS‑based processes that automatically extract, enrich, and register unstructured metadata to support AI‑ready data.
• Support efforts to ensure governance standards are embedded into automated pipelines for classification, lineage, retention, and access controls are embedded into automated unstructured metadata pipelines by design.
• Support the enablement of trusted use of unstructured data in AI, analytics, and retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) solutions by ensuring data is discoverable, governed, and approved through appropriate stewardship workflows.
• Collaborate with AI, analytics, and data product teams to align unstructured data governance with AI intake, risk assessment, and inventory processes, ensuring clear traceability between data assets, use cases, and controls.
• Assist in translating AI‑ready data requirements into scalable, repeatable governance patterns that can be consistently applied across domains and development teams.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation package with bonus plan
• Generous PTO and competitive benefits
• 401k with 5% company match plus annual performance-based discretionary contribution
• Tuition reimbursement, formal mentorship program, live and online learning

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level