Data Governance Manager

Howard University

3d•$130,000 - $147,000

About The Position

The Data Governance Manager develops, implements, and manages Howard University's enterprise data governance program to ensure institutional data is accurate, consistent, secure, well-defined, and appropriately used across academic and administrative functions. The role establishes the university’s enterprise data framework, promotes data literacy, and supports compliance with institutional privacy policies and federal FERPA regulations. Reporting to the Chief Data and Analytics Officer, the manager partners with technical teams, institutional data owners and stewards, and functional offices. The position translates institutional business requirements into sustainable governance policies, standards, and practices; establishes data ownership and accountability; maintains institutional data definitions; improves data quality; and promotes responsible, trusted data use.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Business Analytics, Higher Education Administration, or a related field.
At least five years of relevant data management, data governance, institutional research, or higher education data experience is preferred.
Strong knowledge of data governance, data stewardship, data ownership, metadata management, data lineage, data quality, and master/reference data principles.
Experience developing and maintaining data dictionaries, business glossaries, data standards, business rules, and governance documentation.
Strong understanding of data quality assessment, validation, issue management, and remediation processes.
Familiarity with enterprise data environments, including ERP, SIS, CRM, data warehouses, data lakes, and business intelligence platforms.
Working knowledge of SQL and data analysis concepts sufficient to investigate data quality and reconciliation issues.
Knowledge of data privacy, security, access controls, and FERPA requirements in higher education.
Ability to translate complex business processes and institutional requirements into clear data definitions, standards, and governance practices.
Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and facilitate agreement among technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Strong project management, organizational, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate data governance concepts effectively across all levels of the institution.

Responsibilities

Develop, implement, and maintain the enterprise data governance framework, policies, standards, and procedures.
Establish and maintain data ownership and stewardship roles across academic and administrative data domains.
Lead development and maintenance of the institutional data dictionary, business glossary, metadata, data definitions, and data standards.
Partner with functional offices and technical teams to establish consistent definitions, business rules, and source-of-truth systems for critical institutional data.
Develop and manage data quality standards, validation rules, issue logs, remediation processes, and quality monitoring.
Establish processes for documenting data lineage, source-to-target mappings, transformations, and reporting-specific business rules.
Facilitate cross-functional data governance working groups and resolve conflicting data definitions, standards, and ownership responsibilities.
Collaborate with technical and security teams to define data access, classification, privacy, retention, and security standards.
Support governance of data used for institutional reporting, executive analytics, regulatory reporting, forecasting, and advanced analytics.
Monitor adherence to governance standards and provide regular updates on data quality, governance initiatives, risks, and remediation activities.
Promote institutional data literacy and provide training and guidance to data owners, stewards, analysts, and other data users.
Support compliance with FERPA, institutional policies, and applicable data privacy and regulatory requirements.