Data Governance Manager

Encore Fire Protection•Needham, MA

About The Position

We are seeking a Data Governance Manager to establish and lead Encore’s enterprise data governance program. Reporting directly to the CIO, this role is responsible for building the standards, operating model, and partnerships that ensure our data is trusted, secure, consistent, and ready to support operational excellence, analytics, and AI. This is a hands-on leadership role focused on turning ambiguity into clarity and helping the business confidently answer, “Can we trust this data?

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Data Science, Information Systems, Business, or a related field.
5+ years of experience in data governance, data management, or data operations with demonstrated success building standards and driving adoption.
Experience partnering with executive leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.
Deep understanding of data governance, metadata management, data quality practices, master data, and data lifecycle controls.
Exceptional relationship-building, communication, and influencing skills.
Ability to drive change and accountability in complex organizations.
Experience implementing enterprise data and analytics solutions.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree is a plus.

Responsibilities

Establish and oversee enterprise data governance frameworks, policies, and standards to ensure data quality, consistency, security, privacy, and compliance.
Define data ownership, stewardship, classification, retention, and lifecycle controls in partnership with business and IT leaders.
Build and operate governance workflows including issue intake, triage, root cause analysis, remediation tracking, and continuous improvement.
Lead governance councils and working groups to drive adoption, accountability, and consistent decision-making.
Serve as the primary data governance advisor to the CIO and senior leadership, aligning governance priorities with enterprise objectives.
Partner with business and functional leaders to identify where poor data quality or unclear definitions are impacting performance, then translate those gaps into actionable governance improvements.
Convert business needs into practical data standards, definitions, and operating processes.
Cultivate strong partnerships across business units and IT so governance is embedded in daily workflows.
Advocate for a data-driven culture by enabling shared definitions, trusted sources, and clear accountability.
Influence stakeholders at all levels to adopt disciplined, consistent data practices.
Build and lead Encore’s data governance function, including developing a distributed network of data owners and stewards across the enterprise.
Create a collaborative, solutions-oriented environment that balances structure with business agility.
Partner with IT and data teams to implement governance-enabling tools and capabilities such as metadata management, data cataloging, lineage, and data quality monitoring.
Support reliability and consistency of enterprise data by defining standards for master data, reference data, and critical business definitions.
Define and track governance success metrics including data quality improvements, reduced rework, reporting consistency, and faster decision-making.
Partner with business units to prioritize governance initiatives that deliver measurable operational and financial impact.
Develop and maintain a phased data governance roadmap aligned to enterprise priorities.
Partner with leadership to assess, justify, and prioritize investments in governance capabilities and tools.
Ensure initiatives are delivered on time, within scope, and with measurable adoption.
Strengthen the governance foundation required for analytics and AI by ensuring trusted sources, definitions, lineage, and appropriate access controls.
Support responsible AI adoption through policies addressing privacy, security, and appropriate usage.