Data Governance Specialist Role

OpenDataJobs • Washington, DC

2d

About The Position

Data Governance Specialists establish decision rights, policies, standards, roles, and measures to help an organization manage data as a strategic asset. They translate broad expectations for quality, stewardship, access, lifecycle management, and accountability into actionable operating practices. This role is both organizational and analytical. Specialists convene data owners and stewards, define issue-management and escalation paths, measure adoption and data quality, and maintain the governance operating model as mission needs evolve. They set the framework for accountable and measurable activities rather than owning every catalog record or recurring data operation.

Requirements

• Experience designing or operating data-governance, stewardship, or data-management programs.
• Ability to define data standards, policies, decision rights, metrics, and issue-management processes.
• Working knowledge of data quality, metadata, inventories, lineage, and lifecycle concepts.
• Experience facilitating cross-functional governance forums.
• Experience communicating with technical and business stakeholders.
• Ability to align governance practices with federal data strategy, organizational risk management, and applicable requirements.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with the Federal Data Strategy and agency responsibilities for inventories, metadata, standards, and data leadership (for federal roles).
• Experience defining clear accountability, inventories, review processes, and monitoring for AI system and data risks (for organizations using AI).
• Familiarity with the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework (AI RMF).

Responsibilities

• Establish decision rights, policies, standards, roles, and measures for data management.
• Develop operating practices for data quality, stewardship, access, lifecycle management, and accountability.
• Convene data owners and stewards.
• Define issue-management and escalation paths.
• Measure adoption and data quality.
• Maintain the governance operating model as mission needs change.
• Design data-governance charters, policies, standards, and decision-rights models.
• Establish stewardship structures, governance forums, issue-management workflows, and escalation paths.
• Define data-quality rules, metrics, exception processes, and improvement plans.
• Create accountability models connecting data owners, managers, inventory leads, metadata specialists, and technical teams.
• Develop governance processes for AI systems and data risk.
• Turn policy goals into practical operating models.
• Bring stakeholders together and make ownership visible.
• Use evidence to improve adoption.
• Explain the importance and applicability of standards and how teams can meet them.
• Align governance practices with federal data strategy, organizational risk management, and applicable requirements.

Benefits

• Compensation, benefits, work location, and employment terms are set for each specific opening and will be stated with that opening.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed