Data Governance Specialist

Steampunk•McLean, VA

9d•$95,000 - $125,000

About The Position

Steampunk is seeking a Data Governance Specialist to help design, implement, and operationalize data governance practices across a modern, cloud-based data ecosystem. The role enables effective data use through metadata management, data cataloging, stewardship workflows, and governance operating models that align people, processes, and technology. The specialist works with Data Engineering, Analytics, AI/ML teams, platform owners, and business stakeholders to make data assets discoverable, trustworthy, well-documented, and governed without slowing delivery. The position contributes to the growth of Steampunk’s AI & Data Exploitation Practice. Steampunk is a federal contracting company serving Homeland, Federal Civilian, Health, and DoD clients. Applicants are expected to be on camera during interviews and assessments; the company may take a picture to verify identity and prevent fraud.

Requirements

Ability to hold a position of public trust with the U.S. government.
Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Data Management, Business Analytics, Computer Science, or a related field.
2–5 years of experience in data governance, data management, analytics enablement, or data platform support roles.
Hands-on experience with data cataloging and governance tools, such as Collibra, Alation, Atlan, Informatica, AWS Glue Data Catalog, or Azure Purview/Microsoft Purview.
Understanding of business, technical, and operational metadata; data lineage; and schema management concepts.
Familiarity with modern data platforms, including lakehouse, cloud data warehouses, and streaming platforms, and how governance integrates into pipelines.
Experience supporting data quality frameworks, issue management workflows, and stewardship operating models.
Strong communication and facilitation skills for working with technical teams and business stakeholders.
Ability to translate governance concepts into practical workflows that support data delivery.
Familiarity with data privacy, security, and access control concepts in cloud environments.

Nice To Haves

Experience with SQL or basic data querying to understand data structures and lineage.
DAMA CDMP (Associate or Practitioner) certification.
Collibra Ranger or Alation Steward certification.

Responsibilities

Implement and maintain enterprise data catalogs, metadata repositories, and business glossaries.
Partner with Data Engineers and platform teams to automate technical metadata capture, lineage, and schema evolution across data pipelines.
Support the definition and rollout of governance processes for data ownership, stewardship, issue management, certification, and lifecycle management.
Facilitate alignment between technical teams and business stakeholders on data definitions, quality expectations, and usage standards.
Assist in establishing data domains, data products, and stewardship models aligned to architectures such as lakehouse, data mesh, or data fabric.
Coordinate data quality monitoring, issue triage, and remediation workflows with engineering and analytics teams.
Support implementation of data access controls, classification, tagging, and role-based policies aligned with Zero Trust principles.
Contribute to governance standards, playbooks, operating procedures, and onboarding materials.
Participate in governance councils, working groups, and stakeholder forums to promote adoption and continuous improvement.
Help measure governance effectiveness through adoption metrics, data quality indicators, catalog usage, and maturity assessments.
Support compliance activities by ensuring metadata, lineage, and documentation are audit-ready and traceable.
Assist with configuration and integration of governance platforms such as Collibra, Alation, Atlan, Informatica, or cloud-native catalogs.
Stay current with trends in data governance, metadata automation, and AI-ready data management practices.