Senior Data Governance Specialist (Hands-on / Business-Facing)

Growth Acceleration Partners•Colorado Springs, CO

About The Position

We are looking for a Senior Data Governance Specialist to support the execution and day-to-day delivery of data governance initiatives within a financial services organization. This role is highly hands-on and business-facing. You will work closely with business stakeholders, data owners, and technical teams to understand the current data landscape, including existing data infrastructure, resources and products, identify gaps, and help deliver concrete governance outcomes—such as enriched data catalogs, defined ownership, and actionable data quality improvements. This is not a purely strategic role. The ideal candidate is someone who can roll up their sleeves, actively contribute to deliverables using industry-standard tools to perform exploration, orchestration and other data management tasks, and translate conversations with the business into clear actions, documentation, and execution.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Data Management, Information Systems, Computer Science, Business Analytics, or a related field.
5+ years of experience in Data Governance, Data Quality, Data Management, or related roles.
Proven hands-on experience supporting data governance execution in regulated environments (financial services, banking, insurance, or similar).
Experience working directly with business stakeholders to understand data needs, challenges, and priorities.
Strong understanding of data governance concepts, data ownership, stewardship, and metadata.
Hands-on experience with data catalogs and lineage tools (e.g., Collibra, Alation, Informatica EDC, Azure Purview).
Solid SQL skills to support data investigation, validation, and profiling.
Familiarity with data quality concepts and collaboration with DQ teams.
Understanding of ETL/ELT processes and data pipelines.
Experience using Jira, ServiceNow, or similar tools to track governance tasks and issues.
Advanced English proficiency (written and verbal).
Strong attention to detail and documentation skills.
Comfortable interacting with business stakeholders and facilitating working sessions.
Highly organized, able to manage multiple parallel tasks and follow through on deliverables.
Practical, execution-oriented mindset.

Nice To Haves

Experience with cloud data platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).
Basic scripting (Python) for supporting data checks or automation

Responsibilities

Support the execution of data management and governance initiatives across multiple business functions.
Work directly with business stakeholders to understand current data landscapes, challenges, and needs.
Capture outcomes from stakeholder meetings and translate them into clear action plans and governance deliverables.
Identify and prioritize high-impact, low-complexity opportunities to deliver immediate value and demonstrate the tangible benefits of data governance to stakeholders.
Contribute to the enrichment and maintenance of the enterprise data catalog (definitions, ownership, metadata).
Assist with defining, implementing, and monitoring data quality rules in collaboration with Data Quality and Engineering teams.
Support data lineage and metadata documentation efforts.
Help coordinate data governance activities across domains, ensuring follow-through and execution.
Document governance processes, decisions, definitions, and artifacts clearly and consistently.
Participate in business-facing sessions and working meetings, serving as a bridge between business and data teams.
Support regulatory and audit-related data governance requirements through proper documentation and controls.