Senior Manager, Data Management

Rainforest Alliance • New York, NY

2d • $96,886 - $130,866 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Manager, Data Management leads the strategy, governance, and execution of enterprise data management capabilities across the organization. Reporting to the Director, Data Management & Intelligence, you will lead the foundational data components needed to improve our data agenda. These include data quality, metadata, master data, governance, and stewardship, and it ensures that they back clear standards, sound ethics, and execution across complex, cross-functional projects.

This is both a highly strategic and hands-on leadership role. The Senior Manager, Data Management will define and evolve the enterprise data management roadmap. You will translate organizational goals into concrete governance frameworks and build the coalition of business, technology, and analytics stakeholders needed to embed new ways of working. You will lead a team of three data professionals, while also influencing a broader network of data owners and stewards across the business who don't report to them directly.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Data Management, Information Systems, Computer Science, Statistics, Business Administration, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in data management, data governance, or a related data discipline, including 2–3 years in a formal people management role.
• Demonstrated experience building or scaling a data governance program from the ground up, including policy development, standards definition, and stewardship models.
• Experience leading master data management (MDM) and metadata management projects at an enterprise level.
• Hands-on experience implementing or administering a data catalogue or data governance platform (e.g., Collibra, Alation, Informatica, Microsoft Purview, or similar).
• Experience with data governance frameworks, data quality methodologies, and metadata management principles, along with how governance integrates with analytics, BI, and reporting systems.
• Experience building, lead, and mentor a team, including hiring, performance management, and career development.
• Stakeholder management skills, with demonstrated ability to improve adoption of standards across teams without direct authority.
• Program management experience managing multiple complex, cross-functional projects simultaneously.
• Demonstrated change management experience.

Nice To Haves

• Working knowledge of data privacy and regulatory frameworks such as GDPR, CCPA, or sector-specific regulations, and how they inform data sharing and ethics policies.

Responsibilities

• Implement and refine the enterprise data management strategy, aligned with our organizational and mission-level goals.
• Manage and evolve the data management roadmap, including prioritization methodology, trade-off decisions across competing our needs, and a regular review schedule (e.g., quarterly) with senior stakeholders.
• Translate high-level organisational goals into concrete, applicable data projects.
• Identify strategic risks (regulatory, technical, resourcing) related to data management and build mitigation plans.
• Lead change management efforts: run workshops and training to shift mindset and build our data literacy; develop communication plans for major policy or tooling rollouts.
• Lead metadata management projects to improve data discoverability, lineage transparency, and documentation.
• Manage master data modelling, hierarchy management, and golden record processes across important domains.
• Ensure integration of metadata and master data solutions with analytics, reporting, and operational systems.
• Lead the ongoing adoption and optimization of our data cataloguing and lineage tooling.
• Expand (and in some cases develop) frameworks and best practices for data governance, ethics, quality, metadata, and master data management.
• Oversee creation and adoption of enterprise data policies, standards, definitions, and controls.
• Ensure compliance with data-related regulatory and privacy requirements (e.g., GDPR, CCPA, and other applicable regulations).
• Define data quality standards, KPIs, and measurement methodologies across important domains at an enterprise level.
• Establish ongoing monitoring and reporting on data quality performance against defined KPIs.
• Lead, and mentor (through indirect influence) a network of data owners and stewards, including onboarding and engagement through the data lifecycle.
• Mentor and lead your (direct) team of data professionals across data governance, data quality, and sharing and ethics.
• Lead cross-functional data governance forums (steering committees, councils, working groups) including business-side data owners and stewards outside the direct reporting line.
• Partner with engineering, analytics, product, and business leaders to agree on data priorities and roadmaps.

Benefits

• Be a part of a global organization with an impactful mission and a collaborative, respectful, and accountable culture.
• Enjoy opportunities for professional growth and career development.
• Benefit from remote working flexibility and flexible hybrid working environment.
• A favourable time‑off policy.
• Prioritize your wellbeing. We have numerous ways to promote work-life balance.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior