Specialist, Data Custodian

Vale • Toronto, ON

5d • CA$112,000 • Onsite

About The Position

The Specialist, Data Custodian plays a critical role in ensuring that enterprise data is trusted, well-governed, and easily discoverable across the organization. This role combines deep expertise in data governance, stewardship, enterprise data cataloging, and implementation to drive improvements in data quality, metadata accuracy, governance maturity, and adoption of enterprise data standards. You will work closely with business stakeholders, data owners, governance teams, and technical partners to define and operationalize data policies, standards, stewardship workflows, data quality controls, and metadata solutions that enable enterprise-wide data discoverability for analytics, reporting, and AI initiatives.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Data Science, Software Engineering, or a related field
• 8+ years of experience in data governance, data stewardship, or metadata management
• Experience implementing data governance frameworks, data catalog solutions, stewardship workflows, and metadata management capabilities
• Experience working with enterprise platforms, cloud environments, data quality controls, MDM/reference data governance, and governance operating models
• Experience translating data policies, standards, and business rules into practical processes, controls, and tool-enabled implementation outcomes
• Strong cross-functional collaboration experience
• Strong expertise in data governance, stewardship, and metadata management
• Experience with tools such as Azure Purview, Informatica EDC, Collibra, or similar
• Proficiency in SQL and Python for data profiling and automation
• Knowledge of ETL/ELT tools and Azure data services
• Must-have: strong data modeling skills, including conceptual, logical, and physical data modelling
• Knowledge of enterprise and cloud data architecture patterns, including data lakes, warehouses, integration pipelines, and API-based data exchange
• Experience implementing and operationalizing data governance frameworks, policies, standards, controls, and stewardship operating models
• Hands-on experience defining data quality rules, controls, validation checks, issue management, and remediation workflows
• Strong knowledge of master data management (MDM), reference data governance, and critical data element management
• Ability to translate governance requirements into metadata models, business glossaries, stewardship workflows, classifications, lineage onboarding, and tool configuration
• Understanding of data lineage, classification, and cataloging practices
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a dynamic environment

Nice To Haves

• Certification in Data Management (e.g., DAMA)
• Cloud or data governance certifications (e.g., Azure, catalog tools)

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary data steward for assigned domains, ensuring consistent data definitions, standards, and quality
• Maintain data dictionaries, business glossaries, metadata, and domain standards
• Lead stewardship workflows including issue management, approvals, escalation, decision governance, and lifecycle oversight
• Define and monitor data quality rules, controls, and KPIs; identify root causes and coordinate remediation workflows with business and technical teams
• Promote data ownership and accountability across the business
• Implement and operationalize data governance frameworks, standards, stewardship models, and critical data element controls across assigned domains
• Implement, configure, and manage enterprise data catalog platforms (e.g., Purview, Collibra, Informatica EDC)
• Build and maintain business, technical, and operational metadata, business glossaries, metadata models, and stewardship workflows
• Enable data lineage, classification, and discoverability across systems
• Automate metadata ingestion, classification, tagging, and governance workflow enablement where appropriate
• Ensure catalog accuracy, completeness, and usability
• Operationalize data governance, privacy, classification, retention, and regulatory requirements through standards, controls, and stewardship processes
• Maintain audit trails, lineage, and governance documentation
• Support governance councils, stewardship forums, issue triage, and escalation processes to sustain the governance operating model
• Monitor metadata completeness, catalog adoption, and data quality metrics
• Integrate catalog and stewardship tools with enterprise platforms, source systems, data lakes, data warehouses, and APIs
• Support cloud-based environments such as Azure
• Support master data management (MDM), reference data governance, and critical data element management across priority domains
• Ensure secure and governed data movement across platforms
• Enable trusted, well-documented data for analytics, reporting, and AI use cases
• Ensure datasets include lineage, quality indicators, and business context
• Guide teams on best practices for using governed data
• Partner with data governance teams, architects, and business SMEs
• Translate business and governance requirements into policies, standards, metadata models, stewardship workflows, controls, and tool configurations
• Communicate insights, gaps, and recommendations clearly
• Create documentation, training materials, and knowledge-sharing sessions
• Support enterprise adoption of data governance processes, stewardship practices, and catalog tools
• Promote data literacy and best practices across the organization

Benefits

• Competitive compensation including a variable annual incentive plan
• Participation in a competitive Defined Contribution Pension package
• Comprehensive benefits package (company paid core coverage, health and dental coverage, flex accounts, disability plans, and optional insurances)
• Leave for all of life’s reasons (vacation, personal, sick, parental)
• Work culture dedicated to safety, diversity & inclusion, and career growth
• Employee Family Assistance Program
• Virtual Healthcare online
• Online training and career development opportunities

What This Job Offers

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