Senior Manager, Data Governance

What You Will Work On

• Lead and develop the Data Governance team (currently two ICs: Senior Analytics Engineer and Data Governance Analyst), with anticipated growth.
• Own foundational governance buildout: metadata standards and taxonomy, business domain framework, glossary migration and enrichment, data profiling governance, and model conformance for silver- and gold-layer assets.
• Run ongoing governance programs: asset certification and re-certification, data quality observability, glossary and metrics-catalog freshness, standards enforcement and audit, new asset intake and review, and stakeholder education and adoption.
• Own the data catalog (Atlan), ensuring accuracy, completeness, and hygiene of asset metadata, glossary terms, and data products; drive adoption of Atlan as the primary engagement tool for certified data.
• Set and enforce certification standards, with authority to withhold or revoke certification on non-compliant assets, exercised credibly and collaboratively.
• Serve as key subject matter expert for Data & Analytics and cross-functional stakeholders: arbitrate metric and definition differences, drive company-wide adoption of best practices.
• Drive an AI-native approach to data governance: leverage AI for unifying information, enriching metadata, automating governance work.
• Contribute to data governance strategy and roadmap in partnership with Data & Analytics leadership.

How You Will Do Your Work

Success requires the following competencies:

• Plans & Aligns: Translate governance strategy into prioritized roadmap; communicate progress, tradeoffs, urgency; connect work to measurable business outcomes.
• Balances Stakeholders: Earn trust through partnership rather than mandates; develop standards collaboratively; maintain relationships amid conflicting demands.
• Influence and Leadership: Build credibility with engineers, analysts, and business stakeholders; foster knowledge-sharing, continuous improvement, and data trust culture.
• Manages Complexity: Navigate technical depth, program ownership, and cross-functional coordination; turn ambiguous mandates into actionable programs.
• Displays Good Judgment: Know when to enforce standards vs. build consensus; ask questions, apply critical thinking, own outcomes.
• Teamwork & Communication: Bridge technical and non-technical audiences; translate governance concepts to business value and business requirements to engineering standards.
• Skills and Knowledge: Maintain hands-on fluency in SQL, dbt, dimensional modeling; develop expertise in AI tooling, data observability, and governance tooling.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in a data role (analytics engineering, data engineering, or data governance), with hands-on SQL and dbt.
• 3+ years in people management, with track record of developing ICs and managing team delivery.
• Experience owning data governance, data quality, or data standards programs.
• Strong proficiency in SQL; working experience with dbt and dimensional modeling to define standards and review model conformance.
• Demonstrated experience managing data catalogs or governance tooling (Atlan, Alation, Collibra, or similar).
• Hands-on fluency with AI tooling for productivity, automation, metadata management, documentation, and governance workflows.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to drive alignment across technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong program ownership mindset: proactive prioritization, operating without defined ticket queue, driving cross-team initiatives.
• Experience in startup or high-growth environment building programs from scratch (preferred).