Manager, Data Governance (Austin)

Job Description: 

As a Data Governance Manager, you will lead a team responsible for advancing enterprise data governance, data stewardship, and data quality practices that enable trusted, secure, compliant, and highly usable data across the organization. You will build and develop high-performing teams while driving the implementation of data governance standards, data architecture alignment, and lifecycle management best practices. 

You will partner closely with Product, Engineering, Data Science, Analytics, Security, Compliance, and Business stakeholders to ensure scalable data solutions support operational, analytical, and strict regulatory requirements. This role combines leadership, strategic oversight, and process design to establish enterprise data standards, reduce organizational process debt, and ensure data assets are securely managed as strategic business resources. 

The ideal candidate is equally comfortable leading people, influencing strategy, standardizing governance frameworks, and driving initiatives that improve data trust, privacy, and compliance. 

What is the work? 

Leadership 

• Lead, coach, mentor, and develop a team of data stewards, governance analysts, and data modelers. 

• Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, innovation, and customer-focused delivery. 

• Remove organizational roadblocks and enable teams to effectively execute strategic governance priorities. 

• Establish operational objectives, team roadmaps, work plans, and resource allocation strategies. 

• Drive organizational change through the adoption of standardized governance processes, artifacts, and roles. 

• Serve as a trusted advisor for data management, privacy, security, and architecture initiatives. 

Data Governance Standards & Process 

• Define and implement enterprise data governance standards, policies, playbooks, and controls, actively working to reduce organizational process debt. 

• Partner with business and technology leaders to improve data quality, security, stewardship, metadata management, and lifecycle management practices. 

• Establish governance processes that support strict regulatory and compliance requirements including TDPSA, PII, PCI, HIPAA, and other applicable regulations. 

• Drive the adoption of data ownership, stewardship, and accountability across business domains. 

• Develop governance metrics, KPIs, scorecards, and dashboards to measure program effectiveness and data health. 

• Lead enterprise initiatives for data classification, consolidated access management (e.g., schema-level vs. table-level grants), auditing, and continuous monitoring. 

• Collaborate with Security, Compliance, and Privacy teams to identify data risks and implement robust remediation strategies. 

Data Modeling & Architecture Alignment 

• Establish enterprise data modeling standards, governance methodologies, and best practices. 

• Lead the governance and oversight of conceptual and logical data models, ensuring alignment with business needs. 

• Provide observability into adherence to standards and progress. 

Data Context Management 

• Promote consistent data definitions and comprehensive business glossaries across business domains. 

• Champion source-of-truth alignment, data reuse, and the systematic reduction of data duplication. 

• Oversee the publication and maintenance of enterprise data dictionaries and provide strict guidance to engineering teams on modeling standards. 

• Drive the governance aspects of modern data architecture patterns, including Data Warehouse, Data Lake, Data Mesh, and Master Data Management. 

Governance Enablement & Quality Operations  

• Establish standards for data quality monitoring, metadata integration, and automated access controls. 

• Oversee the implementation and administration of enterprise data catalogs and unified governance platforms. 

• Influence enterprise-wide technology decisions to ensure tools natively support compliance and data lifecycle management requirements. 

• Provide observability into adherence to standards and progress. 

Required Qualifications 

• Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Business Administration, Data Management, or a related field. Equivalent experience considered. 

• 5 years of experience in data governance, data management, data architecture, or data compliance. 

• 3 years of people leadership experience managing data governance or analytical teams. 

• Strong experience implementing enterprise data governance frameworks, operating models, and data catalogs. 

• Deep understanding of data privacy, security, and compliance regulations (e.g., TDPSA, PCI-DSS, HIPAA). 

• Experience with data governance disciplines including: 

• Data Quality & Observability 

• Metadata Management & Business Glossaries 

• Data Stewardship & Ownership Models 

• Data Security & Access Management 

• Data Lifecycle Management 

• Familiarity with data modeling methodologies (Entity Relationship, Dimensional, Master Data Management). 

• Foundational SQL proficiency to query metadata, audit logs, or perform basic data quality profiling. 

• Proven ability to influence and negotiate with stakeholders across both technical engineering and business organizations. 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Retail or large-scale enterprise experience. 

• Hands-on experience with modern unified governance platforms (e.g., Databricks Unity Catalog, Collibra, Alation, Microsoft Purview). 

• Experience migrating or consolidating data access permissions and roles across enterprise environments. 

• Knowledge of cloud-based data platforms in Azure, AWS, or GCP. 

• Advanced degree or certifications in Data Governance, Privacy (CIPP), or Data Management (CDMP).