Data Steward

Data Steward (12-Month Contract)

Location: Johnston, IA (Hybrid - 3 Days Onsite)

Position Overview

Our client is seeking a detail-oriented Data Steward to support day-to-day data management activities across multiple business domains. This is a tactical, execution-focused role responsible for ensuring data is accurate, complete, compliant, and usable for downstream systems and business processes.

The Data Steward will work closely with Data Governance, IT, and business teams to maintain data quality standards, monitor data pipelines, perform hands-on data cleanup, and support documentation and metadata updates.

This is a 12-month contract with the possibility of extension.

Key Responsibilities

1. Data Quality Monitoring & Issue Resolution

• Perform daily/weekly data validations to identify missing, inaccurate, or duplicated data.
• Investigate data issues and work with system owners to correct errors at the source.
• Run established data quality rules and workflows; document exceptions and follow up until resolved.
• Track recurring data quality problems and recommend corrective actions.

2. Data Entry, Cleanup & Standardization

• Execute routine data cleanup tasks such as correcting naming inconsistencies, merging duplicate records, and updating incomplete fields.
• Maintain reference data lists, code sets, and allowable values for key data domains.
• Apply data standards and naming conventions to new and existing data.

3. Metadata & Documentation Support

• Update metadata repositories, data dictionaries, and business glossaries with definitions, owners, validation rules, and lineage details.
• Document system changes, data transformations, and business rules for assigned domains.
• Ensure that all updates are communicated to data owners and governance teams.

4. Stewardship of Critical Data Domains

• Serve as the day-to-day contact for questions related to assigned datasets (e.g., product, customer, supplier, research, operations, etc.).
• Review requests for new data creation (e.g., new product codes, new attributes) and validate required fields before approval.
• Monitor data lifecycle events (creation, updates, deactivation).

5. Compliance & Data Controls

• Verify that sensitive or restricted data meets data privacy and security requirements.
• Ensure required fields, retention rules, and audit trails are properly maintained.
• Support periodic audits to confirm compliance with internal data policies.

6. Data Pipeline & Integration Checks

• Monitor automated data loads and integrations; identify and escalate failures or anomalies.
• Validate data transformations and reconcile source vs. target values as needed.

7. Stakeholder Support & Communication

• Work with business users to understand data issues and translate them into actionable tasks.
• Support trainers or governance leads by providing examples, documentation, and best practices.
• Participate in working sessions with Data Governance teams to discuss standards and improvements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Data Management, Information Systems, Business, or related field.
• 3 years of hands-on data stewardship, data quality, or data operations experience.
• Experience working with ERP, CRM, or MDM systems (SAP, Salesforce, Oracle, etc. a plus).
• Strong Excel skills (lookups, pivot tables, filters, error checking).
• Familiarity with data quality tools or governance platforms is helpful but not required.
• High attention to detail and strong problem-solving skills.
• Comfortable performing repetitive data cleanup tasks while maintaining accuracy.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work with both business and technical teams.
• Must be able to work onsite in Johnston, IA three days per week.

Why This Role Is a Great Fit

• You'll work closely with data owners and governance teams in a highly collaborative environment.
• Great opportunity for someone who enjoys hands-on execution, improving data accuracy, and ensuring systems are trustworthy.
• Chance to support important data transformations and modernization efforts across the organization.