Senior Manager, Data Governance

Location: Houston, TX, United States

This is a hybrid position requiring an on-site presence at our corporate headquarters in Houston, Texas, three to four days per week.

In our scaled Data Mesh environment, Data and AI Governance is the essential bridge between agility and accountability. As a Senior Manager of Data Governance, you will oversee data stewardship councils aligned to data domains, to ensure their data products are secure, compliant, and high-quality.

You will lead key data governance operations; design the procedures that determine how we assess high-risk data and AI use cases, assure data quality and identify governance findings that protect the enterprise.

What You'll Do

Enhance & Scale the Stewardship Framework: The foundation is built; now we need the architect to scale it. You will:

• Drive Council Excellence: Lead one of two "Council Clusters," aligning with a specific group of large-scale data domains to drive federated decision-making.
• Adoption & Impact: Move beyond "having a framework" to measuring its efficacy. You will track how stewardship directly improves data trust and usability across the mesh.
• Data Catalog Mastery: Optimize our data catalog instance to ensure it serves as the operational hub for your Council Cluster’s metadata and lineage.

Governance Operations & Risk Engineering: You will be the primary architect of our "High-Risk" intake engine. You will:

• Standardize Risk Assessment: Establish the SOPs for the intake and assessment of complex or high-risk data use cases.
• Design the Risk Questionnaire: Create and iterate on a diagnostic tool that assigns a "Risk Score" to new projects, determining the depth of governance review required.
• The Gatekeeper Function: Execute a risk-based approach to reviews, issuing formal governance findings or "blocking" deployments that do not meet our security or quality thresholds.

Performance, Metrics & AI Governance: You will own the "Scorecard" for your area of influence. You will:

• Program Ownership: Directly own and report on a specific subset of KPIs related to your Stewardship and Risk programs (e.g., Risk Remediation Velocity, Steward Engagement).
• Portfolio Metrics Management: Manage the process of gathering and synthesizing the broader Data and AI Governance portfolio of metrics.
• Audit & Accountability: Perform periodic "look-backs" to ensure data owners remain actively comply with records and information management policies.

Team Management

• Lead Governance Analysts: Manage a team focused on both the long-term health of the Alation catalog and the day-to-day pressure of risk assessments.
• Upskill & Mentor: Coach your team on the nuances of governance and the technical skills required to audit complex data products.

What We're Looking For

• Experience:
  • 7+ years in Data Governance, Metadata Management, Data Quality or Data Risk, preferably in a Fortune 100 or highly regulated environment.
  • Demonstrated ability to implement significant change projects, successfully integrating new governance practices into existing organizational structures.
  • Practical experience in building and managing comprehensive project and program plans, including defining scope, objectives, and resource requirements.
  • A track record of establishing a strong foundation for data quality and governance, treating data as a valuable organizational product.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred (Data Science, Information Management, or MBA).
• Technical Acumen: Data Tools: Expert-level proficiency in Data Catalogs (e.g., Alation, Atlan, etc.) or Data Quality / Observability solutions (e.g., Anomalo, Monte Clarlo, etc.). Technical Skills: SQL required; Python is a plus.
• Legal & Regulatory Expertise: Knowledge of relevant laws and industry standards for AI ethics, data protection, and privacy (e.g., GDPR, CCPA, CMMC).
• Leadership & Strategic Thinking: Demonstrated leadership skills with the ability to influence and drive organizational change. You can contribute to strategic direction and formulate recommendations for senior leadership.
• Communication: Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical and ethical concepts to diverse audiences.