Director, Data Governance & Information Management
Location: Atlanta, GA – HYBRID ONSITE 3xs a week
Employment Type: Full-Time
Comp Range: Base Salary + Bonus
Role Overview
We are seeking a highly experienced, hands-on Director of Data Governance & Information Management to establish and operationalize an enterprise-wide data governance practice from the ground up. This is a true builder-doer role, designing the framework, executing the work, and personally delivering outcomes with minimal dedicated staff. This leader will partner closely with the C‑suite, technology leadership, data & analytics teams, and business stakeholders across the enterprise. Success requires strategic clarity, operational rigor, and a strong bias toward execution in an agile environment designed to support real-time business needs.
Key Responsibilities
Data Governance Strategy & Framework
- Design, document, and implement an enterprise data governance framework.
- Define data ownership and stewardship models, decision rights (RACI), and governance policies.
- Establish standards for data quality, metadata, lineage, privacy, and lifecycle management.
- Ensure governance practices are pragmatic, scalable, and aligned to business priorities and regulatory needs.
Execution & Delivery (Hands-On)
- Personally execute foundational governance activities:
- Identify and prioritize data domains
- Define critical data elements (CDEs)
- Establish data quality rules and issue management workflows
- Build policies, playbooks, and governance artifacts
- Drive adoption through direct engagement with business, underwriting, actuarial, claims, finance, and IT teams.
Data Council Leadership
- Serve as a key member of the Data Council.
- Prepare materials, proposals, agendas, and reporting.
- Facilitate cross-functional decisions and ensure follow‑through on commitments.
Security, Privacy & Risk Partnership
- Partner with security, privacy, and risk leaders to align on:
- Data classification and handling
- Privacy, retention, and regulatory requirements
- AI and analytics risk controls
- Ensure governance upholds the organization’s risk posture while enabling innovation.
Tooling Selection & Implementation
- Evaluate, select, and implement data governance and data management tools, including:
- Data catalog and metadata management
- Data quality monitoring
- Business glossary and lineage solutions
- Lead vendor evaluations, proof‑of‑concepts, and tool rollouts with limited support.
- Ensure tools integrate into daily workflows and deliver measurable business value.
Measurement & Continuous Improvement
- Define and track governance KPIs (data quality, adoption, issue cycle time, etc.).
- Report progress, risks, and outcomes to executive leadership.
- Continuously refine practices based on feedback, insights, and results.
Required Experience
- 10+ years in data governance, data management, or information management roles.
- Proven ability to build and operationalize a data governance program from the ground up in a hands-on, practitioner capacity.
- Experience in regulated industries (insurance, healthcare, financial services, or similar).
- Strong experience with data quality, metadata, lineage, privacy, and lifecycle management, with experience defining CDEs, DQ rules, stewardship models, and governance workflows.
- Experience partnering with security, privacy, risk, and compliance teams to align governance with regulatory and audit requirements.
- Familiarity with governance tooling such as Collibra, Alation, Informatica, Atlan, BigID, or similar platforms.
- Exposure to AI, advanced analytics, or data product environments, with an understanding of governance implications.
- Experience supporting or participating in executive councils, data councils, or enterprise governance bodies.
- Demonstrated ability to work independently in a lean environment, delivering artifacts, policies, and frameworks without large teams or consultants.
- Strong communication and executive presence, with the ability to influence without authority and drive cross-functional alignment.