Data Governance Specialist

Job Description Required Skills & Competencies

• Strong working knowledge of data governance, data management, and information management principles
• Practical understanding of the DAMA-DMBOK knowledge areas, especially governance, metadata, data quality, reference/master data, data security, and data architecture
• Strong understanding of how data ownership, stewardship, accountability, and decision rights work in large organizations
• Working knowledge of metadata management, business glossaries, data catalogs, data dictionaries, and data lineage concepts
• Practical experience with data governance platforms such as Collibra, Informatica, Alation, Microsoft Purview, or equivalent tools is desirable
• Working knowledge of data policy, data standards, data controls, data classification, and data lifecycle concepts
• Good understanding of data privacy, data protection, data security, regulatory compliance, and data risk concepts
• Ability to translate complex data governance concepts into clear business language
• Ability to engage senior stakeholders and facilitate discussions across business, technology, risk, compliance, and operations
• Ability to assess governance maturity and identify practical improvement opportunities
• Ability to connect data governance with business outcomes, reporting quality, operational risk, analytics, AI, and regulatory needs
• Strong business writing skills for policies, standards, guidance documents, executive briefings, and governance materials
• Strong facilitation, stakeholder management, negotiation, and influencing skills
• Strong analytical thinking and ability to work through ambiguous ownership, definition, and accountability issues

Establish and improve practical data governance capabilities across business and technology functions

• Define approaches for data ownership, stewardship, accountability, decision-making, and escalation
• Develop and maintain data governance policies, standards, principles, and guidance materials
• Support the definition and adoption of business glossaries, metadata standards, and common data definitions
• Support the identification and governance of critical data elements, key datasets, and priority data domains
• Align data governance with data quality, privacy, security, analytics, AI, reporting, and regulatory needs
• Facilitate business and technology discussions to resolve data definition, ownership, usage, and quality issues
• Support the establishment of governance forums, stewardship communities, and sustainable operating practices
• Review current data governance maturity and recommend practical improvement actions
• Provide guidance to business teams on their data responsibilities and governance obligations
• Support the selection, implementation, or adoption of data catalog, metadata, or governance tools where required
• Create governance documentation that is clear, practical, and usable by business and technical teams
• Support executive-level reporting on governance maturity, adoption, risks, and improvement priorities
• Coach Data Governance Analysts and support capability uplift across client and internal teams

The Data Governance Specialist is a senior role focused on building sustainable governance capability. The role is not an administrative documentation role. It requires the ability to connect business outcomes, accountability, data quality, metadata, privacy, risk, reporting, analytics, and AI-readiness into a practical governance model that people can use.

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Business Administration, Management Information Systems, Information Management, Statistics, Economics, Engineering, Law, Public Policy, Risk Management, or a related discipline.
• Master’s degree in Business Administration, Information Systems, Digital Transformation, Analytics, Governance, Risk, or a related discipline is desirable.
• Arabic and English are mandatory.

5–8+ years of experience in data governance, enterprise data management, information management, data quality, metadata management, data stewardship, privacy, compliance, risk, audit, enterprise architecture, or digital transformation.

Experience working with senior business and technology stakeholders to improve data accountability, data definitions, data standards, governance adoption, and responsible data use is preferred.

• DAMA Certified Data Management Professional, CDMP
• EDM Council DCAM certification
• ISACA CDPSE, where the role involves privacy, data protection, or data lifecycle responsibilities
• IAPP CIPM, CIPT, or CIPP, where privacy and regulatory alignment are important
• Collibra, Informatica, Alation, Microsoft Purview, or equivalent data governance / catalog platform certifications
• COBIT, ITIL, or risk and governance-related certifications where relevant