Data Governance Lead

$120,645 - $193,032/Yr

Stride K12

Full-time - Mid Level

Remote

Educational Services

About the position

The Data Governance Lead is a pivotal role responsible for managing the Stride Data Governance solution. This includes defining actionable and clear data policies, designing processes and systems to effectively implement these policies, and serving as a bridge between technical and business teams to enhance data maturity. The position demands strong communication and leadership skills, a deep understanding of data governance principles, and a solid grasp of enterprise data architecture. The ideal candidate will creatively apply data best practices tailored to Stride's needs. Data Governance is inherently multi-disciplinary, requiring the ability to balance best practice standards with agile delivery. The Data Governance Lead must distill both technical specifications and business jargon into clear, measurable data requirements, acting as a trusted advisor to data owners and project teams. This role is crucial in building robust and trustworthy data solutions, which ultimately empower personalized education for K-12 students across the United States. Essential functions of the role include defining, maintaining, and socializing data policies and standards to ensure data is managed in a compliant, secure, and measurable manner. The Lead will design processes to implement data policies, coordinate with business data owners and data modeling teams, consult on product and platform development, and partner with legal and information security teams to align data governance standards with compliance policies. Additionally, the Lead will own the enterprise data catalog and metadata solution, perform audits on data policies, and drive enterprise data fluency by communicating data policies to various audiences, from executive leadership to technical teams.

Responsibilities

• Define, maintain, and socialize data policies and standards to manage data in a compliant, secure, and measurable way.
• Design the processes to apply data policy into action, including accountabilities for each step and reducing manual overhead.
• Coordinate with business data owners and data modeling team to design data models aligned with documented business rules.
• Consult on product and platform development through design, development, and release phases to provide actionable requirements to meet data governance standards.
• Partner with legal and information security teams to ensure that data governance standards and processes represent and support related compliance policies and practices.
• Own the enterprise data catalog and metadata solution including the strategy, design, and management of business metadata/master data, data discovery, data lineage, data sharing, data tagging, and data quality.
• Perform and report timely audits on data policies and standards to track progress toward adoption and highlight any areas of risk.
• Drive enterprise data fluency by communicating data policies and processes to audiences at every level from executive leadership to teachers and school administrators to technical development teams.

Requirements

• Three to seven (3-7) years of experience in data governance, data management, or data architecture with a focus on compliance, scalability, and best practices OR equivalent combination of education and experience, including prior relevant military service experience.
• Deep understanding of data governance and management practices including metadata management, data ownership and stewardship, data lineage, data quality, data contracts/sharing agreements, and data tagging.
• Ability to develop relationships across functions and inspire trust and confidence through effective communication and interpersonal skills.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills (verbal and written), able to target content to fit the audience, both executive and operational, technical and non-technical.
• Demonstrated ability to creatively problem-solve how to apply process and policy requirements into tactical steps in a way that meets best practices while supporting efficient project delivery.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex business processes and technical designs into clear and actionable data requirements.
• Demonstrated project management planning and organization skills, both as a team lead and between partnering organizations.
• Ability to travel up to 25%.
• Ability to clear required background checks.

Nice-to-haves

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Security & Assurance, or Library Science.
• Experience with data engineering, data architecture, data modeling, and product development lifecycles to effectively partner on design and collaborate with technical teams.
• Experience with applying data privacy, information security, or other data-related regulation/policy compliance to data practices.
• Knowledge of data privacy laws, especially those involving children and educational data protections including FERPA, COPPA, CCPA, and GDPR.
• Knowledge of Machine Learning and modern AI functionality and related protections and controls (e.g. explainability, concept drift, bias mitigation).
• Knowledge of metadata management, data catalog, and data governance platforms such as Alation, Collibra, Informatica, OneTrust, Manta, Monte Carlo, Microsoft Purview.
• Knowledge of Snowflake and AWS core capabilities and services.

Benefits

• Health benefits
• Retirement contributions
• Paid time off
• Eligible employees may receive a bonus