Data Governance Lead

Job Title: Data Governance Lead

Location: MONTREAL, QUEBEC (Onsite)

Job Type: Longterm Contract

Job Description: Data Governance Lead responsible for establishing, implementing, and maintaining enterprise-wide data governance frameworks, policies, standards, and controls to ensure data quality, integrity, security, compliance, and effective data lifecycle management across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and implement enterprise data governance strategies, policies, standards, and frameworks.
• Establish data ownership, stewardship, and accountability models across the organization.
• Define and maintain data governance operating models, processes, and controls.
• Implement data quality frameworks, metrics, and monitoring processes.
• Identify and resolve data quality issues while driving continuous improvement initiatives.
• Manage enterprise data catalogs and metadata repositories.
• Ensure proper classification, documentation, lineage, and governance of critical data assets.
• Promote data discoverability, accessibility, and usability across business functions.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements such as GDPR, CCPA, SOX, HIPAA, and other applicable standards.
• Partner with Security and Compliance teams to establish data protection controls and governance practices.
• Conduct governance audits, risk assessments, and compliance reviews.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders to define critical data elements and governance requirements.
• Facilitate Data Governance Council meetings and governance steering committees.
• Provide education, guidance, and training on data governance policies and standards.
• Develop governance KPIs, dashboards, scorecards, and maturity assessments.
• Provide regular governance and compliance reporting to senior leadership.

Core Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Management, Business Analytics, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in Data Management, Data Governance, Data Quality, or related disciplines.
• 3+ years of experience leading enterprise data governance initiatives.
• Strong understanding of DAMA-DMBOK and industry-standard data management frameworks.
• Experience implementing and managing Data Governance and Data Catalog platforms such as:
• Collibra
• Informatica
• Alation
• Microsoft Purview
• Strong experience with:
• Data Governance
• Data Quality Management
• Metadata Management
• Data Lineage
• Master Data Management (MDM)
• Knowledge of data warehousing, data lifecycle management, and governance best practices.
• Strong stakeholder management and executive communication skills.
• Experience driving enterprise-wide data governance adoption and compliance programs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in a related field.
• Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP) certification.
• Experience with cloud platforms including Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud.
• Experience working within Agile delivery environments.
• Experience supporting enterprise data transformation and modernization initiatives.
• Knowledge of regulatory compliance, privacy, and data protection frameworks.

Key Skills

• Data Governance
• Data Quality Management
• Metadata Management
• Data Lineage
• Master Data Management (MDM)
• Microsoft Purview
• Collibra
• Informatica
• Alation
• Data Catalog
• Data Stewardship
• Data Ownership
• Data Compliance
• Data Security
• Data Lifecycle Management
• Data Warehousing
• SQL
• DAMA-DMBOK
• GDPR
• CCPA
• SOX
• HIPAA
• Azure
• AWS
• Google Cloud
• Agile