Data Governance Lead

Yonderland; Antwerpen; On-site; EUR 78,000 - 112,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company car

Meal vouchers

Insurance (group and hospitalisation)

Additional holidays

Staff discount

Job summary

Yonderland is seeking a Data Governance Lead to own data policies, ownership, and controls across seven brands. You will collaborate with DPOs, security, and data teams to implement governance practices, drive data quality, and manage data lifecycle.

You will build playbooks, templates, and documentation, defining data handling in line with GDPR requirements and audits, across a multi-country organization.

Qualifications

• Senior experience owning data governance in a multi-entity organization.
• Experience building a governance function from the ground up.
• Experience with GDPR compliance and audits.

Responsibilities

• Write and maintain policies for classification, retention, access, quality and privacy.
• Define data ownership and agreements for data sharing across domains.
• Set the standard for metadata quality and documentation.
• Build and coordinate a stewardship network across the organization.
• Run the governance forum and define decision rights.
• Serve as the reference point for DPOs and data teams on governance.

Skills

Data governance

GDPR compliance

Stakeholder management

Governance frameworks

Data quality

Technical depth

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a related field

Tools

Data observability tools

Job description

We are convinced that outside is exciting, relaxing, and inspiring. It's versatile, for some it is a place to relax, for others it is the ultimate challenge. A place to enjoy and where big and small moments come together. It's a place to be discovered or recognized. But the outdoors can also be treacherous and unpredictable. Weather and terrain can surprise you. Our mission is to enable all people to spend inspiring and epic moments outside.

Yonderland is a European group of premium brands and retail concepts focused on outdoors. Including A.S. Adventure, Juttu, Bever, Cotswold, Snow+Rock, Runnersneed and Ayacucho. Yonderland runs over 190 shops in Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Great-Britain and The Netherlands and resides in Belgium.

We are looking fora Data Governance Lead to join our team

Yonderland holds customer, product and operational data across seven brands and a mix of legacy and modern platforms. As our Data Governance Lead, you will own the policy set that decides how this data is obtained, used and shared, plus the documentation and controls teams need to apply it in practice. You will be the reference point the Data Protection Officers in our business units, and our data teams come to on how governance works, building the stewardship network and governance forum that keep decisions moving. You report to the Head of Data & AI and work closely with security, our architects, the business units and the data teams.

You will

• Write and maintain the policies for classification, retention, access, quality and privacy, each one specific enough for teams to apply and enforce.
• Define data ownership and accountability, including the data contracts that govern how domains share data with each other.
• Set the standard for what good metadata and documentation look like and apply it consistently across domains.
• Build and coordinate the stewardship network of data owners and stewards across the organization.
• Run the governance forum, keeping decisions moving and setting clear decision rights - who decides, who is consulted, and how issues escalated.
• Act as the reference point for the DPOs of our business units and for our data teams on data handling and governance.
• Build the playbooks, templates and reference documentation teams need to implement governance controls in practice.
• Agree data protection practices, rules and controls jointly with the security function.
• Own the definition of PII and special-category data, and the rules for handling them.
• Support GDPR and other regulatory obligations alongside the DPOs and legal, including under audit.
• Own the data observability model - lineage, freshness, quality, schema and distribution - as the shared way the organization reads the state of its data.
• Set the standard for data quality across domains and guide the data teams as they build it into the platform.
• Govern the full data lifecycle - acquisition, use and sharing - through defined, documented and compliant routes, and report progress to leadership.

You have

• Senior experience owning data governance in a multi-entity, multi-brand or multi-country organization.
• A track record of building a governance function from the ground up, with policy that teams went on to apply in practice.
• Experience working on GDPR compliance alongside DPOs, security and legal, including under audit conditions.
• Strong knowledge of governance frameworks, and the judgement to adapt one to fit the organization.
• Deep understanding of classification, access management, retention and privacy by design.
• Knowledge of data observability - lineage, freshness, quality, schema and distribution - with data quality as a core focus.
• Enough technical depth to work with engineers on how governance is implemented in a modern data platform.
• Excellent written communication skills, comfortable turning complex governance questions into clear standards and documentation.
• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in a related field, or equivalent professional experience.

What's in it for you?

• A versatile position with pronounced responsibility and variety in a strongly growing and innovative market leader, operating internationally with headquarters in Hoboken (Antwerp) and offices in the Netherlands and the UK.
• The IT organisation is a driving force to support the strong growth and you will help shape it.
• An open corporate culture where you can be yourself.
• A competitive gross monthly salary in proportion to your experience, including the possibility of a company car, supplemented by fringe benefits such as meal vouchers, group and hospitalisation insurance, additional holidays, and staff discount.
• Adventurous colleagues in an international and diverse team.
• The opportunity to participate in our bootcamps (showers available) and various team events twice a week during the lunch break.

We welcome applications from everyone, regardless of age, background, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or belief. Your talent is what matters most.