Master Data Governance Manager / MDM Lead

International Schools Partnership Limited; Greater London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading educational organization in the UK is seeking a Master Data Governance Manager. This role involves owning and operating enterprise MDM capabilities, ensuring data quality, and managing governance processes. Candidates should have over 8 years of experience in MDM and data governance, with a strong understanding of stewardship and survivorship models. The organization values safeguarding and inclusion, encouraging diverse applicants to enhance their culture.

Qualifications

• 8-10+ years in MDM / data governance / data management roles.
• Hands-on experience implementing stewardship and survivorship models.
• Strong experience working with business stewards.

Responsibilities

• Design and own the end-to-end master data governance framework.
• Run Master Data Governance Council.
• Define survivorship rules and conflict resolution logic.

Skills

MDM / data governance

Data management roles

Stewardship and survivorship models

Strong facilitation

Job description

Description

Position at International Schools Partnership Limited

ISP Master Data Governance Manager / MDM Lead

Role Profile

Purpose of Role

Own and operate ISP's enterprise Master Data Management (MDM) and Master Data Governance capability, establishing a single, trusted set of mastered identities and hierarchies for core entities including students, households/parents, staff, schools, programmes, courses, and vendors.

This role is accountable for turning governance into a living operational capability: stewardship networks, decision forums, survivorship rules, identity alignment, data quality operations, and golden record certification.

The role underpins delivery of:

• Unified Data Spine
• Canonical Data Model (CDM)
• Unified Student Profile (USP)
• Unified Customer / Household Profile (UCP)
• Certified KPIs and single route-to-insight

Scope and complexity

• Enterprise-wide, multi-country environment
• Federated delivery model with central governance
• Operates across ERP, HRIS, SIS, CRM, EdTech, Finance and Learning platforms
• Acts as enterprise authority for master data and governance decisions

ISP Principles

Begin with our children and students. Our children and students are at the heart of what we do. Simply, their success is our success. Wellbeing and safety are both essential for learners and learning. Therefore, we are consistent in identifying potential safeguarding and Health & Safety issues and acting and following up on all concerns appropriately.

Treat everyone with care and respect. We look after one another, embrace similarities and differences and promote the well-being of self and others.

Operate effectively. We focus relentlessly on the things that are most important and will make the most difference. We apply school policies and procedures and embody the shared ideas of our community.

Are financially responsible. We make financial choices carefully based on the needs of the children, students and our schools.

Learn continuously. Getting better is what drives us. We positively engage with personal and professional development and school improvement.

ISP Master Data Governance Manager / MDM Lead

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Master Data Governance Operating Model

• Design and own the end-to-end master data governance framework
• Establish Master Data Governance Council and domain working groups
• Define stewardship model (Group domain owners, Regional Data Stewards, School Data Leads)
• Define RACI, decision rights and escalation routes
• Establish governance cadence, agendas and decision logs

Mastered Entity Definition & Control

• Identify and prioritise master data domains and entities
• Define canonical entity definitions, attributes, hierarchies and permissible values
• Own master data dictionary and definitions catalogue
• Define and maintain System-of-Record (SoR) mappings
• Prevent parallel or conflicting entity definitions by enforcing a single approved enterprise definition per mastered entity

Survivorship & Identity Alignment (with CDM Lead)

• Define survivorship rules and conflict resolution logic
• Define match/merge thresholds and confidence scoring
• Approve survivorship logic through governance
• Ensure alignment to identity resolution architecture

Data Quality Operations

• Define data quality dimensions, rules and thresholds
• Establish DQ scorecards and monitoring
• Define root-cause categories
• Operate remediation workflow and cadence

Stewardship Enablement

• Identify and onboard stewards across functions and regions
• Provide playbooks, training and tooling guidance
• Ensure stewards actively participate in remediation and decisioning

Privacy, Security & Controls

• Ensure privacy-by-design is embedded into mastered entities
• Define access models for golden records
• Partner with Cyber Security & Privacy Manager on DPIA implications

Adoption & Certification

• Define golden record certification criteria
• Maintain golden record register
• Gate usage of mastered entities into analytics and operational workflows
• Prioritise golden entities required for early-warning retention, attendance, wellbeing and fee-risk models

Decision Rights

• Approve enterprise data definitions for mastered entities
• Approve SoR mappings and survivorship rules
• Approve changes to mastered entity structures
• Approve whether an entity is certified as a golden record
• Suspend or block downstream consumption of master data where governance or DQ thresholds are not met

Key Responsibilities (Day-to-Day)

• Run Master Data Governance Council
• Maintain definitions catalogue and SoR map
• Maintain survivorship rules repository
• Produce DQ scorecards and remediation tracking
• Maintain golden record register
• Provide governance input to Design Authority and programme gating

Key Deliverables (First 6 Months)

• MDM & master data governance operating model
• Stewardship network live with named stewards
• Priority entity models with definitions and hierarchies
• SoR maps and survivorship rules
• DQ scorecards and remediation workflow
• Golden record certification process and register

Success Measures / KPIs

• Stewardship network operating by week 6-8
• First golden entity live with monitoring
• Trend improvement in DQ scores
• Reduction in duplicate / conflicting records
• Growing % analytics using certified golden entities

Skills, Qualifications and Experience

• 8-10+ years in MDM / data governance / data management roles
• Hands-on experience implementing stewardship and survivorship models
• Strong experience working with business stewards
• Pragmatic, delivery-oriented governance operator

• Structured, precise thinking
• Strong facilitation and decisioning
• Comfortable with ambiguity
• Outcome-focused

ISP Commitment to Safeguarding Principles

ISP is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

All post holders are subject to appropriate vetting procedures, including an online due diligence search, references and satisfactory Criminal Background Checks or equivalent covering the previous 10 years' employment history.

ISP Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

ISP is committed to strengthening our inclusive culture by identifying, hiring, developing, and retaining high-performing teammates regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender expression, age, disability status, neurodivergence, socio-economic background or other demographic characteristics. Candidates who share our vision and principles and are interested in contributing to the success of ISP through this role are strongly encouraged to apply.