Medical Data Governance & Knowledge Management Lead
IND - 2028 Takeda Innovations India Private Limited
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Benefits offered by this job
Job summary
Takeda in Bengaluru seeks a senior data governance lead to own Medical ontology, business glossary, and data-quality standards. You will steward key data domains, define metadata and taxonomy, and collaborate with Medical teams to implement practical governance for search, discovery, and AI-enabled workflows.
You will drive repository quality, ensure traceability, and partner with MGO and Enterprise AI to evolve the governance framework across global Medical priorities.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in life sciences, data or information management, library and information science, information systems, quality, business, or a related discipline.
- An advanced degree or relevant professional certification in data governance, knowledge management, or records management is preferred.
- Eight+ years of relevant professional experience, including at least four years in biopharmaceutical, healthcare, or a highly regulated industry.
Responsibilities
- Act as the operational steward for assigned Medical data domains and maintain data definitions, data lineage, and data-quality expectations.
- Develop and maintain the Medical ontology, taxonomy, metadata standards, and controlled vocabularies.
- Define governance requirements, knowledge management templates, and repository practices within the Bengaluru capability.
- Translate priorities into workplans, deliverables, and timelines; escalate gaps and risks as needed.
- Collaborate with Medical DD&T and Enterprise AI to shape knowledge architecture and AI-enabled workflows.
- Lead cross-functional engagement with Medical teams to ensure practical, scalable governance.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
Job Description Job Posting Description The Future Begins Here At Takeda, we are leading digital evolution and global transformation. By building innovative solutions and future‑ready capabilities, we are meeting the need of patients, our people, and the planet. Bengaluru, the city, which is India’s epicenter of Innovation, has been selected to be home to Takeda’s recently launched Innovation Capability Center. We invite you to join our digital transformation journey. In this role, you will have the opportunity to boost your skills and become the heart of an innovative engine that is contributing to global impact and improvement. At Takeda’s ICC we Unite in Diversity Takeda is committed to creating an inclusive and collaborative workplace, where individuals are recognized for their backgrounds and abilities they bring to our company. We are continuously improving our collaborators journey in Takeda, and we welcome applications from all qualified candidates. Here, you will feel welcomed, respected, and valued as an important contributor to our diverse team.
Support the realization of Medical Governance Office (MGO) strategy by ensuring that the data, records, decisions, and governance knowledge used by MGO are complete, current, easy to find, traceable, and managed consistently. Establish and lead the Medical Data Governance & Knowledge Management capability within the Bengaluru Global Capability Center, developing the Medical ontology and knowledge management framework and supporting the realization of MGO and broader Global Medical priorities. Translate approved MGO and Global Medical priorities into clear business definitions, data standards, relationships, and knowledge structures that connect Medical information and support trusted search, retrieval, reuse, and AI-enabled capabilities. Work directly with the Head, Medical Governance Office and relevant MGO capability leads to deliver agreed priorities and expected outcomes, and stay closely connected to Medical teams so the capability reflects daily operations and business needs. MGO and relevant Medical domain owners retain responsibility for strategy, scientific and business meaning, and final decisions.
Act as the operational steward for assigned Medical data domains. Work with MGO and relevant Medical domain owners to document and maintain approved business definitions, critical data elements, data lineage, ownership, metadata, and data-quality expectations. Own and maintain the Medical business glossary and domain-level metadata standards for the assigned scope, coordinating proposed changes with MGO and the relevant Medical domain owners. Maintain an inventory of the data, reports, repositories, systems, owners, and key definitions within the assigned scope. Run regular checks to identify missing, incomplete, inconsistent, duplicate, outdated, or incorrectly classified information and coordinate correction with the responsible owners. Ensure that data used for MGO oversight, dashboards, reporting, and decision support is consistently defined, linked to the agreed official source, and supported by clear data-quality checks, lineage, and traceable records.
Develop the Medical ontology (the agreed structure of terms, definitions, classifications, and relationships used to connect Medical information consistently) and knowledge management framework. Own and maintain the Medical ontology, taxonomies, metadata standards, and controlled vocabularies for the assigned scope, coordinating significant changes with MGO and relevant Medical domain owners. Work with MGO and relevant Medical domain owners to define and maintain the relationships across Medical data, content, evidence, insights, processes, decisions, and knowledge assets so information can be connected, found, and reused. Work with MGO to define practical ways of recording and maintaining governance decisions, approvals, exceptions, standards, frameworks, guidance, templates, and supporting rationale, based on approved MGO and Takeda requirements. Ensure that governance records and knowledge are correctly captured, named, classified, linked to related records, version‑controlled, accessible to the right users, periodically reviewed, retained, archived, and retired. Oversee regular repository checks to make sure that information is complete, current, correctly linked, and easy to retrieve. Maintain the evidence needed for audit and inspection readiness and work to address identified gaps. Help MGO and assigned Medical teams capture, maintain, find, share, and reuse current governance knowledge, reducing duplication and the use of outdated or conflicting materials.
Receive functional direction from the Head, Medical Governance Office and relevant MGO capability leads on priorities, approved requirements, and expected outcomes. Translate these into clear workplans, deliverables, and timelines. Provide regular updates to MGO on progress, data quality, repository status, missing information, recurring issues, and improvement opportunities. Escalate significant gaps, risks, or unresolved ownership questions. Maintain regular engagement with MGO leads and Medical teams to understand daily operations, terminology, decisions, user needs, and emerging priorities, ensuring that the Medical ontology and knowledge management framework remain relevant and practical. Lead the operational transition of agreed data‑governance, governance‑record, repository, and knowledge‑management activities into Bengaluru. Ensure that scope, responsibilities, handoffs, standards, controls, training needs, and escalation routes are clearly documented before transition. Turn agreed business needs into clear requirements for repositories, workflows, access, search, integration, and reporting. Partner closely with Medical DD&T and the Enterprise AI team to define the business requirements for the Medical knowledge architecture, semantic layer, Medical knowledge graph, AI-supported search and retrieval, and future approved AI‑enabled workflows. Medical DD&T and Enterprise AI remain responsible for technical architecture and implementation.
- Strong knowledge of data governance and knowledge management in a regulated environment, including data stewardship, business glossaries, critical data elements, data lineage, ontology, taxonomy, metadata, data quality, records management, and knowledge reuse.
- Good understanding of Medical Affairs governance and operations, with the ability to turn approved governance requirements into clear and practical data and knowledge‑management practices.
- Understands the difference between managing data, records, and repositories and owning the underlying content or decision.
- Scientific, policy, compliance, legal, privacy, information‑security, technology, clinical‑data, and business decisions remain with the relevant accountable owners unless formally delegated.
- Provides functional leadership to data owners, data stewards, repository owners, knowledge contributors, system owners, and project teams involved in the assigned scope.
- Translates agreed priorities into clear responsibilities, workplans, and delivery expectations and helps teams apply approved standards consistently.
- Influences stakeholders without relying only on formal authority and brings together the appropriate owners to resolve data, repository, and knowledge‑management issues.
- Acts as the business owner for the Medical ontology and knowledge management framework and is accountable for its business requirements, operating model, roadmap, adoption, and ongoing evolution within approved MGO and Global Medical direction.
- Within approved requirements, makes operational decisions about the business glossary, ontology, taxonomy, metadata, controlled vocabularies, data‑quality controls, knowledge relationships, repository practices, and issue remediation.
- Escalates questions that involve governance strategy, substantive content, scientific interpretation, policy, compliance, Legal, Privacy, Information Security, enterprise architecture, clinical or RWE data governance, or business ownership.
- MGO and relevant Medical domain owners retain accountability for governance strategy, scientific and business meaning, and approval of significant domain‑specific definitions and relationships.
- Medical DD&T and Enterprise AI retain accountability for technical architecture and implementation.
- Works directly with the Head, Medical Governance Office and relevant MGO leads on priorities, expected outcomes, workplans, progress, and escalation.
- Maintains regular contact with Medical teams to ensure the capability reflects day‑to‑day business context.
- Maintains close alignment with the GCM Medical Operations & Governance Lead as the formal line manager and with Medical Excellence & Operations on the broader Bengaluru operating model and cross‑capability dependencies.
- Collaborates closely with Medical DD&T and Enterprise AI, as well as Records Information Management, Quality, Privacy, Ethics & Compliance, Legal, Information Security, system owners, and global, regional, and local Medical stakeholders.
- Identifies practical opportunities to use ontology, semantic search, knowledge graphs, automation, analytics, and AI‑enabled tools to improve how Medical information is connected, found, understood, and reused.
- Ensures that digital and AI‑enabled solutions are introduced with appropriate validation, access controls, human oversight, traceability, and alignment with applicable Takeda requirements.
- Works across different Medical governance areas, data sources, repositories, systems, functions, and geographies.
- Balances the need for common global ways of working with valid legal, regulatory, privacy, records‑management, and local requirements.
- Helps move fragmented or locally maintained data and knowledge practices toward more consistent, traceable, and reusable approaches without taking ownership of the underlying scientific, policy, or business decisions.
Bachelor’s degree in life sciences, data or information management, library and information science, information systems, quality, business, or a related discipline is required. An advanced degree or relevant professional certification in data governance, knowledge management, records and information management, or a related field is preferred.
- Eight or more years of relevant professional experience, including at least four years in the biopharmaceutical, healthcare, or another highly regulated industry.
- Demonstrated experience in data governance, knowledge management, records and information management, repository management, data quality, or Medical operations.
- Experience establishing or improving data‑ownership practices, common definitions, data‑quality checks, repository structures, document‑lifecycle practices, or knowledge‑management processes.
- Experience with business glossaries, ontologies, taxonomies, controlled vocabularies, semantic relationships, knowledge graphs, semantic search, or similar knowledge‑management capabilities.
- Experience working with Medical Affairs, quality, governance, compliance, or another regulated business area in a global or matrixed organization.
- Experience providing project, team, or matrix leadership and influencing stakeholders across functions and geographies.
- Experience supporting the transition or centralization of activities into a global capability center or shared‑services organization is preferred.
- Strong knowledge of data stewardship, business glossaries, critical data elements, data lineage, ontology, taxonomy, metadata standards, controlled vocabularies, data quality, traceability, access, retention, and issue‑management processes.
- Experience managing document, record, or knowledge repositories, including naming conventions, classification, access controls, versioning, links between records, review cycles, retention, archiving, and retrieval.
- Experience with platforms such as Veeva Vault, SharePoint, enterprise data catalogues, document‑management systems, records‑management systems, or similar tools.
- Understanding of Records Information Management, controlled documentation, privacy, information security, and audit and inspection‑readiness requirements in a regulated environment.
- Experience with dashboards, workflow tools, data‑quality monitoring, search technologies, automation, or AI‑enabled tools applied to data or knowledge‑management activities.
- Ability to translate Medical business needs into clear requirements for data, knowledge, search, and AI solutions.
- Structured and practical thinker with strong attention to detail and the ability to translate complex governance requirements into clear operational standards and ways of working.
- Demonstrates sound judgment and can distinguish issues that can be resolved operationally from those that require escalation to MGO or another accountable function.
- Strong stakeholder‑management, facilitation, and communication skills, including the ability to influence without formal authority and explain data‑governance and knowledge‑management topics clearly.
- Collaborative and pragmatic working style, with strong ownership, follow‑through, and commitment to quality, transparency, inclusion, and continuous improvement.
- Fluent English required; additional languages advantageous.
Formal line reporting is to the GCM Medical Operations & Governance Lead. For MGO‑assigned scope, the role works directly with the Head, Medical Governance Office, who provides functional direction on priorities, approved requirements, expected outcomes, workplans, and escalation of significant issues. The role supports the realization of MGO and Global Medical priorities by serving as the business owner for the Medical ontology and knowledge management framework and the operational steward for assigned Medical data and knowledge domains.
- Competitive Salary + Performance Annual Bonus
- Flexible work environment, including hybrid working
- Comprehensive Healthcare Insurance Plans for self, spouse, and children
- Group Term Life Insurance and Group Accident Insurance programs
- Employee Assistance Program
- Broad Variety of learning platforms
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Programs
- Reimbursements – Home Internet & Mobile Phone
- Employee Referral Program
- Leaves – Paternity Leave (4 Weeks) , Maternity Leave (up to 26 weeks), Bereavement Leave (5 calendar days)
Takeda is leading a digital revolution. We’re not just transforming our company; we’re improving the lives of millions of patients who rely on our medicines every day. As an organization, we are committed to our cloud‑driven business transformation and believe the ICCs are the catalysts of change for our global organization. #Li‑Hybrid Locations IND - Bengaluru Worker Type Employee Worker Sub‑Type Regular Time Type Full time Takeda is an industry‑leading, global pharmaceutical company with an unwavering dedication to putting patients at the center of everything we do. We live our values of Takeda‑ism – Integrity, Fairness, Honesty, and Perseverance – and are united by our mission to strive towards Better Health and a Brighter Future for people worldwide through leading innovation in medicine. Here, everyone matters and you will be a vital contributor to our inspiring, bold mission. At Takeda, you will make an impact on people’s lives – including your own.
Takeda is an equal opportunity employer.
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