Associate Director, Data Quality Lead

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.; United States; Hybrid; USD 153,000 - 283,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Life insurance

Disability benefits

401(k) with company match

Job summary

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. in East Hanover, New Jersey seeks an Associate Director, Data Quality to lead enterprise data quality initiatives across governance, engineering, and product teams.

You will establish quality standards, drive observability, oversee remediation, and deliver trusted datasets to support analytics, AI, and regulatory excellence. Remote work may be possible; travel and site attendance defined by the hiring manager.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in data quality, including 3+ years leading teams in a regulated industry (pharma/life sciences strongly preferred).
• Strong understanding of data quality dimensions, data profiling, data validation, data cleansing, root cause analysis, and remediation.
• Knowledge of data governance frameworks, data stewardship, critical data elements, metadata, lineage, and data product certification.
• Familiarity with data quality tools, data observability platforms, SQL, data catalogs, workflow tools, and reporting dashboards.
• Understanding of data engineering concepts, including data pipelines, ingestion, transformation, controls, monitoring, and production support.
• Ability to define measurable data quality rules and translate business requirements into technical requirements.
• Knowledge of AI-ready data concepts, including trusted datasets, lineage, quality thresholds, and governed usage.

Responsibilities

• Define and advance enterprise data quality standards, frameworks, policies, and measurement practices.
• Establish scalable quality rules, thresholds, scorecards, dashboards, and reusable control frameworks.
• Partner with stakeholders to translate business needs into measurable data quality requirements.
• Embed data quality controls throughout the data product lifecycle and certification process.
• Lead enterprise monitoring, reporting, and performance tracking for critical data assets.
• Drive data quality issue triage, root cause analysis, escalation, and resolution activities.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to automate quality checks and data observability capabilities.
• Support AI-ready data initiatives by ensuring trusted, governed, and high-quality datasets.
• Maintain documentation, remediation plans, operational trackers, and control evidence.
• Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and confidence in enterprise data.

Skills

Data quality management

Data governance

Data profiling

Root cause analysis

Data observability

Tools

SQL

Data catalogs

Workflow tools

Reporting dashboards

Job description

Summary

#LI-Onsite Location: East Hanover, New Jersey Novartis is unable to offer relocation support: please only apply if accessible. Company will not sponsor visas for this position. The preferred location for this role is East Hanover, New Jersey site but remote work may be possible (there may be some restrictions based on legal entity). Please note that this role would not provide relocation as a result. If associate is remote, all home office expenses and any travel/lodging to specific East Hanover, New Jersey site for periodic live meetings will be at the employee's expense. The expectation of working hours and travel (domestic and/or international) will be defined by the hiring manager. Help shape the foundation of trusted, AI-ready data that powers critical business decisions across Novartis. As Associate Director, Data Quality, you will play a pivotal role in building and advancing enterprise data quality practices that ensure our most important data assets are accurate, reliable, and fit for purpose. Working across Data Governance, Data Engineering, Data Product teams, and business stakeholders, you will drive measurable improvements in data trust, lead enterprise-wide quality initiatives, and help unlock the full value of data for analytics, innovation, regulatory excellence, and artificial intelligence. If you are passionate about data quality, operational excellence, and delivering meaningful impact at scale, this is an opportunity to help transform how data fuels the future of healthcare.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and advance enterprise data quality standards, frameworks, policies, and measurement practices.
• Establish scalable quality rules, thresholds, scorecards, dashboards, and reusable control frameworks.
• Partner with stakeholders to translate business needs into measurable data quality requirements.
• Embed data quality controls throughout the data product lifecycle and certification process.
• Lead enterprise monitoring, reporting, and performance tracking for critical data assets.
• Drive data quality issue triage, root cause analysis, escalation, and resolution activities.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to automate quality checks and data observability capabilities.
• Support AI-ready data initiatives by ensuring trusted, governed, and high-quality datasets.
• Maintain documentation, remediation plans, operational trackers, and control evidence.
• Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and confidence in enterprise data.

Essential Requirements

• 8+ years in data quality, including 3+ years leading teams in a regulated industry (pharma/life sciences strongly preferred).
• Strong understanding of data quality dimensions, data profiling, data validation, data cleansing, root cause analysis, and remediation.
• Knowledge of data governance frameworks, data stewardship, critical data elements, metadata, lineage, and data product certification.
• Familiarity with data quality tools, data observability platforms, SQL, data catalogs, workflow tools, and reporting dashboards.
• Understanding of data engineering concepts, including data pipelines, ingestion, transformation, controls, monitoring, and production support.
• Ability to define measurable data quality rules and translate business requirements into technical requirements.
• Knowledge of AI-ready data concepts, including trusted datasets, lineage, quality thresholds, and governed usage.

The salary for this position is expected to range between $152,600 - $283,400 per year. The final salary offered is determined based on factors like, but not limited to, relevant skills and experience, and upon joining Novartis will be reviewed periodically. Novartis may change the published salary range based on company and market factors.

Your compensation will include a performance-based cash incentive and, depending on the level of the role, eligibility to be considered for annual equity awards. US-based eligible employees will receive a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, life and disability benefits, a 401(k) with company contribution and match, and a

variety of other benefits. In addition, employees are eligible for a generous time off package including vacation, personal days, holidays and other leaves.

Why Novartis:

Helping people with disease and their families takes more than innovative science. It takes a community of smart, passionate people like you. Collaborating, supporting and inspiring each other. Combining to achieve breakthroughs that change patients' lives. Ready to create a brighter future together? https://www.novartis.com/about/strategy/people-and-culture

Benefits and Rewards:

Learn about all the ways we'll help you thrive personally and professionally.

Read our handbook (PDF 30 MB)

EEO Statement:

The Novartis Group of Companies are Equal Opportunity Employers. We do not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

Accessibility & Reasonable Accommodations

The Novartis Group of Companies are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, or to perform the essential functions of a position, please send an e-mail to [email protected] or call [phone] and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Please include the job requisition number in your message.