Chief Data Governance & Strategy Leader

Ookla; Dallas (TX); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Ookla is seeking a seasoned VP of Data Governance & Strategy to define enterprise governance, ownership, and quality programs across product, engineering, and analytics. The leader will build a data-fluent culture while ensuring regulatory compliance and data security across the organization.

The role collaborates with legal, compliance, and CDAO leadership, guiding governance across platforms and workflows, with a hybrid work arrangement and travel as needed.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Management, Computer Science, Data Management, Business Administration, or a related field.
• 15+ years of experience in data governance, data quality, data management, compliance, or related technology disciplines.
• 7+ years of leadership experience managing data governance, data quality, data stewardship, or data enablement teams and programs.
• Relevant certifications in data governance, data management (e.g., CDMP), privacy, or related disciplines are preferred.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead Ookla’s enterprise data governance strategy, operating model, policies, standards, and multi-year roadmap.
• Establish and operationalize data ownership, data stewardship, and accountability frameworks across all data domains.
• Oversee enterprise data quality programs, including data quality rules, monitoring, observability, lineage, and remediation.
• Lead data security and privacy governance, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and enterprise data protection standards.
• Build and run the enterprise data catalog, metadata management practices, and data discovery capabilities.
• Drive data literacy, data enablement, and change management programs to build a data-fluent, governance-aware organization.
• Partner with legal, compliance, engineering, product, analytics, and CDAO leadership to embed governance into data platforms, pipelines, and workflows.
• Build, mentor, and develop a high-performing data governance, quality, security, and enablement organization.

Skills

Data governance

Data quality

Metadata management

Data stewardship

Data catalog

Privacy compliance

Leadership

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Information Management / CS / Data Management

15+ years of experience in data governance

7+ years leadership in data programs

Certifications in data governance or privacy

Tools

Data catalog platforms

Metadata management tools

Data quality tools

Job description

Ookla is seeking a seasoned VP of Data Governance & Strategy to define enterprise governance, ownership, and quality programs across product, engineering, and analytics. The leader will build a data-fluent culture while ensuring regulatory compliance and data security across the organization.

The role collaborates with legal, compliance, and CDAO leadership, guiding governance across platforms and workflows, with a hybrid work arrangement and travel as needed.