Data Governance Expert with Alation

OtB Tech LLC; New Jersey; On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

OtB Tech LLC seeks a Senior Data Governance Expert with deep Alation expertise to consolidate multiple Alation environments into a unified enterprise platform, enabling a seamless Enterprise Data Marketplace and governance across cloud platforms.

You will lead migrations, establish metadata standards, glossaries, and lineage controls, and partner with executives to align data assets with business goals while ensuring smooth cutovers and adoption.

Qualifications

• 6-7+ years in Data Governance, Metadata Management, or Data Engineering.
• Alation Mastery and Certification: 3+ years on migration or consolidation projects; certification preferred.
• Deep knowledge of Data Catalogs, Business Glossaries, Data Stewardship, Taxonomy design, and Enterprise Data Marketplace; familiarity with Collibra.
• Automation & APIs: Proficiency in Alation REST APIs, Python, and SQL.
• Identity & Access Management: Knowledge of user roles, permissions, and SAML/SSO integration.

Responsibilities

• Business Engagement, Presentation & Executive Sign-offs: Present migration roadmaps, risk assessments, and transition plans to executives.
• Business Sign-offs: Validate migrated metadata, glossaries, and marketplace assets with leads to secure formal business sign-offs for migration phases.
• Escalation & Change Management: Primary escalation point during migration; resolve conflicts and adoption hurdles.
• Operating Frameworks: Define and execute enterprise metadata standards, governance operating models, and stewardship frameworks.
• Multi-Instance Enterprise Migration & Consolidation: Lead discovery, risk assessment, and migration strategy to consolidate multiple Alation instances.
• Metadata reconciliation & conflict resolution: Define processes for duplicates, taxonomy alignment, and cross-domain assets.
• Automation workflows: Develop workflows using Alation REST APIs, Python, and SQL for extraction, synchronization, and validation.
• Quality Assurance & Auditability: Pre/post-migration checks, SAML/SSO audits, and SQL verification.
• Backend indexing checks: Elasticsearch/Solr checks for global searchability.

Skills

Alation mastery

Alation certification

Data governance

Metadata management

Data catalogs

Glossaries

Taxonomy design

Business glossary alignment

Python

SQL

REST APIs

SAML/SSO integration

Automation

Tools

Alation REST APIs

Job description

Role: Data Governance Expert with Alation

Location: NJ

Role Summary

We are seeking a Senior Alation Enterprise Migration & Governance Expert with deep expertise in metadata architecture, cloud data ecosystems, and business domain governance. In this role, you will lead the strategic and technical consolidation of multiple Alation environments into a unified enterprise platform, enabling a seamless Enterprise Data Marketplace and driving enterprise-wide adoption.

As a Business & Governance Expert, you will bridge the gap between technical data engineering and executive leadership-ensuring that data assets, glossaries, lineages, and policies across cloud platforms are accurately migrated, reconciled, and aligned with business goals without disruption.

Key Responsibilities

• Business Engagement, Presentation & Executive Sign-offs

  Stakeholder Presentations: Work directly with business teams and executive stakeholders to present clear, step-by-step migration roadmaps, risk assessments, and transition plans before and during cutover.

  Business Sign-offs: Partner with Lead Business Stewards, Data Owners, and Domain Leads to validate migrated metadata, glossaries, and marketplace assets to secure formal business sign-offs for migration phases.

  Escalation & Change Management: Serve as the primary escalation point during migration; utilize strong conflict-resolution and communication skills to navigate domain disputes, schema alignment challenges, and user adoption hurdles.

  Operating Frameworks: Define and execute enterprise metadata standards, governance operating models, and stewardship frameworks tailored for senior executive stakeholders.

• Multi-Instance Enterprise Migration & Consolidation

  Lead the technical discovery, risk assessment, and migration strategy to consolidate multiple Alation instances into a unified enterprise architecture.

  Define and execute metadata reconciliation and conflict resolution frameworks for duplicate catalog objects, business terms, stewardship assignments, and cross-domain taxonomies.

  Develop robust automation workflows using Alation REST APIs, Python, and SQL for metadata extraction, synchronization, pre/post-migration validation, and platform administration.

• Quality Assurance & Auditability

  Establish rigorous pre- and post-migration sanity checks, including SAML/SSO attribute mapping audit reports, asset ownership validation, and Alation Analytics (Postgres metastore) SQL verification.

  Perform backend indexing checks (Elasticsearch/Solr re-indexing) to ensure global searchability across all migrated domain assets.

Required Skills & Qualifications

Technical & Governance Expertise

• Total Experience: 6-7+ years in Data Governance, Metadata Management, or Data Engineering.
• Alation Mastery & Certification: Minimum 3+ years of hands-on experience implementing, customizing, and delivering migration or multi-instance consolidation projects in Alation; Alation Certification is strongly preferred.
• Domain & Governance Depth: Deep knowledge of Data Catalogs, Business Glossaries, Data Stewardship frameworks, Taxonomy design, and Enterprise Data Marketplace models; familiarity with complementary data governance and quality platforms (Collibra)
• Automation & APIs: Strong proficiency in Alation REST APIs, Python, and SQL for metadata automation, synchronization, and platform administration.
• Identity & Access Management: Working knowledge of user role management, permission models, and SAML/SSO integration