Data Governance Lead

NetApp, Inc.; Morrisville (NC); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 253,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Life Insurance

Retirement plan

Paid Time Off

Employee stock purchase plan

Job summary

NetApp, Inc. is seeking an experienced Data Governance Lead to drive enterprise governance initiatives. The role partners with business, analytics, data engineering, and application teams to embed governance requirements into platforms and decision processes.

The candidate will lead distributed stewardship, coach stakeholders, and translate governance concepts into practical outcomes across data quality, metadata, and operational excellence in a complex global environment.

Qualifications

• 10–15 years of progressive experience in data governance, data management, analytics enablement, or related fields.
• Experience in complex global organizations and cross-functional leadership.
• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred and relevant certifications beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Implement and improve practical governance processes across data domains, analytics, AI readiness, and applications.
• Partner with owners, analytics teams, data engineers, and leaders to embed governance in platforms and reporting.
• Lead distributed stewardship, clarify roles, and scale governance practices.
• Influence stakeholders across functions to align priorities without formal authority.
• Communicate governance concepts in business terms and develop learning materials.
• Apply enterprise policies, metadata, glossaries, lineage, and controls across data assets.
• Define data quality rules, drive root-cause analysis, and improve end-to-end processes.
• Serve as credible advisor to navigate business needs and technical architectures.

Skills

Stakeholder Leadership

Communication

Coaching & Enablement

Leadership without authority

Business & Tech Acumen

Analytics & Applications

Governance & Metadata

Enterprise Platform Experience

Education

Bachelor’s degree in business/IS/data management/CS/engineering

Tools

Oracle Cloud ERP

Salesforce

SAP CRM

Snowflake

Metadata management platforms

Job description

Job Summary

Are you ready to apply your data governance expertise and partner with business stakeholders to implement, optimize, and mature governance best practices? We have an excellent opportunity for you!

We are seeking an experienced Data Governance Lead to join our Enterprise Data Governance team. This role is ideal for a pragmatic, influential leader who can translate governance principles into practical ways of working across business applications, analytics, A.I. use cases, data platforms, and enterprise processes. The successful candidate will build strong partnerships, guide a distributed stewardship community, and continuously improve the quality, usability, and trustworthiness of data.

The role requires broad business and technology acumen, with the ability to quickly understand both technical and business contexts and speak with credibility across functions. The Data Governance Lead will connect governance practices to operational excellence, trusted analytics, and effective business application outcomes while coaching stakeholders, encouraging adoption, and leading through influence rather than formal authority. Experience in a product-centric technology infrastructure sector or another complex global environment is strongly preferred.

If you have a passion for data, leadership skills, and a desire to make a significant impact, join us and be a part of something truly exciting.

Job Responsibilities

• Enterprise Governance Execution: Implement and continuously improve practical governance processes that strengthen business operations, analytics, reporting, AI readiness, and application outcomes.
• Business Application and Analytics Enablement: Partner with application owners, analytics teams, data engineers, and business leaders to embed governance requirements into platforms, integrations, reporting solutions, and decision-making processes.
• Stewardship Community Leadership: Guide, coach, train, and mentor a distributed community of data owners and stewards; clarify roles, reinforce accountability, and create reusable practices that enable consistent execution.
• Stakeholder Management and Influence: Build trusted relationships across functions and levels, facilitate alignment, resolve competing priorities, and lead outcomes without formal authority.
• Communication and Evangelism: Communicate governance concepts in clear business language, develop compelling messages and learning materials, and champion the value of trusted data throughout the organization.
• Policy, Standards, and Metadata: Apply and evolve enterprise policies, standards, business glossaries, metadata, lineage, controls, stewardship roles, and approval workflows across critical data and applications.
• Data Quality and Continuous Improvement: Lead the definition of data quality rules and measures, facilitate root-cause analysis and remediation, and use evidence to improve end-to‑end processes and adoption.
• Cross-Functional Advisory: Serve as a credible advisor who can rapidly grasp business needs and technical architectures, identify practical tradeoffs, and guide teams toward scalable, sustainable solutions.

Job Requirements

• Stakeholder Leadership: Demonstrated success building trust, influencing decisions, facilitating alignment, and managing diverse stakeholders across business and technology organizations.
• Communication and Evangelism: Exceptional written, verbal, presentation, and facilitation skills, with the ability to make complex concepts accessible and motivate adoption at all organizational levels.
• Coaching and Community Enablement: Experience training, guiding, coaching, and mentoring a geographically distributed stewardship community, including developing playbooks, learning materials, and repeatable forums.
• Leadership Without Formal Authority: Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives, navigate ambiguity, resolve conflict, and sustain accountability through influence.
• Business and Technology Acumen: Sufficient breadth to quickly understand business processes, application landscapes, data flows, analytics use cases, integration patterns, and technical constraints, and to speak with authority in both contexts.
• Analytics and Business Applications: Experience supporting governed data for reporting, analytics, operational decision-making, and enterprise business applications.
• Governance and Metadata Practices: Working knowledge of stewardship operating models, data quality, business glossaries, metadata, lineage, controls, policies, standards, and issue management.
• Enterprise Platform Experience: Prior experience with one or more of Oracle Cloud ERP, Salesforce, SAP CRM, Snowflake, or metadata management platforms is strongly desired.
• Ways of Working: Highly organized, flexible, and hands‑on, with a tactile approach to turning strategy into practical deliverables and measurable outcomes.
• Additional Qualifications
• Professional Experience: 10–15 years of progressive experience in data governance, data management, analytics enablement, enterprise applications, business transformation, or a related field within complex global organizations.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in business, information systems, data management, computer science, engineering, or a related field required; advanced degree preferred.
• Certifications: Relevant certifications in data governance, analytics, metadata management, cloud data platforms, change leadership, or enterprise applications preferred.
• Join us to combine data, technology, communication, and people leadership to improve business outcomes through practical, trusted, and widely adopted data governance.

Compensation:
The target salary range for this position is 170,000 - 253,000 USD. The salary offered will be determined by the candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and education and may be outside of this range. The range is based on 'On Target Earnings’ (OTE) representing the total potential earnings, which is the sum of the base salary and potential commission earned when performance targets are achieved. Final compensation packages are competitive and in line with industry standards, reflecting a variety of factors, and include a comprehensive benefits package. This may cover Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Retirement or Pension Plans, Paid Time Off, various Leave options, employee stock purchase plan, and/or restricted stocks (RSU’s). These offerings are subject to regional variations and governed by local laws, regulations, and company policies. We will provide detailed information about the specific benefits for your region during the recruitment process.

At NetApp, we embrace a hybrid working environment designed to strengthen connection, collaboration, and culture for all employees. This means that most roles will have some level of in-office and/or in-person expectations, which will be shared during the recruitment process.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status, and any other protected classification.

Why You'll Thrive at NetApp

At NetApp, you won't wait for the perfect moment—you'll make it. The early planning, the extra thought, the bold idea that turns good into great: That's how our people operate and how we continue to push the boundaries of data infrastructure.

NetApp is the trusted partner for organizations transforming data into opportunity. As the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure, we empower customers to run everything from traditional workloads to enterprise AI with unmatched performance, resilience, and security.

Our culture

We celebrate mold breakers, bold thinkers, and problem solvers. We reward initiative, impact, and ownership. We provide flexibility so you can balance professional ambition with your personal life. Here, differences are not just welcomed—they drive everything we do.

AI Disclosure

For select roles, some stages of our hiring process may use artificial intelligence tools to help evaluate applications and candidate selection. These tools support—rather than replace—human decision-making.