Data Governance Program Lead (T1)

CAS; Columbus (OH); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Medical, dental, vision insurance

Retirement plans

Job summary

CAS, the scientific information solutions division of the American Chemical Society, seeks a Business Data Governance Program Lead to drive the data governance agenda from Columbus, Ohio. You will lead governance across data domains, build a steward network, and partner with engineers to ensure metadata and catalog workflows align with business priorities.

Ideal candidates have at least 8+ years in data governance, strong stakeholder influence, and experience with Snowflake and data catalogs

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a quantitative field or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years in data management, governance, or related roles.
• Experience delivering enterprise data governance components (steward network, data quality, catalog workflows).
• Working knowledge of an enterprise data catalog platform (Collibra or Atlan preferred).
• Ability to influence stakeholders and collaborate with data engineers, architects, and governance teams.

Responsibilities

• Drive the execution roadmap for data governance across business data domains and report KPIs to the executive steering committee.
• Translate executive alignment into operational momentum and ensure governance is reflected in business processes.
• Design, launch, and run a standing Data Steward Council with defined cadence and accountability.
• Maintain data catalog governance rules and steward workflows across platform transitions.
• Contribute to semantic model design and ensure it is consumable by self-service tools and AI applications.
• Support data fluency programs and community activities to measure adoption and impact.

Skills

Data governance

Stakeholder management

Data modeling

Cloud data platforms

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science / Information Systems / Data Management

CDMP Practitioner or equivalent certification

Tools

Collibra

Atlan

Snowflake

Job description

CAS uses intuitive technology, unparalleled scientific content and unmatched human expertise to help companies create groundbreaking innovations that benefit the world. As the scientific information solutions division of the American Chemical Society, CAS manages the largest curated reservoir of scientific knowledge, and for 111 years, has helped innovators mine, assess and apply that information to keep businesses thriving. The CAS team is global, diverse, endlessly curious and strives to make scientific insights accessible to innovators worldwide.

CAS is currently seeking a Business Data Governance Program Lead. This position will be located in our headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.

Key Responsibilities

Governance Program Leadership

• Drive the execution roadmap for data governance across business data domains, prioritizing sequence based on business value creation, and reporting KPIs (to be defined) to the executive steering committee in business terms.
• Translate executive alignment into operational momentum; this role is responsible for making sure it shows up in how the business works with data.
• Assess governance maturity across business data domains; identify gaps in stewardship coverage, data quality rules, and metadata completeness.
• Work with domain stewards to extend governance practices upstream from Snowflake consumption layers toward source systems and pipelines.

Cross-Functional Influence & Stakeholder Engagement

• Operate as a peer to business stakeholders, using steering committee alignment to drive execution and build trust with those who have seen governance stall in the past.
• Present project status, findings, and technical recommendations to the steering committee as requested.
• Demonstrated ability to sequence quick wins ahead of long-cycle structural fixes in ambiguous, low-authority environments.
• Prioritizes ruthlessly: picks the quick win that proves value over the comprehensive fix that takes six months and produces nothing visible.

Data Steward Council

• Design, launch, and run a standing Data Steward Council with structured meeting cadence, decision rights, escalation paths, and action tracking.
• Evaluate the current cohort of named stewards; identify capability or engagement opportunities.
• Build a capable steward network through enablement materials, playbooks, and onboarding guides so stewards can operate independently within defined accountability.
• Coach stewards on data quality remediation, metadata ownership, and issue escalation - not just governance theory.

Data Catalog Stewardship

• Serve as an operational owner to the data catalog as the metadata and governance platform of record, embedding it into workflows across business data domains.
• Maintain catalog continuity - governance rules, steward workflows, domain coverage, and data quality configurations - through any platform transition.
• Partner with data engineers to support automated metadata ingestion from Snowflake and, where applicable, upstream source systems.

Semantic Model Design & Development

• Contribute to the design and extension of a business semantic model providing consistent, trusted definitions for key metrics, entities, and relationships across business data domains.
• Build on existing semantic layer components; extend rather than rebuild.
• Coordinate with engineers, data modelers, and platform architects to ensure semantic model contributions are technically grounded and consumable by self-service tools and AI applications.
• Design and recommend governance processes for semantic model change management - version control, approval workflows, impact assessment.

Data Fluency & Community

• Support and evolve the existing Data Fluency curriculum into an ongoing community capability.
• Contribute to community-building activities: office hours, practitioner spotlights, and domain-specific workshops.
• Track adoption and competency measures; use findings to inform content adjustments.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Management, or a related quantitative field, or equivalent experience.
• 8 years or more of experience in data management, data governance, or related data platform roles.
• Experience delivering components of an enterprise data governance program - including steward network support, data quality frameworks, and catalog workflows.
• Working knowledge of an enterprise data catalog platform (Collibra or Atlan preferred).
• Demonstrated ability to build and sustain collaborative working relationships with business stakeholders; competent in influencing without formal authority.
• Collaborate with the scientific Data Governance team
• Solid understanding of data modeling concepts; able to engage credibly with data engineers and architects.
• Experience with cloud data platforms (Snowflake or equivalent).
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to translate technical governance concepts for varied audiences.

Preferred

• CDMP Practitioner or higher (or equivalent DAMA-aligned certification such as DGSP).
• Experience building a data governance program that delivers business impact.
• Experience supporting data literacy or data fluency programs.
• Background in scientific, publishing, or information-intensive industries a plus.
• Exposure to AI governance considerations and prompt-to-data traceability a differentiator.

CAS offers a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package, including a generous vacation plan, medical, dental, vision insurance plans, and employee savings and retirement plans. Candidates for this position must be authorized to work in the United States and not require work authorization sponsorship by our company for this position now or in the future. EEO/Minority/Female/Disabled/Veteran