Data Governance Specialist

Advance Local; Grand Rapids (MI); Hybrid; USD 115,000 - 135,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay

Comprehensive benefits package

Paid time off

401(k) plan

Job summary

Advance Local is seeking a Data Governance Specialist - Technology to advance its Governance, Risk, and Compliance program. Based in New Jersey with remote work options, you will partner with business teams to define governance standards, manage data classification, metadata, and lineage, and ensure privacy compliance across environments.

You will lead DPIAs as needed, generate governance dashboards, and collaborate with Cyber, Infrastructure Security, and Data Engineering to align policy with

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field.
• 3–5 years’ experience in GRC, data governance, or related role.
• Experience leading cross-discipline projects and stakeholder management.
• Proficiency in SQL and data analysis/reporting tools.
• Understanding of online privacy issues and data governance challenges.

Responsibilities

• Define, document, and maintain data governance procedures with actionable controls.
• Coordinate data classification, metadata, and lineage across assets with engineering collaboration.
• Enforce standards for PII handling and data retention across environments.
• Provide training to data owners and stewards on governance best practices.
• Conduct Risk Assessments and Data Protection Impact Assessments as required.

Skills

GRC

Data governance

Stakeholder management

SQL

Data analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or related

Tools

SQL

Metadata management tools

Content classification tools

Job description

Strengthening and empowering all of the communities we serve.

Data Governance Specialist - Technology

Based in Jersey City, NJ, this position is primarily remote but requires some in-office attendance.

The Data Governance Specialist is a key contributor to the organization’s Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) strategy, ensuring robust data governance, risk management, and regulatory compliance across all data assets. As part of the technology team, this role supports the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of data governance frameworks, risk controls, and compliance monitoring processes to safeguard sensitive information, enhance data quality, and ensure alignment with internal policies and external regulations. This role is essential in enabling data-driven decision-making as well as building and enforcing data governance standards. This role reports to the Director of Risk, Compliance & Support.

The base salary range is $115,000 to $135,000 per year.

What you’ll be doing:

• Partner with business teams to define, document, and maintain data governance and quality procedures, translating standards into actionable controls and creating new standards where needed.
• Will drive and coordinate data classification, dictionaries, metadata, and lineage documentation across all data assets to support discoverability, audit readiness, and risk mitigation. Partner with engineering on lineage tooling and keep documentation current as the environment evolves.
• Define and enforce standards for PII handling and data retention across production, staging, and test environments, ensuring privacy obligations are met consistently, and data is retained only as long as required.
• Provide training and guidance to business stakeholders, data owners, and data stewards on data governance best practices.
• Manage the effort to conduct and maintain Risk Assessments and Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) as required by comprehensive online privacy legislation.
• Generate reports and dashboards to track governance performance, data quality, risk indicators, and compliance metrics.
• Collaborate with Advance Cyber, Infrastructure Security, Data Engineering, and Enterprise Services toestablish guidelines for user access, platform roles, table creation, integration connection, data exports, and AI/ML access based on data privacy considerations.
• Support data quality initiatives including profiling, monitoring, and remediation across revenue and audience data.
• In partnership with data owners and engineering, conduct systematic analysis of data assets to identify integrity issues, investigate root causes, and drive remediation.
• Serve as the policy-layer owner for all data platforms, covering access patterns, data sharing, integration connections, and export controls, and partner with data engineering to ensure governance requirements are built into pipelines and models, not applied after the fact.
• Ensure adherence to data privacy regulations such as CCPA and other U.S. state laws.
• Liaise with Infrastructure, legal, and business teams to resolve governance issues.
• Support data risk assessments and contribute to compliance audits.
• Operate escalation procedures in the event of an incident.
• Participate in monitoring, triaging, and resolving infrastructure security issues to ensure the stability and security of the company’s infrastructure.
• Track governance performance, data quality metrics, and risk indicators, and partner with the broader engineering organization to ensure governance policy and infrastructure security are aligned; surface findings to data leadership.
• Develop and maintain scripts for automation to streamline processes and improve efficiency.

To be considered for this role, you should have:

• Bachelor's degree, preferably in computer science or related field
• 3 to 5 years’ experience in GRC, data governance, data management, or a related role
• Experience leading and coordinating cross-discipline project teams
• Excellent oral and written communication and stakeholder management skills
• Proficiency in SQL and experience with data analysis and reporting tools
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities
• Understanding of online privacy issues and challenges
• Knowledge of media industry and digital audience analytics is a plus
• Experience with metadata management and content classification tools is a plus

General office environment. Extensive computer use required.

Additional Information

Advance Local Media offers competitive pay and a comprehensive benefits package with affordable options for your healthcare including medical, dental and vision plans, mental health support options, flexible spending accounts, fertility assistance, a competitive 401(k) plan to help plan for your future, generous paid time off, paid parental and caregiver leave and an employee assistance program to support your work/life balance, optional legal assistance, life insurance options, as well as flexible holidays to honor cultural diversity.

Advance Local Media is one of the largest media groups in the United States, which operates the leading news and information companies in more than 20 cities, reaching 52+ million people monthly with our quality, real-time journalism and community engagement. Our company is built upon the values of Integrity, Customer-first, Inclusiveness, Collaboration and Forward-looking. For more information about Advance Local, please visit "www.advancelocal.com" .

Advance Local Media includes MLive Media Group, Advance Ohio, Alabama Media Group, NJ Advance Media, Advance Media NY, MassLive Media, Oregonian Media Group, Staten Island Media Group, PA Media Group, ZeroSum, Headline Group, Adpearance, Advance Aviation, Advance Healthcare, Advance Education, Advance Originals, Advance Recruitment, Advance Travel & Tourism, BookingsCloud, Catalyst IQ, Cloud Theory, Fox Dealer, Hoot Interactive, Search Optics, Subtext.

Advance Local Media is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, encouraging applications from people of all backgrounds. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, genetic information, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, or any other category protected under federal, state or local law.

If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please contact Human Resources and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.

Advance Local Media does not provide sponsorship for work visas or employment authorization in the United States. Only candidates who are legally authorized to work in the U.S. will be considered for this position.