Hands-On Data Platform Governance Lead

AHEAD; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

AHEAD is seeking a Data Governance Lead to build and run the governance capability of the Data Platform Team—hands-on, not merely policy. You will implement standards, catalog data, wire lineage, and embed controls in every data product prior to publication.

You will lead governance efforts across domains, collaborate with security and architecture, and scale a small governance function as the platform matures. Strong engineering alignment is essential.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in data governance or related roles with hands-on delivery.
• Proven leadership experience across cross-functional teams.
• Ability to implement governance in engineering sprints.

Responsibilities

• Platform governance execution - define and build: build enterprise data catalog, enforce metadata standards, ensure documentation.
• Implement automated lineage capture across ingestion pipelines and data products.
• Write and maintain data quality rules within pipeline layers and configure remediation workflows.
• Configure Snowflake governance controls including RBAC and access policies.
• Build access request workflows for domain connections with self-service discovery.
• Define event contract governance and schema standards for domain events.
• Create governance dashboards and metrics for stewardship, quality, lineage, and policy adoption.
• Standards, operating model, and policy: own governance strategy, operating model, and policy execution.

Skills

Data governance

Leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Platform delivery

Engineering practice

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Tools

Snowflake governance

Data catalogs

Lineage tooling

Job description

AHEAD is seeking a Data Governance Lead to build and run the governance capability of the Data Platform Team—hands-on, not merely policy. You will implement standards, catalog data, wire lineage, and embed controls in every data product prior to publication.

You will lead governance efforts across domains, collaborate with security and architecture, and scale a small governance function as the platform matures. Strong engineering alignment is essential.