Lead, Data Governance

Portage Ventures GP Inc.

United States

Remote

USD 140,000 - 180,000

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Stock options

New hire home-office setup: USD 500

Monthly stipend: USD 150

Job summary

Alpaca is seeking an experienced Lead, Data Governance to design and operate our data governance and security program across our lakehouse and analytics stack. You will define data classification, access controls, and ownership, partnering with Data Engineering and Data Science to implement practical standards.

In a fully remote team, you will drive compliance with SOC 2, ISO 27001, and related regulatory requirements while enabling innovative analytics and AI use cases.

Qualifications

5+ years in data governance, data security, GRC, privacy engineering, or related field.
At least 2 years working with modern data platforms (lakehouse/warehouse, SQL engines, BI, semantic layers).
Solid grasp of data governance frameworks (DAMA-DMBOK, NIST, or similar).
Experience building or running data classification, access control, or entitlement review programs.
Familiar with cloud data platforms (GCP a plus) and analytics tooling.
Knowledge of privacy and regulatory requirements in financial services (GDPR, CCPA, cross-border transfers).
Experience supporting SOC 2, ISO 27001, or similar audits.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain data governance policies, classification standards, ownership model, and exception process.
Own data access governance for lakehouse and analytics stack, including entitlement standards and reviews.
Collaborate with Data Engineering on controls like Ranger policies and schema restrictions.
Set data quality standards and help data teams track and improve them.
Keep data inventory, metadata, and lineage documentation current for compliance and audits.
Review data-related vendors and new use cases with Security, Privacy, and Legal.
Support cross-border data requests, including PII handling and regional data flows.

Skills

Data governance

Data security

GRC knowledge

Privacy engineering

Cross-region data handling

Strong communication

Remote work

Tools

Trino

Apache Ranger

dbt

Cube

Metabase

Airflow

Iceberg

Job description

Who We Are:

Alpaca is a US-headquartered, global leader in agent-first brokerage infrastructure for stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, fixed income, 24/5 trading, and more.

Amongst our subsidiaries, Alpaca is a licensed financial services company, serving hundreds of financial institutions across 40 countries with our institutional-grade APIs. This includes broker-dealers, investment advisors, wealth managers, hedge funds, and crypto exchanges, totalling over 10 million brokerage accounts.

Our global team is a diverse group of experienced engineers, traders, and brokerage professionals who are working to achieve our mission of opening financial services to everyone on the planet. We're deeply committed to open-source contributions and fostering a vibrant community, continuously enhancing our award-winning, developer-friendly API and the robust infrastructure behind it.

Alpaca is proudly backed by $400 million in funding from top-tier global investors including Portage Ventures, Spark Capital, Tribe Capital, Social Leverage, Horizons Ventures, Opera Tech Ventures, SBI Group, Derayah Financial, Unbound, Peak XV, Elefund, and Y Combinator.

Our Team Members:

We're a dynamic team of 400+ globally distributed members who thrive working from our favorite places around the world, with teammates spanning the USA, Canada, Japan, Hungary, Nigeria, Brazil, the UK, and beyond!

We're searching for passionate individuals eager to contribute to Alpaca's rapid growth. If you align with our core values—Stay Curious, Have Empathy, and Be Accountable—and are ready to make a significant impact, we encourage you to apply.

Your Role:

As Lead, Data Governance, you will help build and run Alpaca's data governance and data security program across our lakehouse, analytics tools, and internal data products. You'll set the standards for how we classify data, who can access it, and how we protect it, working closely with Data Engineering and Data Science to put those standards into practice.

Our data environment has grown quickly. We run several data solutions, and we handle more cross-region data every year across the US, Japan, EU, and other markets. We are also evaluating new analytics and AI tools on a regular basis. Access controls have not always kept pace, and we need someone who can help us catch up and stay ahead of partner and regulatory expectations.

The team is fully remote. This is an individual contributor role with no direct reports. You'll report to our Chief Information & Security Officer (CISO) and work closely with Data Engineering and Data Science through a dotted-line relationship.

Things You Get To Do

Build and maintain our data governance policies, classification standards, ownership model, and exception process, in line with Security and Privacy requirements
Own data access governance for the lakehouse and analytics stack, including entitlement standards, periodic access reviews, and least-privilege access across Trino, Ranger, Cube, Metabase, and related tools
Work with Data Engineering on the technical side of controls such as Ranger policies, schema restrictions, and service account management
Set data quality standards and help Data teams track and improve against them
Keep our data inventory, metadata, and lineage documentation current for compliance and audit purposes
Review data-related vendors and new use cases (analytics platforms, reverse ETL, AI query tools, notebooks, and similar) with Security, Privacy, and Legal
Support sensitive and cross-border data requests, including PII handling and regional data flows for Engineering, Operations, and New Markets
Prepare evidence for SOC 2, ISO 27001, CSA STAR, partner security reviews, and regulatory exams
Track data risks and control gaps as part of our Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program
Be the go-to governance partner for Data and Security on access, classification, and tooling questions
Help define guardrails as we expand AI and agentic use of corporate data in analytics workflows

Who You Are (Must-Haves)

5+ years in data governance, data security, GRC, privacy engineering, or a related field
At least 2 years working with modern data platforms (lakehouse/warehouse, SQL engines, BI, semantic layers)
Solid grasp of data governance frameworks (DAMA-DMBOK, NIST, or similar) and how to apply them in a company that moves quickly
You've built or run data classification, access control, or entitlement review programs, not just written the policies
Familiar with cloud data platforms (GCP a plus) and typical analytics tooling
Working knowledge of privacy and regulatory requirements in financial services (GDPR, CCPA, cross-border transfers, and similar)
Experience supporting SOC 2, ISO 27001, or similar audits
You work well with engineering teams and know how to push for good controls without becoming a bottleneck
Strong written and verbal communication skills
Organized, detail-oriented, and comfortable in a fast-paced remote environment
Comfortable as an IC with no direct reports

Who You Might Be (Nice-to-Haves)

Fintech, brokerage, or regulated financial services background
Hands-on experience with Trino, Apache Ranger, dbt, Cube, Metabase, Airflow, or Iceberg
Experience reviewing AI/ML and analytics tools
Privacy program or vendor/DPA review experience
CIPT, CIPM, CISM, CISSP, CDMP, CRISC, or similar certifications
You've been the first governance hire at a growing company before
Experience with Japan or EU data residency and cross-border data issues
Exposure to ERM or operational risk
Remote or distributed team experience

How We Take Care of You: