Lead Data Governance Architect

kapitus; Arlington (VA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Kapitus is seeking a high-impact, hands-on Lead Data Governance Architect to serve as the enterprise governance architect and primary practitioner for its Enterprise Data Governance program. This senior individual-contributor role balances enterprise framework design with practical execution.

The Lead will translate policy and data standards into operating practices across business and technology teams, establishing a governance foundation for trusted, well-understood data.

Qualifications

• Design and operationalize the enterprise data governance framework.
• Develop governance standards, procedures, decision rights, intake processes, escalation paths, and cadences.
• Translate governance policy and standards into measurable, repeatable practices embedded in data delivery, analytics, reporting, and business operations.

Responsibilities

• Architect and operationalize Kapitus's Enterprise Data Governance framework to support a practical, evidence-based, defensible, and audit-ready operating model.
• Develop and maintain governance standards, procedures, decision rights, intake processes, escalation paths, and operating cadences.
• Translate governance policy and standards into measurable, repeatable practices embedded in data delivery, analytics, reporting, and business operations.
• Establish governance reporting, decision records, issue tracking, exception processes, and evidence practices that support accountability and continuous improvement.
• Support governance alignment with applicable internal policy, risk, compliance, and regulatory expectations.
• Design and operationalize the enterprise data stewardship model for Business Data Owners, Business Data Stewards, and Technical Data Custodians.
• Define stewardship roles, responsibilities, accountabilities, and practical ways of working across priority business domains.
• Develop stewardship playbooks, guidance, training, and working sessions that enable Data Owners and Stewards to fulfill their governance responsibilities.
• Facilitate domain-level governance activities, including standards reviews, issue escalation, data-quality reviews, certification activities, and stewardship forums.
• Support the VP, Data Governance & BI in preparing materials and tracking outcomes for the Enterprise Data Governance Council and associated governance bodies.
• Lead the design and ongoing curation of the Enterprise Business Glossary in Atlan.
• Establish governance processes for business-term definition, review, approval, publication, and periodic maintenance.
• Support the identification, prioritization, ownership, and stewardship of Critical Data Elements across enterprise data domains.
• Define metadata, documentation, and lineage standards that create traceability from foundations to governed assets.

Skills

Data governance

Enterprise data architecture

Stakeholder collaboration

Policy translation

Audits/compliance

Tools

Atlan

Job description

Kapitus is seeking a high-impact, hands-on Lead Data Governance Architect to serve as the enterprise governance architect and primary practitioner for its Enterprise Data Governance program. Reporting to the VP, Data Governance & BI within the CDAO organization, this senior individual-contributor role is designed for a leader who balances enterprise framework design with practical execution. The role combines enterprise governance architecture, functional leadership, and hands-on operationalization.

The Lead Data Governance Architect will translate policy and data standards into adoptable operating practices across business and technology teams. This role will establish the governance foundation for trusted, well-understood, traceable, appropriately managed data. Will be responsible for stewardship, metadata, data quality, classification, retention, lineage, and governed analytical assets.

Working closely with Business Data Owners, Business Data Stewards, Technical Data Custodians, Data Engineering, Analytics Engineering, BI, Risk, Compliance, Legal, Information Security, and other partners, this role will help make governance a sustainable, shared organizational capability rather than a centralized bottleneck.

You will establish Kapitus's core operating framework for governing, documenting, managing, and building trust in data as a strategic enterprise asset, transforming Data Governance into measurable practices that promote accountability, transparency, defensibility, and accountable ownership across Business Data Owners, Business Data Stewards, and Technical Data Custodians.

Your work will support data modernization, BI, analytics, Finance, Risk, regulatory reporting, and responsible AI by ensuring enterprise data is reliable, understood, traceable, and appropriately managed, while helping shape the Enterprise Data Governance program's future capabilities in Data Quality, stewardship, lifecycle assurance, governance controls, and Model and AI Governance.

What You Will Do:

Governance Framework and Operating Model

• Architect and operationalize Kapitus's Enterprise Data Governance framework to support a practical, evidence-based, defensible, and audit-ready operating model.
• Develop and maintain governance standards, procedures, decision rights, intake processes, escalation paths, and operating cadences.
• Translate governance policy and standards into measurable, repeatable practices embedded in data delivery, analytics, reporting, and business operations.
• Establish governance reporting, decision records, issue tracking, exception processes, and evidence practices that support accountability and continuous improvement.
• Support governance alignment with applicable internal policy, risk, compliance, and regulatory expectations.

Stewardship and Domain Enablement

• Design and operationalize the enterprise data stewardship model for Business Data Owners, Business Data Stewards, and Technical Data Custodians.
• Define stewardship roles, responsibilities, accountabilities, and practical ways of working across priority business domains.
• Develop stewardship playbooks, guidance, training, and working sessions that enable Data Owners and Stewards to fulfill their governance responsibilities.
• Facilitate domain-level governance activities, including standards reviews, issue escalation, data-quality reviews, certification activities, and stewardship forums.
• Support the VP, Data Governance & BI in preparing materials and tracking outcomes for the Enterprise Data Governance Council and associated governance bodies.

Metadata, Glossary, Critical Data Elements, and Lineage

• Lead the design and ongoing curation of the Enterprise Business Glossary in Atlan.
• Establish governance processes for business-term definition, review, approval, publication, and periodic maintenance.
• Support the identification, prioritization, ownership, and stewardship of Critical Data Elements across enterprise data domains.
• Define metadata, documentation, and lineage standards that create traceability from foundat