Lead Data Governance Engineer

Elantis; Oakland (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Elantis is seeking an experienced Data Governance Engineer to lead enterprise data discovery, classification, and lifecycle management initiatives. The role emphasizes hands-on implementation across environments, with strong focus on governance, protection, and compliance.

The candidate will drive architecture, POCs, and operationalization, integrating governance with security and privacy programs. Prior experience with Collibra, Alation, or Informatica is preferred.

Qualifications

• Experience leading enterprise data discovery and classification initiatives.
• Hands-on experience implementing data lifecycle management capabilities.
• Strong governance platform experience with Collibra, Alation, or Informatica.
• Proven ability to translate governance requirements into technical solutions.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise-wide data discovery and classification initiatives across structured and unstructured data.
• Define enterprise data classification taxonomies, labels, and tagging standards.
• Own end-to-end implementation of data lifecycle management capabilities.
• Define retention, archival, and deletion strategies with automated workflows.
• Design and operationalize enterprise data governance frameworks.

Skills

Data Discovery

Data Classification

Data Lifecycle Management

Data Governance

DLP

Collibra

Alation

Informatica

Stakeholder mgmt

Enterprise data environments

Tools

Collibra

Alation

Informatica

Job description

Duration: 12+ months contract with extension

Location: Oakland, CA (Once a week onsite)

Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced Data Governance Engineer with strong hands-on expertise in Enterprise Data Discovery, Data Classification, and Data Lifecycle Management.

The ideal candidate will have personally led and delivered enterprise-wide initiatives from strategy and requirements gathering through tool evaluation, POC, architecture, design, implementation, and operationalization.

This role requires someone who can drive technical implementation rather than primarily provide governance advisory, policy development, or compliance support.

The candidate should have experience discovering and classifying both structured and unstructured enterprise data, implementing lifecycle management capabilities, and establishing governance frameworks. Knowledge of Data Protection and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is also important.

Key Responsibilities

1. Data Discovery & Classification - Must Have

• Lead enterprise-wide data discovery and classification initiatives across structured and unstructured data.
• Implement automated data discovery, scanning, identification, and classification capabilities across enterprise environments.
• Identify sensitive, confidential, regulated, and business-critical data across databases, file systems, cloud storage, data lakes, and enterprise applications.
• Define and implement enterprise data classification taxonomies, labels, and tagging standards.
• Lead tool evaluation, vendor selection, POCs, architecture, design, and implementation of data discovery and classification solutions.
• Integrate discovery and classification capabilities with enterprise data governance, security, and compliance platforms.
• Establish automated workflows for continuous discovery, classification, and monitoring.

2. Data Lifecycle Management - Must Have

• Own end-to-end implementation of enterprise Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) capabilities.
• Define and implement data retention, archival, disposition, purge, and deletion strategies.
• Establish data minimization practices to reduce unnecessary data storage and exposure.
• Develop lifecycle policies based on regulatory, legal, business, and operational requirements.
• Lead requirements gathering, solution evaluation, POC, architecture, design, implementation, and operationalization.
• Implement automated retention and deletion workflows across structured and unstructured data repositories.
• Ensure lifecycle controls are integrated with enterprise data discovery, classification, governance, and security frameworks.
• Establish monitoring, reporting, and audit mechanisms to demonstrate lifecycle compliance.

3. Data Governance - Strong Experience Required

• Design, implement, and operationalize enterprise data governance frameworks.
• Define data ownership, stewardship, accountability, standards, policies, and procedures.
• Establish data catalogs, business glossaries, metadata management, and data lineage capabilities.
• Implement data quality, metadata, and governance workflows.
• Work with business, IT, security, legal, and compliance stakeholders to translate governance requirements into technical solutions.
• Implement and manage governance platforms such as Collibra, Alation, Informatica, or equivalent.
• Ensure governance standards are integrated into discovery, classification, and lifecycle management processes.

4. Data Protection & Data Loss Prevention (DLP) - Good to Have

• Understand how data discovery and classification support enterprise data protection and DLP strategies.
• Work with security teams to implement data protection controls based on data sensitivity and classification.
• Support DLP policies and controls across endpoints, networks, cloud environments, email, and enterprise applications.
• Understand data encryption, access controls, masking, tokenization, and sensitive data protection.
• Integrate classification and governance capabilities with security and compliance solutions.
• Experience with DLP implementation tools such as Microsoft Purview, Symantec DLP, Forcepoint, or equivalent is preferred.

Required Qualifications

• 8-12+ years of experience in Data Governance, Data Management, Data Security, or related areas.
• Proven experience leading enterprise Data Discovery & Classification initiatives.
• Strong hands-on experience implementing Data Lifecycle Management capabilities.
• Demonstrated ownership of projects from strategy through operationalization.
• Experience evaluating tools, conducting POCs, defining solution architecture, and driving implementations.
• Strong understanding of enterprise data environments, including structured and unstructured data.
• Experience with governance platforms such as Collibra, Alation, or Informatica.
• Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration skills.