Strategic 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. 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.