Water Data Steward & Standards Lead

HDR; Minneapolis (MN); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

HDR is seeking a data steward leader embedded in the Water Business Group to define and enable use of Water data across projects. You will establish repeatable data practices, maintain a Water service line data glossary, and train staff as a go-to data steward within HDR’s employee‑owned culture.

You will lead adoption of data standards, align workflows with Water BG strategy, and collaborate with enterprise Data teams to ensure data quality and responsible use.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in architecture, engineering, data science, business, computer science, or related discipline (or equivalent related experience).
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in the Water engineering industry.
• Experience in development and management of diverse teams.
• Ability to work cooperatively with other leaders, operations managers, technical directors and marketing managers.
• Committed to quality, improvement, and HDR values.
• Active participation in HDR’s employee‑owned culture is a must.

Responsibilities

• Establish and coordinate a network of SME expertise across the Water Business Group to define technical standards, while ensuring alignment to Water data practices and enterprise expectations.
• Develop and maintain business-aligned data definitions for key engineering and technical terms that support structured data models, reporting, automation, and AI use cases.
• Use your technical network to build alignment and consensus around data processes, priority, and expected use.
• Promote consistent, responsible use of technical data, including access, data quality, best practice for format, and reuse.
• Support governance of externally sourced datasets (access, approvals, inventory awareness, storage, and lifecycle considerations).
• Promote data fluency across the Water Business Group.
• Coordinate with the Technology Director to align data workflows and initiatives to Water BG Strategy.
• Lead change management efforts to drive adoption of data standards, practices, and tools across the Water BG.
• Regularly communicate and collaborate with other Data Stewards, Enterprise Data Science Teams, and Enterprise Data Operations staff.
• Ensure new tools identified for implementation within the Water BG are aligned to data strategy.

Skills

Data governance

Leadership

Change management

Stakeholder alignment

Data stewardship

Education

Bachelor’s degree in architecture, engineering, data science, business, computer science, or related discipline

Job description

HDR is seeking a data steward leader embedded in the Water Business Group to define and enable use of Water data across projects. You will establish repeatable data practices, maintain a Water service line data glossary, and train staff as a go-to data steward within HDR’s employee‑owned culture.

You will lead adoption of data standards, align workflows with Water BG strategy, and collaborate with enterprise Data teams to ensure data quality and responsible use.