Master & Reference Data Governance Lead

Nedbank; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 1,000,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Nedbank seeks a Manager: Master & Reference Data Management to lead MRDM across Group Finance and Group HR. You will establish a trusted single source of truth for critical data domains and govern definitions, ownership, and lifecycle across business processes.

The role focuses on governance, quality, and regulatory readiness, collaborating with data owners and technology teams to drive data quality improvements, reporting integrity, and data-driven decision making.

Qualifications

• 7–10 years' experience in Data Management, Data Governance, Master Data Management or related disciplines.
• Proven experience implementing and managing data governance or Master and Reference Data Management frameworks.
• Strong stakeholder engagement, influencing and relationship management skills.
• Experience within financial services, banking or other regulated industries will be advantageous.
• Exposure to Finance, Regulatory Reporting, Risk or Human Resources data domains is desirable.
• Experience working with SAP, data integration, cloud platforms, reporting and analytics environments will be advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Lead the implementation and continuous improvement of the Master and Reference Data Management capability.
• Establish and maintain enterprise standards, policies, frameworks and controls for master and reference data.
• Define and govern data domains, business rules, ownership models, stewardship structures and accountability requirements.
• Drive the adoption of consistent data definitions and standards across Finance and HR.
• Facilitate governance forums responsible for data approvals, policy decisions and issue escalation.
• Promote and maintain a single source of truth for critical enterprise data assets.
• Manage the end-to-end lifecycle of master and reference data, including creation, validation, approval, publication, maintenance and retirement.
• Ensure effective change control, governance and approval processes are embedded across business and technology teams.
• Drive continuous improvement of lifecycle management practices and controls.
• Design and implement controls that improve the quality, integrity and reliability of master and reference data.
• Monitor data quality metrics, trends and exceptions.
• Lead root cause analysis and remediation activities for data-related issues.
• Partner with Governance, Data Quality and System Risk teams to strengthen enterprise data controls.
• Act as a trusted advisor on Master and Reference Data Management practices.
• Collaborate with Data Owners, Data Stewards, Business Data Managers and Technology teams.
• Influence decision-making through expert guidance on data standards, ownership, quality and lifecycle controls.
• Support strategic initiatives, business change programmes and regulatory projects requiring MRDM expertise.
• Ensure critical master and reference data is supported by appropriate business definitions, metadata and lineage.
• Partner with Metadata Management teams to improve traceability, transparency and regulatory readiness.
• Support data discoverability and business understanding through effective metadata management practices.
• Identify opportunities to automate and optimise data management processes.
• Promote the use of data management technologies, workflow automation and reporting automation.
• Leverage technology, scripting and modern data management practices to improve efficiency, control effectiveness and data quality outcomes.
• Support innovation initiatives that enhance Data Management Office capabilities and maturity.

Skills

MRDM

Data governance

Data quality management

Metadata management

Data ownership & stewardship

Data lifecycle management

DAMA Data Management Framework

Data standards & controls

Reporting & analytics

Stakeholder management

Tools

SAP

Data integration

Cloud platforms

SQL

Python

APIs

Job description

Nedbank seeks a Manager: Master & Reference Data Management to lead MRDM across Group Finance and Group HR. You will establish a trusted single source of truth for critical data domains and govern definitions, ownership, and lifecycle across business processes.

The role focuses on governance, quality, and regulatory readiness, collaborating with data owners and technology teams to drive data quality improvements, reporting integrity, and data-driven decision making.