Senior Reference and Master Data Specialist

University of Fort Hare; Pretoria; On-site; ZAR 332,000 - 443,000; Full time

Job summary

University of Fort Hare seeks a Senior Reference and Master Data Specialist to establish and mature enterprise frameworks for MDM and RDM, improving data quality and governance across critical domains.

You will develop standards, manage data, build authoritative sources, and work with business and technology stakeholders on data rules, dictionaries, taxonomies and metadata to support analytics and decision-making. This is a long-term contractor role within a large enterprise environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Information Management, Information Systems or related field.
• Minimum 5–8 years’ experience in a data management environment.
• Strong practical experience in MDM and RDM within a large enterprise.
• Experience creating and implementing data governance frameworks and controls.
• Experience with data quality, metadata management, data catalogues, dictionaries and taxonomies.
• Ability to engage with business and technology stakeholders across the enterprise.

Responsibilities

• Define and document reference and master data requirements, business rules and metrics.
• Establish authoritative sources of trusted information for decision-making and operations.
• Define and manage master data relationships, hierarchies and structures for analytics.
• Develop and implement standards and procedures governing reference and master data.
• Create data matching and merging rules to maintain a single version of critical data.
• Build and maintain reference and master data environments for standardization.
• Maintain data taxonomies, catalogues and dictionaries.
• Manage metadata related to reference and master data.
• Monitor and report on data quality metrics and remediation actions.
• Develop and maintain data repositories across domains.
• Contribute to ongoing development of data standards, frameworks and SOPs.
• Implement data governance controls to support maintenance and management of reference and master data.
• Support delivery of data for EPM Cloud Solution Project.
• Foster stakeholder relationships to embed sound data management practices across the organisation.

Skills

MDM

RDM

Data governance

Metadata management

Data quality

Data catalogues

Data dictionaries

Data taxonomies

Stakeholder engagement

Enterprise data standards

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Information Management/Information Systems or equivalent

Job description

Senior Reference and Master Data Specialist

25 Sep 2026 - 2 Oct 2026

Contractor

JHB007341

Information Technology

Our client, a leading organisation within the financial services industry, is seeking an experienced Senior Reference and Master Data Management Specialist to join a strategic Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Cloud Solution Project on a long-term contract.

The successful candidate will be responsible for establishing, implementing and maturing the enterprise frameworks, standards, processes and procedures governing Master Data Management (MDM) and Reference Data Management (RDM). The role will focus on improving the quality, consistency and governance of critical enterprise data and establishing trusted, authoritative sources of information to support effective decision-making, operational efficiency and advanced analytics.

This opportunity will suit an experienced data management professional with strong expertise in master and reference data, data governance, metadata management and data quality within a complex enterprise environment.

Requirements

• A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in:
  • Computer Science;
  • Information Management;
  • Information Systems; or
  • an equivalent relevant qualification.
• A minimum of 5–8 years’ experience within a data management environment.
• Strong practical experience in Master Data Management (MDM) and Reference Data Management (RDM) within a large, complex enterprise environment.
• Ability to operate effectively within a large, complex enterprise environment and engage with both business and technology stakeholders.
• Experience developing and implementing data governance frameworks, standards, processes and controls.
• Practical experience with data quality, metadata management, data catalogues, data dictionaries and data taxonomies.
• Experience defining master data hierarchies, relationships, matching and merging rules would be advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Define and document reference and master data requirements, business rules, measurements and metrics across relevant data domains.
• Establish authoritative sources of trusted information to support effective decision-making and operational effectiveness.
• Define and manage master data relationships, hierarchies and structures to enable integrated entity views and support advanced analytics.
• Develop and implement standards, guidelines, processes and procedures governing reference and master data.
• Define and implement data matching and merging business rules to support the creation of a single, consistent version of critical enterprise data.
• Create, maintain, manage and integrate reference and master data environments to promote the standardisation and consistency of business information.
• Develop and maintain relevant data taxonomies, data catalogues and data dictionaries.
• Manage metadata relating to reference and master data within the defined scope.
• Monitor, measure and report on reference and master data quality metrics.
• Identify data quality issues, areas of non-conformance and appropriate remediation actions.
• Develop, manage and maintain reference data and master data repositories across relevant enterprise data domains.
• Contribute to the ongoing development and maturity of reference and master data standards, frameworks and standard operating procedures.
• Implement appropriate data governance controls to support the effective maintenance and management of reference and master data.
• Support the delivery of high-quality, trusted master and reference data required for the Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Cloud Solution Project.
• Build and maintain effective stakeholder relationships to promote and embed sound Reference and Master Data Management practices across the organisation.