Data Governance Lead

At CoBank, our Data Governance Lead participates in the prioritization and facilitation of various data governance competencies including enterprise master & reference data, metadata management, data quality management, and data sponsorship and stewardship. With other Data Governance team members, they are responsible for proactive execution of CoBank’s master and reference data which will include enterprise master data domains such as party, product, accounts, agreements and their respective sub-domains. As well as enterprise reference data including industry, geography, and pricing to name a few. The Data Governance Lead enhances the bank’s strategic, data-driven decision making through the enablement of data as an enterprise asset. Partners with technology and business leaders across the enterprise, internally and externally, to deliver quality enterprise data assets enabling bank-wide business plans and strategies while ensuring regulatory compliance and effective risk management. With the leadership team, works to develop, implement the bank’s evolving data governance, data quality, stewardship capabilities, and expertise in master and reference domain data management. Implements capabilities to achieve objectives including establishing, accessing, fostering, improving adherence to, and maturing data policies, standards and practices. Acts as a champion of data governance, data quality and stewardship adoption throughout the enterprise under the direction of the Data Governance and greater EIM leadership. With the assistance of Data Governance leadership, provides oversight, drive and mediation for enterprise-wide data domain governance related activities. Works in close collaboration with a team of data governance and data management professionals in the delivery of value-added solutions and the implementation of best practices.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Responsible for seeking and collecting business requirements, associated rules, and workflows that impact or are impacted by the use of the master & reference data, metadata, data quality, and data stewardship are being worked.
• Guide data stewards on Enterprise Master and Reference data best practices for executing Master and Reference Data strategy as well as support metadata management and data quality management.
• Partner and facilitate cross-functionally to support the creation, maintenance, and harmonization of master data.
• Consult with Data Capabilities team for MDM configuration and development at an enterprise level.
• Advise and implement robust business processes to manage complete lifecycle of Master and Reference Data.
• Implement the roadmap and operational framework for Enterprise Master & Reference Data Management and Governance in partnership with key stakeholders within EIM and through Data Stewardship and Sponsorship networks.
• Share expertise with product and project teams to ensure Enterprise Master & Reference Data enabling solutions (MDM), metadata solutions (Axon), and data quality solutions (IDQ and EDC) are designed and developed following best practices for data management.
• Participate in review of software development requests to understand potential impact to Data Governance competencies.
• Responsible for final approval of the collaborative data definition and usage in the context of the master or reference data domains.
• Responsible for testing the capabilities against business requirements and associated rules.
• Responsible for validation review and signoff of data conversion.
• Responsible for User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and approving the implemented solution.
• Responsible for working in partnership with Data Architect(s) and Data Capabilities team to provide subject matter advise in support of solution design for optimal integration with existing business processes.
• Responsible for providing inputs on training materials to Data Stewards and EIM associates.
• Provide awareness and facilitation of Data Governance competencies education to the Stewardship Network and respective Working Groups as needed.
• Provide routine updates of progress for the Data Governance roadmap to EIM leadership and Data Sponsors.
• Fosters the adoption of common terminology, language and perspectives for data management.
• Participates in data governance steering committees meetings as requested.
• Contributes to the on-going implementation of the Data Management Framework and Data Capabilities across the enterprise, and participates in the delivery of expert information governance, data management and security guidance across the stakeholder community.
• Participates in change management activities required to enable data governance and process data quality issues.
• This role will continuously self-reflect, evolve, and mature alongside the Data Governance maturity itself; and, as new Data Capabilities are activated the associated responsibilities will be added and reflected based on the format laid out above.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Data Science, or a related field.
• Six (6) or more years of business, data governance, data management, or related experience, preferably in the financial services industry, with at least two (2) years of master and reference data management experience; or an appropriate combination of education and experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s/advanced degree in information technology or related field strongly preferred.
• Experience in the financial services, lending/leasing business, agribusiness, communications, energy, international and/or cooperatives, with a basic knowledge of banking and lending terminology preferred.
• Proficient in data governance and data management policies, standards, and procedures.
• Knowledge of data privacy and data protection best practices.
• Proven track record of implementing and/or leading aspects of data governance. Demonstrated ability to secure support and engagement from internal and external stake-holders, management, and business partners, and work with cross-functional team members to support business processes and system solutions to data management. Client facing experience preferred.
• Proficient in authoring, editing and presenting technical/business documents.
• Demonstrated analytical and problem solving skills. Capable of assessing business processes and scenarios and developing flexible and appropriate technical approaches to support business strategies and goals.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills. Able to manage and schedule workload and projects in order to navigate peaks and prioritize multiple competing commitments in coordination with the Data Governance team and leadership. Skilled at managing short-term objectives to meet long-term goals.
• Excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills. Able to lead teams, work collaboratively and build and maintain effective working relationships with all levels of associates, management and executive leadership across the bank.
• Excellent verbal, written and presentation skills, including the ability to understand and translate abstract concepts and ideas, and communicate in both a business and technical context to non-technical audiences at all levels of the organization.
• Ability to work independently with minimal guidance, as well as collaboratively in a team environment.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office applications (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel).
• Experience with Informatica data management tools preferred but not required (MDM, Axon, IDQ, EDC, etc.).