Data Governance Lead

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Data Governance Lead to shape and drive enterprise-wide data governance across a modern, Real Time data ecosystem. This role is ideal for a governance professional who can combine strategic leadership with a strong understanding of streaming architectures and Kafka-based data platforms.

Our client is undertaking a major data transformation programme, placing trusted, secure, and governed data at the heart of decision-making. Working closely with business and technology stakeholders, you will play a key role in establishing governance capabilities across event-driven and Real Time data environments.

Why join

• Lead data governance within a modern streaming and event-driven architecture.
• Influence enterprise-wide data strategy and operating models.
• Work with senior stakeholders across business and technology teams.
• Play a pivotal role in a large-scale data transformation programme.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of enterprise data governance frameworks and capabilities.
• Define and embed governance policies, standards, controls, and operating models across data products and platforms.
• Establish and oversee data ownership, stewardship, metadata management, lineage, and data quality processes.
• Drive governance adoption and accountability across business and technical stakeholders.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory, privacy, security, and internal governance requirements.
• Govern Real Time data products, event streams, and Kafka-based ecosystems throughout the data life cycle.
• Implement monitoring, reporting, and KPI frameworks to measure governance effectiveness and data quality.
• Champion best practices across both streaming and traditional data environments.

• Proven experience leading data governance initiatives within large-scale enterprise environments.
• Strong expertise in data governance frameworks, data quality management, metadata management, and data lineage.
• Experience defining governance operating models and driving organisational adoption.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence senior business and technology leaders.
• Hands-on experience governing data within streaming architectures and Apache Kafka ecosystems.
• Experience managing data ownership, stewardship, lineage, and quality controls across event-driven platforms.
• Strong understanding of data privacy, security, and compliance requirements.

Desirable Experience

• Experience with Confluent Kafka or similar enterprise streaming platforms.
• Knowledge of data catalogue and governance tools such as Collibra, Alation, Purview, or Informatica.
• Experience working within data mesh or data product operating models.
• Cloud platform experience across AWS, Azure, or GCP, ideally within regulated industries.

This is an excellent opportunity for a Data Governance Lead with experience in Real Time, event-driven environments who wants to influence strategy while remaining close to the technical realities of modern data platforms.