Overview
The Senior Data Governance Officer is responsible for developing, implementing, and enforcing organizational data governance frameworks, policies, and standards to ensure secure, ethical, and compliant data management.
Key Responsibilities
- Design and implement comprehensive organizational data governance framework, including policies, standards and compliance requirements.
- Develop governance roadmaps outlining phased implementation of policies, standards, and controls.
- Establish governance scope, identifying critical data assets, stakeholder roles, and organizational priorities.
- Create and maintain governance policies covering data classification, ownership, stewardship, quality, security, access, and lifecycle management.
- Develop governance principles reflecting IFRC's humanitarian values.
- Develop classification standards and guidance for categorizing data based on sensitivity, criticality, and relevant requirements.
- Design and implement sensitivity labeling strategies using Microsoft Information Protection and related tools.
- Create clear labeling guidelines that are easily understood across the organization.
- Support the Data Protection Office with implementation of IFRC’s Policy on the Protection of Personal Data.
- Support Data Protection Officer (DPO) with governance policy input, and compliance documentation.
- Support Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) processes for new data initiatives.
- Draft incident response and data breach protocols in coordination with the DPO and CISO.
- Establish, assign and document organizational data governance structure with clear role definitions.
- Support in the development of organizational approach to distribute Data, Analytics and AI capabilities and roles.
- Provide steward training and onboarding covering governance policies, data quality management, compliance, and communication expectations.
- Establish governance committees and forums to facilitate coordination and decision-making.
- Monitor role performance and accountability.
- Define organizational data quality standards and dimensions.
- Establish and automate data quality metrics, rules and validation checks.
- Develop data quality assessment and monitoring protocols.
- Establish data quality governance processes.
- Monitor data quality metrics, reporting on trends and issues.
- Oversee the development and maintenance of enterprise data asset inventory.
- Establish standards for data asset documentation.
- Implement and maintain Microsoft Purview data catalog systems.
- Coordinate cataloging activities across the organization.
- Monitor catalog usage and provide training.
- Develop guidelines for secure information sharing.
- Build and maintain tools and automation to monitor and audit access patterns.
- Support implementation of technical security and privacy controls.
- Coordinate with cybersecurity teams on access controls.
- Create and implement data governance policies addressing data collection, processing, storage, access, sharing, retention, and deletion.
- Develop policies specific to sensitive data categories.
- Monitor policy compliance, investigating deviations and implementing corrective actions.
- Maintain policy library and version control.
- Develop stakeholder communication strategy for data governance initiatives.
- Deliver data governance training to staff, data stewards, and leadership.
- Provide guidance to business units and technical teams on governance policy interpretation and application.
- Configure governance settings in Microsoft Purview.
- Establish data catalog taxonomies and governance domain structures.
- Define and enforce data quality policies within Microsoft Fabric and other data systems.
- Develop automated collection of data lineage and utilize data lineage for impact analysis.
- Ensure sensitivity labels are applied consistently across Fabric workspaces, Power BI, and other data systems.
- Manage governance workflows including data product registration and access request approvals.
Required Experience
- 5+ years of professional experience developing and implementing data governance frameworks, policies, or standards in enterprise environments
- Experience establishing data governance in organizations with complex data environments or regulatory requirements
- Experience working in at least one regulated industry sector (healthcare, finance, international development), humanitarian organizations preferred
- Experience with diverse stakeholder management including executives, technical teams, and business units
- Familiarity with data classification, sensitivity labeling, and access control concepts
- Knowledge of data quality dimensions, metrics, and assessment approaches
- Familiarity with Microsoft Purview, data catalog, and governance tooling
Qualifications
- Required: Degree in computer science, software engineering, data science, statistics, mathematics, or related field
- Preferred: Certifications in data governance and data stewardship, Project Management Professional (PMP) or similar credentials, Microsoft certifications related to data governance, compliance and Purview
