Senior Manager, Data Management

Role Overview

This role focuses on designing and carrying out the core data management practices that allow an organisation to trust and use its information effectively. Day to day, you will set the direction for data quality, metadata, master data, and governance, while also personally leading a small team and influencing business stakeholders who do not report to you. Your work directly enables better decision-making, regulatory compliance, and cross-functional alignment by making data reliable, findable, and responsibly governed.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and maintain a multi-year data management roadmap, balancing competing priorities and regularly updating senior leaders on progress and trade-offs.
• Establish and enforce enterprise-wide policies, standards, and controls for data quality, metadata, master data, and ethical use.
• Lead metadata and master data initiatives to improve data lineage, cataloging, and golden record creation across key business domains.
• Oversee data quality measurement and monitoring, including setting KPIs, running assessments, and reporting results to stakeholders.
• Facilitate cross-functional governance forums (steering committees, working groups) to secure buy-in and drive adoption of data standards.
• Coach and develop a direct team of data professionals while also engaging a broader network of data owners and stewards through training, workshops, and change management efforts.
• Identify strategic risks related to data (regulatory, technical, or resource-based) and build mitigation plans to address them.
• Partner with engineering, analytics, and product teams to ensure data management capabilities are integrated into operational and reporting systems.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Data Management, Information Systems, Computer Science, Statistics, Business Administration, or a closely related field.
• At least 8 years of experience in data management or data governance, including 2–3 years in a formal people management role.
• Proven track record of building or scaling a data governance programme from scratch, covering policy creation, standard definition, and stewardship models.
• Hands-on experience leading enterprise-level master data management (MDM) and metadata management projects.
• Practical experience implementing or administering a data catalogue or governance platform such as Collibra, Alation, Informatica, or Microsoft Purview.
• Solid understanding of data quality methodologies, metadata management principles, and how governance connects with analytics and BI systems.
• Strong stakeholder influence skills, with the ability to drive adoption of standards across teams without direct authority.
• Program management experience handling multiple complex, cross-functional projects simultaneously.
• Demonstrated change management experience, including running training sessions and communication plans for policy or tool rollouts.
• Working knowledge of data privacy regulations like GDPR or CCPA is preferred.
• Willingness to travel up to 10% per year, nationally and internationally.