Data Governance Lead

Position Summary

The Data Governance Lead is responsible for establishing and managing the enterprise data governance framework supporting a Department of Defense (DoD) Security Cooperation platform. This role ensures that data across Security Cooperation programs—including Foreign Military Sales (FMS), Building Partner Capacity (BPC), Institutional Capacity Building (ICB), International Military Education and Training (IMET), Humanitarian Assistance, and Security Cooperation workforce development—is trusted, secure, discoverable, and actionable.

The Data Governance Lead will develop governance policies, data standards, metadata management, taxonomy, master data management, and lifecycle processes that enable secure information sharing, artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics, and enterprise knowledge management. Working across functional and technical teams, the incumbent will facilitate governance councils, promote data stewardship, and ensure compliance with DoD cybersecurity, records management, and data strategy requirements.

This position plays a critical role in transforming fragmented information into a strategic enterprise asset that supports decision-making, operational readiness, partner nation engagement, and institutional learning across the Security Cooperation enterprise.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Enterprise Data Governance

• Develop and implement the enterprise Data Governance Framework for the Security Cooperation platform.
• Establish governance policies, standards, procedures, and operating models aligned with DoD data strategies.
• Lead governance activities that promote data quality, consistency, accessibility, and accountability.
• Develop governance maturity roadmaps and implementation plans.
• Facilitate cross-functional governance councils and working groups.

Data Stewardship

• Identify and establish business and technical data steward roles across Security Cooperation organizations.
• Define stewardship responsibilities and decision-making authorities.
• Coordinate stewardship activities to resolve data ownership and quality issues.
• Promote accountability for enterprise data assets.

Metadata & Taxonomy Management

• Develop and maintain enterprise metadata standards.
• Design and govern taxonomies, controlled vocabularies, ontologies, and tagging strategies.
• Ensure consistent classification of operational, instructional, and programmatic content.
• Support semantic search, AI-enabled discovery, and enterprise knowledge management.

Data Quality Management

• Define enterprise data quality standards and performance metrics.
• Develop processes for monitoring data completeness, consistency, validity, accuracy, and timeliness.
• Lead root cause analysis and remediation of data quality issues.
• Implement dashboards and scorecards for governance performance.

Knowledge Management Integration

• Collaborate with Knowledge Management teams to improve discoverability and reuse of Security Cooperation knowledge.
• Develop governance processes supporting AI-enabled search and enterprise knowledge repositories.
• Standardize document classification and information architecture.
• Enable organizational learning through structured information management.

Master and Reference Data Management

• Establish governance for master data domains, including organizations, partner nations, personnel, programs, courses, authorities, funding sources, and capability areas.
• Develop enterprise reference data standards.
• Coordinate master data synchronization across systems.

Data Architecture Collaboration

• Partner with enterprise architects and solution architects to align governance with technical architecture.
• Review solution designs to ensure compliance with governance standards.
• Support cloud-native data architectures within AWS environments.
• Ensure governance requirements are incorporated into system development lifecycles.

AI Readiness & Information Management

• Prepare enterprise information assets for Generative AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics.
• Develop governance standards supporting Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures.
• Ensure structured metadata supports AI search accuracy and transparency.
• Establish governance for AI-generated content where appropriate.

Security & Compliance

• Ensure compliance with the DoD Data Strategy, DoD Information Enterprise Architecture, Risk Management Framework (RMF), NIST SP 800-53, DoD Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide (SRG), Federal Records Act, Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) requirements, and information lifecycle management policies.
• Coordinate with cybersecurity teams to ensure governance supports secure information sharing.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Lead governance workshops with Security Cooperation stakeholders.
• Build consensus across operational, educational, technical, and leadership communities.
• Present governance recommendations to senior government leadership.
• Develop governance documentation, policies, standards, and executive briefings.

Success Measures

Success in this role will be demonstrated by:

• Establishing a sustainable enterprise Data Governance Program adopted across Security Cooperation organizations.
• Improving data quality, consistency, and trust through measurable governance metrics.
• Implementing standardized metadata and taxonomy that significantly enhance information discoverability.
• Enabling AI-ready data and knowledge assets that support advanced search, analytics, and decision support.
• Increasing reuse of institutional knowledge through improved governance and content lifecycle management.
• Reducing duplicate, obsolete, and conflicting information across enterprise repositories.
• Achieving compliance with DoD data governance, records management, and cybersecurity requirements.
• Building an active network of data stewards who sustain governance practices across the enterprise.

Work Environment

The Data Governance Lead operates at the intersection of mission operations, enterprise technology, and organizational governance. This position requires collaboration with senior defense leaders, Security Cooperation practitioners, data architects, cybersecurity professionals, instructional designers, and knowledge management specialists to ensure that enterprise data is managed as a strategic asset.

The role is central to enabling data-informed decision-making, AI-enabled knowledge discovery, and enterprise interoperability across the Security Cooperation community while supporting the Department of Defense's broader digital modernization objectives.

Required Qualifications

• Hands-on experience establishing enterprise data governance and data stewardship models.
• 2+ years of experience in enterprise data management, data governance, or information management.
• Experience with AWS, Microsoft Purview, SharePoint Online, Power BI, and SQL.
• Experience with core data governance practices, including data governance frameworks, metadata management, data cataloging, data quality management, Master Data Management (MDM), information lifecycle management, business glossaries, data lineage, and information lifecycle governance.
• Experience facilitating governance councils or executive working groups.
• Active Secret Security Clearance.
• U.S. Citizenship and eligibility to work in the United States.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Management, Data Science, Information Systems, Computer Science, Public Administration, International Relations, or a related field.
• 5+ years supporting Department of Defense or Federal Government programs.
• Experience supporting Security Cooperation organizations, including the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), Geographic Combatant Commands, Military Departments, or Security Cooperation workforce development organizations.
• Experience supporting Foreign Military Sales (FMS), Security Assistance, Institutional Capacity Building (ICB), or Building Partner Capacity (BPC) programs.
• Knowledge of one or more governance standards or frameworks, including DoD Data Strategy, DoD Digital Modernization Strategy, Federal Data Strategy, DAMA-DMBOK, DCAM, or NIST data management guidance.
• Preferred certifications include Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP), DAMA Certified Data Management Professional, Certified Information Professional (CIP), Security+, Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), or Prosci Change Management Certification.