Data Governance Specialist

* $700-$900 p/d + Super * ASAP til December 2025 + Likely Extensions * Sydney CBD/WFH Flexibility The Data Governance Specialist will lead the implementation of governance frameworks to support a major data transformation, ensuring data quality, compliance, and secure access across core systems and platforms for a leading University in Sydney.

Purpose of the Role

The Data Governance Specialist plays a critical role in ensuring that data is well-defined, properly governed, and compliant with internal policies and external regulations. This role supports a major data transformation program involving the migration of data into new core systems and modern data infrastructure.

The position is responsible for implementing and maintaining governance frameworks, managing data quality standards, setting up RBAC models, and ensuring that governance practices align with enterprise standards and strategic goals.

This role will act as a key representative in defining and operationalising new data infrastructure practices, promoting high data quality, and embedding governance into end-to-end data lifecycle processes.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead governance aspects of data cleansing and migration into new core systems and data platforms.
• Define and set up of data management standards, including metadata, lineage, and quality expectations.
• Collaborate with data engineers, solution architects, and data owners to embed governance practices into the design and implementation of new data infrastructure
• Define and oversee role-based access control (RBAC) implementation to ensure secure, compliant data access.
• Develop and maintain business glossaries, data dictionaries, and critical data elements specific to the program (CDEs) within a Collibra environment.
• Implement data quality frameworks, controls, and metrics to drive continuous improvement.
• Coordinate root cause analysis and remediation plans for data quality issues.
• Support the alignment of governance efforts with regulatory and compliance obligations, including privacy, security, and data sharing.
• Establish and maintain data lineage to ensure traceability across systems.
• Provide training and guidance to promote data literacy across business and technical teams.
• Actively contribute and work within an agile delivery team, ensuring data governance requirements are captured and delivered iteratively.
• Subject matter expertise on the Five Safes framework and lean Six Sigma methodology would be advantageous.

Key Relationships

• Data Program Manager
• Senior Data Engineer
• Data Quality Analysts
• Business SMEs and Product Owners
• IT Security and Compliance Teams
• Data Architects and Infrastructure Engineers

Experience and Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of experience in data governance, data management, or equivalent roles in complex enterprise environments.
• Proven experience supporting large-scale data transformation, including data cleansing and migration initiatives.
• Experience establishing and managing RBAC frameworks across diverse systems.
• Experience with metadata management and data governance tools (e.g., Collibra).
• Working knowledge of regulatory and compliance requirements, including data privacy and information security.
• Experience operating within Agile delivery environments.
• Familiarity with the Five Safes framework for data governance and privacy.
• Understanding of Lean Six Sigma principles applied to data operations.

Core Competencies

• Data Literacy: Strong understanding of data governance, quality, and lifecycle management.
• Execution: Ability to drive outcomes in a large-scale transformation setting with multiple stakeholders.
• Detail Orientation: Commitment to high-quality data, documentation, and process alignment.
• Communication: Ability to influence and communicate governance principles across varied audiences.
• Leadership: Ownership of key governance responsibilities with a proactive and solution-oriented mindset.
• Collaboration: Builds strong relationships with business and technical teams to support unified governance adoption.
• Adaptability: Comfortable navigating evolving priorities and program structures.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are encouraged to apply.
To apply, please click "Apply" or contact Scott Kyle on +61 2 8289 3155 or scott.kyle@robertwalters.com.au for a confidential discussion.