Senior Data Governance Specialist - Financial Services - Remote (US-based)

Growth Acceleration Partners is looking for a Senior Data Governance Specialist to support the execution and day‑to‑day delivery of data governance initiatives at one of the world’s leading private equity firms, and to act as a key partner to the Director of Data Governance in turning strategy into practical implementation.

This role is highly hands‑on and business‑facing. You will work closely with business stakeholders, data owners, and technical teams to understand the current data landscape, identify gaps, and help deliver concrete governance outcomes such as enriched data catalogs, defined ownership, and actionable data quality improvements.

This is not a purely strategic role; the focus is on execution and making governance work in practice.​ The ideal candidate is someone who can roll up their sleeves, actively contribute to deliverables using industry‑standard tools, and translate conversations with the business into clear actions, documentation, and execution.​

Key Responsibilities

• Support and help shape the execution of data management and governance initiatives across multiple business functions and projects.
• Partner with the Director of Data Governance to translate high‑level governance priorities into detailed workflows, standards, and documentation, and provide feedback from the field on what is working.
• Capture outcomes from stakeholder meetings and translate them into clear action plans and governance deliverables.
• Contribute to the enrichment and maintenance of the enterprise data catalog (definitions, ownership, metadata).
• Work directly with business stakeholders to understand current data landscapes, challenges, and needs.
• Identify and prioritize high‑impact, low‑complexity opportunities to deliver immediate value and demonstrate tangible benefits of data governance.
• Assist with defining, implementing, and monitoring data quality rules in collaboration with Data Quality and Engineering teams.
• Support data lineage and metadata documentation efforts.
• Help coordinate data governance activities across domains, ensuring follow‑through and execution.
• Document governance processes, decisions, definitions, and artifacts clearly and consistently.
• Participate in business‑facing sessions and working meetings, serving as a bridge between business and data teams.
• Support regulatory and audit‑related data governance requirements through proper documentation and controls.​
• Maintain and update governance artifacts (issue logs, data quality rule inventories, domain documentation) and follow through on assigned actions across multiple projects.

Required Technical Skills

• Strong understanding of data governance concepts, data ownership, stewardship, and metadata.
• Hands‑on experience with data catalogs and lineage tools (e.g., Collibra, Alation, Informatica EDC, Azure Purview).
• Solid SQL skills to support data investigation, validation, and profiling.
• Familiarity with data quality concepts and collaboration with DQ teams.
• Understanding of ETL/ELT processes and data pipelines.
• Experience using Jira, ServiceNow, or similar tools to track governance tasks and issues.​

What You Bring

• Experience operating within an established or evolving data governance framework and helping refine and extend it, rather than only designing frameworks from scratch.
• Comfortable operating in complex, sometimes ambiguous environments with multiple senior stakeholders and shifting priorities.
• Direct, clear communicator who is comfortable interacting with senior New York finance stakeholders and facilitating working sessions, while remaining low‑ego and collaborative.
• Highly organized, able to manage multiple parallel tasks and follow through on deliverables.
• Practical, execution‑oriented mindset and the ability to bring structure and momentum in environments with many stakeholders.
• Comfort working as a hands‑on user of data governance tools (catalog, lineage, DQ), rather than only overseeing teams who use them.​​

Nice to Have

• Experience with cloud data platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Basic scripting (Python) for supporting data checks or automation.​

Location and Work Arrangement

• Preference for candidates in the New York / New Jersey area who can occasionally work on‑site in Midtown Manhattan; strong US‑based remote candidates will also be considered.