Data Governance Specialist – Alation
Job Title: Senior Data Governance Specialist – Alation Location: 100% Remote (US-Based) Employment Type: Full-Time (FTE) Salary: Up to $160k/Year Job Summary We are seeking an experienced Senior Data Governance Specialist with strong hands-on expertise in Alation to drive enterprise data governance, data cataloging, metadata management, data lineage, and data quality initiatives. The ideal candidate will have experience implementing and managing Alation as an enterprise data catalog and governance platform, establishing data governance frameworks, improving data discoverability, and enabling business and technical teams to access trusted, well-governed data assets. This role requires a combination of technical platform expertise, data governance knowledge, stakeholder management, and experience working with enterprise data environments.
Key Responsibilities
Lead the implementation, configuration, administration, and ongoing enhancement of the Alation Data Catalog platform. Develop and maintain enterprise data governance frameworks, policies, standards, and procedures. Manage metadata discovery, harvesting, cataloging, classification, and documentation across enterprise data assets. Establish and maintain business glossaries, business definitions, data dictionaries, and critical data element inventories. Implement and maintain data lineage and data traceability to improve transparency and regulatory compliance. Collaborate with data owners, data stewards, data architects, engineering teams, and business stakeholders to establish data ownership and accountability. Define and monitor data quality rules, standards, issue management processes, and remediation workflows. Support data classification, sensitive data identification, access governance, and compliance requirements. Integrate Alation with enterprise data platforms, databases, cloud data warehouses, and analytics environments. Drive adoption of data governance practices and promote data literacy across business and technical teams. Develop governance dashboards, KPIs, and reports to measure catalog adoption, metadata completeness, data quality, and governance effectiveness. Support audit readiness, regulatory compliance, and enterprise data management initiatives. Partner with data engineering, BI, security, and compliance teams to ensure governed and trusted data is available for analytics and reporting. Required Qualifications experience in data governance, metadata management, data management, or enterprise data platforms. Strong hands-on experience with Alation Data Catalog , including configuration, administration, metadata management, and governance workflows. Experience implementing or managing enterprise data governance programs and operating models. Strong understanding of business glossaries, data dictionaries, data lineage, data ownership, and data stewardship. Experience with data quality management, data classification, metadata standards, and governance policies. Familiarity with SQL, relational databases, and enterprise data warehouse environments. Experience with cloud data platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or BigQuery. Ability to work with business and technical stakeholders to translate governance requirements into practical solutions. Strong communication, documentation, analytical, and stakeholder management skills.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience integrating Alation with Snowflake, Databricks, AWS, Azure, or other enterprise data platforms. Familiarity with Collibra, Informatica, Microsoft Purview, or other data governance and cataloging solutions. Knowledge of data privacy, regulatory compliance, access controls, and sensitive data governance. Experience with data governance KPIs, maturity assessments, and adoption measurement. Experience in enterprise consulting, professional services, or large-scale data transformation initiatives. Relevant certifications in data governance, data management, cloud platforms, or Alation are a plus.