Data Governance Specialist

Sitting between business, technology, and risk, this role is about making data usable and trustworthy—without losing sight of compliance and control. With a mix of governance frameworks, practical tooling, and stakeholder engagement, you’ll help clients move from scattered ownership to clear rules, accountable stewards, and data people can actually rely on.

Data Governance Specialist

Calimala partners with enterprises across the Gulf and Europe to design, build, and scale Data & AI teams. As a Data Governance Specialist, you’ll join a network of practitioners who understand that good governance is an enabler, not a blocker—creating the clarity, standards, and guardrails that let teams move faster with less risk.

This role sits at the centre of how data is defined, accessed, and managed. You’ll help design and implement governance operating models, policies, and controls across key domains—metadata, quality, access, privacy—while keeping a close link to real platforms, tools, and use cases.

What you'll be doing

As a Data Governance Specialist at Calimala, you’ll lead and support engagements where trust, compliance, and reuse are as important as technical delivery. One project might involve standing up a data ownership model and glossary for a new platform; another could focus on improving lineage, quality processes, and access controls across existing systems.

“We treat governance as a service to the business: clear rules, transparent ownership, and just enough process to make data safe to use at scale.”

You’ll work closely with data owners, stewards, architects, and legal/compliance teams to turn governance principles into day-to-day practices. You’ll help select and configure governance tooling (catalogs, lineage, quality), define how decisions are made, and ensure that requirements from regulations and internal policies are reflected in how data is actually handled.

Who we're looking for

You’re comfortable operating at the intersection of policy and practice. You can read a regulation or internal standard, translate it into concrete controls, and work with platform and delivery teams to embed those controls into real processes and systems.

You’ve likely worked in data governance, data management, or risk/compliance roles within data-heavy organizations. At Calimala, we value depth, accountability, and partnership—you care about governance that works in the real world and builds confidence rather than just adding paperwork.

• Strong experience in data governance, data management, or a closely related discipline

• Familiarity with governance frameworks and practices (e.g. data ownership models, stewardship, councils, policies, and standards)

• Hands-on exposure to data governance or catalog tools (e.g. data catalogs, lineage solutions, data quality platforms)

• Solid understanding of core concepts: metadata, data quality, access management, classification, retention, and lineage

• Awareness of regulatory and compliance themes affecting data and AI (e.g. privacy, data protection, sector-specific regulations)

• Experience working with both business and technical stakeholders, facilitating decisions and resolving conflicts around data ownership and usage

• Ability to create clear documentation, playbooks, and training materials that help teams adopt governance practices

  
  

We’re looking for practitioners who see governance as a way to unlock value safely: people who can bring structure and clarity, earn trust across functions, and make it easier, not harder for organizations to use data and AI with confidence.