Senior Data Platform Governance Specialist

Role Summary

The Senior Data Platform Governance Specialist drives governance excellence, operational discipline, and cost predictability across global data platforms. This role champions a “Governance-as-Code” approach, ensuring that platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, and Cloudera are secure, audit-ready, and optimized by default. The position acts as a bridge between Platform Engineering, FinOps, Security, and Leadership, enabling engineering velocity without compromising enterprise risk standards.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Governance and Policy-as-Code (“Golden Rules”)

• Define, develop, and maintain “Golden Paths” and global standards for data platform architecture, usage, and compliance.

• Translate written governance policies into automated, executable checks (Governance-as-Code) using GitLab CI/CD, Terraform, ServiceNow, and platform-native security controls.

• Maintain a version-controlled, audit-ready repository of governance policies ensuring traceability and seamless compliance for regulated workloads.

2. Analytics, Auditing, and Executive Reporting

• Design, build, and deliver monthly Best-Practice Scorecard Reports to track platform health, cost anomalies, and compliance drift.

• Present actionable compliance, security, and FinOps metrics to senior IT and business leadership, highlighting risks and optimization opportunities.

3. Engineering Enablement and Culture

• Conduct training sessions, architectural forums, and 1:1 coaching to upskill data engineers and architects on best practices.

• Partner with engineering teams to ensure compliance controls are embedded early in the deployment lifecycle (Shift-Left).

4. Cross-Functional Alignment

• Serve as the central governance liaison across Platform Engineering, FinOps, Cloud Security, and other teams.

• Ensure platform configurations align with corporate data privacy standards (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) and industry regulations.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Platform Expertise: 7+ years of hands-on experience managing, architecting, or governing at least two major enterprise data platforms (e.g., Cloudera CDP, Snowflake, Databricks, Oracle, SQL Server).

• Cloud Infrastructure: Strong foundational knowledge of AWS and/or Azure infrastructure concepts (compute sizing, storage classes, data transfer/egress economics).

• Regulatory Acumen: Proven experience creating and enforcing technical standards in highly regulated, global enterprises (Pharma, Life Sciences, Healthcare, or Finance preferred).

• Modern Tooling: Hands-on familiarity with automation and ITSM tools (GitLab CI, Terraform, ServiceNow).

• Frameworks: Solid knowledge of ITIL service management and Policy-as-Code concepts.

• Leadership and Influence: Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills; able to drive change without direct authority and push back constructively when needed.

Minimum Education and Certifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Systems Engineering, or related field.

• Highly Preferred Certifications:

  • ITIL 4 Foundation or Managing Professional

  • Platform-specific certifications (Snowflake, Databricks, AWS/Azure, Cloudera)

IQVIA Core Competencies

• Results Orientation

• Collaboration and Teamwork

• Strategic Problem Solving

• Adapting to Change