Data Governance Lead

As the world's leading change and transformation consultancy, we're helping businesses move from strategy to reality by taking a pragmatic and practical approach to build solutions that last. We're seeking a Data Governance Lead to establish a robust data foundation for our retail practice in Portland, OR and help us take vision to value and create lasting impact.

About the role

In this pivotal role, you will transform how we capture, manage, and leverage data as a strategic asset across our innovation and materials teams. The Data Governance Lead will work at the intersection of business strategy and technical implementation, building governance frameworks that enable faster decision-making while maintaining data quality and integrity. Your work will establish this emerging function as a center of excellence, directly supporting leadership and cross-functional teams in their ability to harness data for competitive advantage.

This is a 6-month contract role, 4 days a week onsite in Portland, OR.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement a comprehensive data strategy with a prioritized, actionable roadmap aligned to organizational business goals
• Assess current data assets, capabilities, and maturity levels; define future-state vision; and identify risks and opportunities for foundational data model development
• Establish foundational governance policies including naming conventions, data standards, definitions, and stewardship roles across innovation and materials domains
• Design and implement data governance procedures, perform data profiling, and lead data quality remediation initiatives including legacy data cleanup
• Design a consistent data-capture approach that consolidates fragmented datasets into reusable, machine-learning-ready formats
• Provide architectural oversight and design foundational data models for the materials and innovation domain
• Translate between domain experts and technical teams, serving as a connective link between innovation leaders and technology partners
• Lead facilitation sessions, lunch-and-learn programs, and develop data literacy initiatives to build a culture of data across teams
• Shape how data is prepared to support advanced predictions and machine learning use cases with appropriate Responsible and Ethical artificial intelligence guardrails
• Demonstrate strong executive communication skills, influencing senior leaders who may lack deep technical backgrounds

Requirements

• Five or more years of relevant experience in data strategy, data management, or data governance, including leading an initiative or workstream end-to-end
• Demonstrated experience building a data team or practice from scratch and mentoring technical talent
• Working knowledge of data governance operating models, stewardship structures, and data quality principles
• Familiarity with foundational data modelling and enterprise data architecture concepts
• A versatile, T-shaped skillset: specialized in data strategy and governance with working competence across analytics and engineering
• Hands-on comfort with data governance tools and technologies in fast-moving environments
• Proven ability to develop data strategies with clear recommendations and realistic roadmaps to reach future-state vision
• Strong facilitation and stakeholder management capabilities with the ability to build consensus across multiple domains
• Proactive, self-starting approach with excellent relationship-building abilities
• Ability to balance standardization with flexibility, designing governance that manages exceptions without becoming overly rigid or loose
• Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States, without the need for visa sponsorship by North Highland