Data Management & Governance Implementation Expert

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Senior Data Management & Governance Solutions expert to support the design and implementation of enterprise data management, governance, and analytics solutions for clients in Saudi Arabia.

The successful candidate will combine strong knowledge of data governance and regulatory compliance with hands-on technical experience across the data lifecycle, including data integration, storage, processing, quality, metadata, master and reference data, security, analytics, and data sharing.

The role requires practical experience translating business, regulatory, and governance requirements into implementable processes, controls, solution architectures and platform configurations. The candidate will also support clients in improving their maturity and compliance with the National Data Management Office (NDMO) requirements and the National Data Index (NDI).

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and/or support end-to-end delivery of data management and data governance implementation projects, from assessment and requirements gathering through design, configuration, testing, deployment, and operational handover.

• Assess clients' existing data landscapes, systems, processes, governance practices, and technical capabilities, and translate identified gaps into practical implementation roadmaps.

• Design and implement vendor-neutral enterprise data architectures covering data ingestion, integration, storage, lakehouse and data warehouse environments, processing, transformation, orchestration, analytics, and data consumption.

• Configure and integrate data management and governance platforms and tools, including data catalogs, business glossaries, metadata repositories, data lineage, workflow management, policy enforcement, and stewardship capabilities.

• Implement data quality frameworks, including data profiling, critical data element identification, quality dimensions, validation rules, scorecards, issue management workflows, root-cause analysis, and remediation tracking.

• Support the design and implementation of master data management and reference data management capabilities, including data models, golden records, matching and merging rules, hierarchies, and governance workflows.

• Develop data integration pipelines supporting batch, real-time, API-based, structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data requirements.

• Support the implementation of enterprise data warehouses, data lakes, and lakehouse architectures, including data modeling, storage layers, data marts, partitioning, retention, archiving, and performance optimization.

• Implement security and access-control requirements, including role-based access control, data classification, encryption, audit logging, segregation of duties, and integration with identity and access management services.

• Enable business intelligence, self-service analytics, executive dashboards, operational reporting, advanced analytics, and AI-ready data environments.

• Support integration and operational alignment with relevant national data platforms, where applicable, including the National Data Catalog, Government Service Bus, National Data Lake, Data Marketplace, Reference Data Platform, and Open Data Platform.

• Develop high-quality deliverables, including solution architecture documents, requirements specifications, data models, configuration documents, policies, procedures, operating manuals, test cases, traceability matrices, technical runbooks, and compliance evidence packages.

• Facilitate requirements workshops, design sessions, technical demonstrations, user acceptance testing, training, and knowledge-transfer sessions with business, data, compliance, cybersecurity, and technology stakeholders.

• Coordinate with client teams, technology vendors, implementation partners, and subject-matter experts to ensure solutions are delivered according to scope, quality, security, and regulatory requirements.

• Identify technical risks, dependencies, integration constraints, and data-related issues early and drive the required mitigation and resolution actions.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Information Systems, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related discipline.

• 5-8 years of relevant experience in data management, data governance, data engineering, enterprise data platforms and/or related consulting and implementation roles.

• Proven hands-on experience delivering data management and governance projects within Saudi Arabia, preferably for government entities or regulated organizations.

• Demonstrated experience implementing or configuring data governance, metadata management, data catalog, data lineage, data quality, master data, reference data, data integration, or enterprise analytics solutions.

• Good understanding of the National Data Management Office requirements, the National Data Index, and the national data management, governance, and personal data protection standards applicable in Saudi Arabia.

• Solid understanding of modern data architectures, including data warehouses, data lakes, lakehouses, ETL/ELT pipelines, batch and streaming integration, APIs, data modeling, and analytical platforms.

• Working knowledge of SQL, data modeling, APIs, integration patterns, and at least one scripting or programming language commonly used in data projects.

• Experience with on-premises, cloud, or hybrid data environments and familiarity with containerized and scalable platform architectures is preferred.

• Knowledge of DAMA-DMBOK, DCAM, COBIT, TOGAF, or other recognized data management and governance frameworks or relevant professional certifications is preferred.

• Strong analytical, problem-solving, documentation, and stakeholder-management skills.

• Must currently be based in Saudi Arabia and be available for client-site work when required.