Director, Data Governance, Metadata & Cataloging

Role Summary

Director, Data Governance, Metadata & Cataloging. Responsible for defining and operationalizing the frameworks, standards, and practices that ensure R&D data is trusted, well-documented, and easily discoverable. Integrates data governance, metadata management, and data cataloging into a unified capability that drives data quality, compliance, and interoperability across the R&D data ecosystem. Partners with related teams to enable governance, metadata, and cataloging that support FAIR principles and AI readiness.

Responsibilities

• Data Governance Strategy & Execution: Define and execute the R&D data governance strategy; establish ownership, stewardship, and accountability models; drive adoption of controlled vocabularies, taxonomies, and standards.
• Metadata Management: Develop and manage metadata standards; ensure metadata captures lineage, provenance, and business rules; harmonize metadata with enterprise semantic frameworks.
• Data Cataloging & Discoverability: Lead implementation and management of enterprise data cataloging tools; ensure datasets and data products are indexed, searchable, and described; enrich catalog content with stakeholders.
• Data Quality & Compliance: Define and monitor KPIs for data quality and compliance; harmonize shared entities; enforce regulatory requirements (GDPR, HIPAA, GxP).
• Collaboration & Integration: Integrate governance capabilities into broader R&D workflows; collaborate with IT and vendors on tools and technologies.
• Communication & Value Realization: Communicate priorities, metrics, and value realization to executive leadership; promote data literacy and governance benefits.
• Strategic Impact: Ensure R&D data is governed, documented, and discoverable to enable trusted insights, regulatory compliance, and advanced analytics.

Qualifications

• Education: Master’s or PhD in Information Management, Data Science, Life Sciences, or related discipline.
• Experience: 8–10+ years in data governance, metadata management in pharma/biotech or regulated industries; proven success implementing governance frameworks and metadata/cataloging tools at scale.
• Knowledge: Deep understanding of governance, metadata management, cataloging, and FAIR data; familiarity with ontologies, semantic standards, and data lineage frameworks; experience with data cataloging platforms and metadata repositories.
• Skills: Strong leadership, stakeholder engagement, change management, and excellent communication; ability to demonstrate governance and metadata as enablers of business/science value.