Data & Governance Consultant

Position: Data & Governance Consultant

Location: Milpitas, CA

Contract

Key Responsibilities

POC Planning & Requirements Gathering

• Participate in project kickoff and planning activities.
• Conduct stakeholder interviews (up to 15 stakeholders).
• Identify data assets, repositories, and governance use cases.
• Define test datasets and document current-state governance controls.

Data Classification & Governance Evaluation

• Assess data discovery, classification, and labelling capabilities.
• Evaluate custom classifiers, sensitive information types (SITs), and auto-labelling policies.
• Test governance capabilities across:
• SharePoint Online
• OneDrive for Business
• Exchange Online
• On-premises File Shares (CIFS/NFS)

Access Governance & DSPM Assessment

• Evaluate permission analytics and entitlement visibility.
• Assess excessive access detection and data ownership capabilities.
• Review governance controls and remediation workflows.
• Analyze policy enforcement mechanisms and DLP controls.

AI Data Risk Governance

• Evaluate DSPM for AI capabilities.
• Assess governance controls for Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, and enterprise AI applications.
• Review AI policy enforcement, monitoring, and reporting functions.
• Evaluate AI data exposure and risk management capabilities.

Vendor & Technical Coordination

• Coordinate with Microsoft, Varonis, and BigID teams.
• Review platform configurations and deployment approaches.
• Validate use cases and technical outcomes across vendors.
• Support environment readiness and testing activities.

Reporting & Recommendations

• Consolidate findings from all governance pillars.
• Develop comparative scoring and assessment reports.
• Document platform strengths, weaknesses, and trade-offs.
• Contribute to architecture recommendations (single vendor, hybrid, or best-of-breed approach).
• Support executive presentations and knowledge transfer sessions.

Required Skills & Experience

Technical Skills

Microsoft Purview

Information Protection

Data Classification & Labeling

DSPM

DLP

Compliance Reporting

Varonis

DatAdvantage

Permission Analytics

Data Governance

Access Management

• BigID
  • Data Intelligence
  • Data Discovery
  • Data Classification
  • AI Governance
• Microsoft 365 Security & Compliance
• Data Governance Frameworks
• Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)
• Access Governance & Identity Concepts
• AI/GenAI Risk Governance
• Compliance & Audit Reporting

Functional Skills

• Stakeholder management
• Requirements gathering
• Technical evaluation and analysis
• Comparative product assessments
• Executive reporting
• Documentation and presentation skills
• Vendor management and coordination

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Microsoft Security & Compliance solutions.
• Knowledge of data classification, data protection, and governance programs.
• Experience evaluating enterprise security platforms.
• Understanding of AI governance and Copilot security controls.
• Familiarity with hybrid cloud and Microsoft 365 environments.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Technology, Cyber Security, or related discipline.
• Relevant certifications (preferred):
  • Microsoft Purview / Security Certifications
  • Data Governance Certifications
  • Information Security Certifications (CISSP, CISM, etc.)