Data Governance - Unity Catalog

Data Governance Catalog Steward (Unity Catalog + Alation) / Platform Stewardship Hybrid (Des Moines Metro Area - T/W/Th) Contract 12+ months Long-term opportunity supporting enterprise data governance initiatives Role Summary Own end‑to‑end metadata completeness and governance adherence from post-ingestion in Databricks (raw→refined→presentation) to business consumption in Alation. This is a hands‑on, platform‑focused role that embeds with platform engineering and business teams, ensures certifiable data products, and keeps the catalog accurate and usable. Top Outcomes (What Success Looks Like) Unity Catalog is standardized and reliable for data product growth (naming, tags, ownership, lineage conventions consistently applied). Metadata flows cleanly into Alation; priority data products are certified, owned, and discoverable with complete business context. Clear, business‑friendly governance standards are published and followed across teams. Core Responsibilities (People + Platforms) Embed with Databricks platform and ingestion/modeling teams; attend build/prioritization meetings; guide teams to follow platform governance standards. Publish and maintain Unity Catalog standards (with emphasis on Refined→Presentation product readiness); monitor UC activity for adherence and remediate drift. Ensure all certifiable data products have complete ownership, assignments, and required metadata in Unity Catalog and Alation. Monitor and maintain UC→Alation metadata flow; resolve connection issues; ensure domain tags, owners, and governance attributes transfer and remain complete. Track catalog completeness/adoption metrics (e.g., Power BI over Snowflake/Databricks sources) and report progress to stakeholders. Audit catalog content for business completeness (domain, product, process linkage, business glossary alignment); drive remediation with Domain Stewards. Partner with the Data Governance Lead to define and evolve business‑friendly governance standards, policies, and playbooks; communicate updates to teams. Collaborate closely with the Business Domain Steward to align certification, deprecation, and status changes across UC and Alation. Must‑Have Experience Deep, hands‑on Databricks Unity Catalog experience (RBAC/policies, tags, lineage, naming conventions, productization across bronze/silver/gold). Proven metadata management experience and familiarity with enterprise data catalogs (Alation experience preferred; strong equivalents acceptable). Experience working with platform/ingestion teams and translating governance requirements into day‑to‑day engineering practices. Ability to build/maintain adoption and completeness dashboards (e.g., Power BI) and drive follow‑through with technical teams. Nice‑to‑Have Prior experience standing up or maturing Unity Catalog and/or Alation at scale. Exposure to data product / data mesh operating models and certification workflows.