Data Governance Managers

Data governance managers perform a wide range of duties, but their primary areas of focus include data quality, data security, data privacy, and data stewardship.

Data quality: Managers develop protocols and frameworks that ensure the completeness, accuracy, and trustworthiness of their organization’s data. They also devise strategies to identify and remove low-quality and/or untrustworthy data.

Data security: Managers analyze, identify, and protect against potential cyberthreats and in-person threats. They identify where the organization’s most sensitive data is stored and set up protocols that control access to it and protect it from threats.

Data privacy: Managers take extra steps to safeguard sensitive information (e.g., medical data, financial information) to make sure that individuals’ privacy is protected. Their decisions regarding privacy and regulatory compliance play a major role in how data is collected, handled, stored, and used at their organization.

Data stewardship: Managers set up protocols and systems that control and monitor how employees use data sources, and how data moves through its usage cycle. They identify areas for improvement in the use of data, as well as find potential new data streams and other uses.

Other work responsibilities include staff education and training, disaster recovery planning, technology evaluation and purchase, and vendor management.