Senior Manager, Data Governance

We're looking for a Senior Manager to lead and grow Pandora's Operational Data Governance team. This person will bring together four areas: architecture, technical governance, data quality, and governance delivery into one strong, well-run function. 

The role is about turning our company-wide governance strategy into practical, everyday reality: making sure data is trustworthy, clearly defined, and properly governed across all our data products and platforms: built in from the start, not bolted on later. 

This leader will manage a team covering: 

• Governance Architecture 
• Platform & Engineering Governance 
• Data Quality & Trust 
• Governance Delivery & Operating Model 

What You'll Do:

1. Lead the Full Governance Function 

• Own and continuously improve how we run operational data governance across architecture, engineering, quality, and delivery 
• Make sure governance is built into how data products and platforms work day-to-day, not an afterthought 
• Keep Data, Engineering (Athena), and business teams aligned and working well together 

2. Governance Architecture & Metadata Management 

Lead a team of Governance Architect Specialists who will: 

• Set the standards and reference models for data architecture 
• Build our approach to metadata: how we name, structure, and describe data consistently 

Own and grow:  

• The business glossary and semantic layers (our shared data vocabulary) 
• The data catalog and metadata systems 
• Data lineage tracking (knowing where data comes from and where it goes) 

Make sure the architecture supports:  

• Data products that can scale 
• Systems that work well together 
• Proper data storage, archiving, and retention 
• Push forward better tools and automation for governance work 

3. Platform & Engineering Governance ("Governance by Design") 

Lead the team that builds governance directly into our data platform: 

• Build governance checks straight into how data is ingested and transformed 
• Make good governance the automatic, default outcome, not something people have to remember to do 

Make sure these are technically enforced:  

• Capturing metadata 
• Tracking data lineage 
• Data quality checks 
• Data contracts (agreements about data format and quality between teams) 

Work closely with the Data Platform / Athena teams to:  

• Build governance into engineering standards 
• Cut down on manual governance work 
• Make sure governance can scale, is actually enforced, and can be measured 

4. Data Quality & Trust 

Lead a team of Data Quality & Trust Specialists who will: 

• Build company-wide frameworks and rules for data quality 
• Set: Data quality standards, rules, and acceptable thresholds 
• Set: Service-level agreements (SLAs) and performance expectations 
• Investigate root causes of data problems and fix them properly, not just patch them 
• Own how we monitor and track data quality over time 
• Make sure data quality ownership sits with the teams who own each data product 
• Track KPIs and trust metrics for governance 

5. Governance Delivery & Operating Model 

Lead a team of Governance Delivery Specialists who will: 

• Roll out and keep improving our Data Governance Operating Model 

Define and maintain:  

• RACI charts and decision-making rights 
• Who owns what, both on the business and technical side 
• How issues get escalated and how new requests get triaged 

Run governance processes day-to-day, including:  

• Governance forums/meetings 
• Change management and controls 
• Escalating and resolving issues 
• Build governance into how programmes and projects are delivered 
• Give hands-on support to business and product teams 

What We're Looking For:

• 6–10+ years of experience in data governance, data management, or data architecture 
• Experience with governance in a data platform/engineering context 
• Experience with data quality and operational excellence 
• A track record of leading cross-functional governance teams at scale 
• Proven success building governance operating models and embedding them into how teams actually deliver work 
• Experience managing a team of this size: 6 internal staff, plus 2–4 external/contract staff depending on workload