Domain Expert - Data Governance, Stewardship & Information Management

About Methods:

Methods is a £100M+ IT Services Consultancy who has partnered with a range of central government departments and agencies to transform the way the public sector operates in the UK. Established over 30 years ago and UK-based, we apply our skills in transformation, delivery, and collaboration from across the Methods Group, to create end-to-end business and technical solutions that are people-centred, safe, and designed for the future.

Methods was acquired by the Alten Group in early 2022. Alten is a global engineering firm with approximately 57,000 employees specializing in engineering and IT services.

Domain Expert Role Overview

Location: UK-based, hybrid working

Regular travel may be required to client sites, Methods offices and practice/community events.

Domain Expert — Data Governance, Stewardship & Information Management

Role summary

The Data Governance, Stewardship & Information Management Specialist helps clients create the data foundations required for trusted analytics, AI, reporting, interoperability, operational decision-making and regulatory confidence.

This role is for someone who can help large, complex organisations make their data usable, governed, secure, discoverable, high-quality and accountable. It is particularly relevant in sectors where data is fragmented across legacy systems, suppliers, operational silos, secure environments or regulated business processes.

Your specialisms should cover data governance, master data management strategy, data quality, data ownership, metadata, information management, DLP and the data-control aspects of AI readiness.

Methods is appointing seven Domain Experts, each matched to a core strategic offering.

• Client-Side Transformation Partner
• User-Centred Design & Delivery
• Cloud Transformation & Modernisation
• Data Intelligence & Applied AI
• IT Operations & Service Excellence
• Enterprise Platform Adoption & Value Realisation
• Cyber Resilience

These experts will be the thought leaders and subject-matter authorities for their domains, shaping propositions, guiding client delivery, and strengthening Methods’ position in the market.

Requirements

· Lead data governance, stewardship and information management engagements for public-sector and regulated-industry clients.

· Define enterprise, domain or programme-level data governance operating models, including decision rights, governance forums, data ownership, stewardship roles, escalation routes and accountability.

· Develop data policies, standards and controls covering data quality, metadata, lineage, cataloguing, access, sharing, retention, classification, acceptable use and lifecycle management.

· Shape master data management and reference data strategies, including golden source principles, matching, survivorship, stewardship, integration and ownership.

· Assess and improve data quality, including quality dimensions, issue management, root-cause analysis, remediation plans, quality dashboards and accountability mechanisms.

· Support clients with data sharing, interoperability and data access models across departments, business units, suppliers, regulators or operational partners.

· Advise on information governance, privacy, DLP and secure data access in partnership with cyber, architecture, legal, DPO and SIRO stakeholders.

· Help clients make data assets AI-ready by improving documentation, quality, stewardship, access controls, governance and reuse.

· Shape implementation roadmaps for catalogues, data quality tooling, MDM platforms, metadata management, governance workflows and stewardship communities.

· Support sales and bid teams by shaping data governance, data quality, MDM, information management and AI-readiness propositions.

Essential experience

· 8+ years’ experience in data governance, information management, data quality, master data management, metadata management, data strategy, information governance or related consulting/advisory work.

· Evidence of measurable impact, such as improved data quality, reduced reporting risk, better regulatory compliance, improved data sharing, successful data platform adoption, stronger data ownership or improved decision-making.

· Experience acting as a trusted advisor to senior data, technology, risk, compliance, operational or transformation stakeholders.

· Experience in consulting, public sector, regulated industries or large complex organisations.

· Strong understanding of data governance operating models, stewardship models, data ownership and governance implementation.

· Experience developing policies, standards, frameworks, roadmaps, maturity assessments, governance packs or data management playbooks.

· Experience with master data, reference data, metadata, data catalogues, data lineage, data quality, DLP, access controls or information governance.

· Experience working with sales and bid teams to shape data governance, data management or AI-readiness propositions.

· Experience contributing to communities of practice, training material, professional development or mentoring.

· Experience in highly regulated environments where data quality, traceability, security, compliance and auditability matter.

Specialist competencies

· Data governance operating model design.

· Data stewardship and ownership models.

· Master data management strategy.

· Data quality assessment and remediation.

· Metadata, lineage and catalogue strategy.

· Data policy and standards development.

· Information governance and secure data access.

· Data sharing and interoperability.

· AI-readiness assessment for data assets.

· Governance implementation and behavioural adoption.

Sector experience we would value

· Public-sector data governance, information management, data sharing or reporting programmes.

· Energy, utilities or critical national infrastructure data environments.

· Defence primes, aerospace, aviation, space, secure engineering or complex supply-chain data environments.

· Financial services, insurance, healthcare, telecoms or other data-intensive regulated sectors.

· Organisations with large legacy estates, fragmented data ownership, complex supplier ecosystems or high audit/regulatory scrutiny.

Desirable experience

· Knowledge of DAMA-DMBOK, DCAM, EDM Council, ISO 8000, ISO 27001, ISO 15489 or equivalent data/information management frameworks.

· Experience with Microsoft Purview, Collibra, Informatica, Ataccama, Alation, Azure, AWS, Databricks, Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric or similar platforms.

· Experience working with DPOs, SIROs, CISOs, enterprise architects, data platform teams and business data owners.

· Experience with GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018, Freedom of Information, records management, data sharing agreements or sector-specific data obligations.

· Experience building a data governance function, data office, stewardship network or data management community.

This role will require you to have or be willing to go through Security Clearance. As part of the onboarding process candidates will be asked to complete a Baseline Personnel Security Standard; details of the evidence required to apply may be found on the government website Gov.UK. If you are unable to meet this and any associated criteria, then your employment may be delayed, or rejected. Details of this will be discussed with you at interview.

Benefits

As well as this, we offer:

• Development access to LinkedIn Learning, a management development programme and training
• Wellness 24/7 Confidential employee assistance programme
• Social - Breakfast Tuesdays, Thirsty Thursdays and Pizza on the last Thursday of each month as well as commitment to charitable causes
• Time off 25 days a year; plus the opportunity to purchase extra leave per year
• Pension Salary Exchange Scheme with 4% employer contribution and 5% employee contribution
• Life Assurance of 4 times base salary
• Private Medical Insurance which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included)
• Worldwide Travel Insurance which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included)