Data Governance Specialist
San Diego CA
The Data Governance Specialist is responsible for overseeing the governance, quality, and lifecycle management of data across the organization. This role ensures that enterprise data is accurate, secure, complaint, and properly accessible to support analytics, operations, and strategic decision-making. The Data Governance Specialist serves as the Company’s operational “source of truth” for enterprise data definitions, standards, and authoritative datasets, and executes within the Company’s Information Management framework. The Data Governance Specialist works cross-functionally with various Company stakeholders to direct implementation of scalable, enterprise-wide data practices and maintain a compliant data ecosystem, all in line with Information Management strategies, imperatives and priorities.
Required education
Bachelor’s degree in Data Management, Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related field; or equivalent experience.
3-5 years of experience in data management, data governance, data quality, or related enterprise data roles.
Area(s) of expertise desired
• Strong understanding of data architecture, metadata management, master data management, and enterprise data platforms.
• Experience with SQL, data modeling, and modern cloud or hybrid data ecosystems.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to operate across technical and nontechnical audiences.
• 2-3 years of Artificial Intelligence or Large Language Model experience preferred, This should include hands-on proven experience with design, review and troubleshooting experience.
Job description
Cibus is a biotechnology company with advanced technologies to precisely target and direct a plant’s natural gene-editing processes. This approach accelerates natural plant breeding that has been a staple of farming for thousands of years and has resulted in a rapid, versatile, and low-cost way to produce sustainable industrial and agricultural products and improve human health by safely harnessing nature's own genetic diversity.
The company has a worldwide presence, with subsidiaries in Europe and North America and a state-of-the-art research and development center in San Diego. Cibus has a pipeline of traits for canola and rice and is developing crop platforms and a pipeline of trait products in other major global crops including soybean, corn, and wheat. The broad applicability of Cibus’ technologies is highlighted by the company’s strain-advancement program, which develops sustainable products in microbial platforms for food, flavor and fragrance, and personal care markets.
Reporting Structure & Organizational Authority
The Data Governance Specialist reports to the Executive Director, Information Technology & Information Security and operates as a leader within the enterprise Information Management framework.
This role serves as the enterprise operational authority for data governance, data quality, metadata management, and data lifecycle alignment, with organization wide accountability for defining and administering standards consistent with enterprise Information Management requirements and in coordination with Legal/Compliance, Privacy, and Information Security functions, as applicable.
Provides functional and programmatic leadership and training across the organization.
Delegated Authority
Acts with delegated authority to:
- Develop, maintain, and steward enterprise data standards, definitions, taxonomies, and metadata models for approval and adoption through the Company’s Information Management processes
- Escalate data quality, compliance, and data risk issues to Information Management leadership when issues present cross-functional risk, policy conflict, or enterprise-level implications
- Administer, document, and maintain auditable records of approved exceptions and waivers to data standards, including rationale, compensating controls, and review cadence
Position Responsibilities
- Develop, implement, and maintain enterprise-wide data governance standards, policies, and procedures in alignment with Information Management strategic direction.
- Establish and maintain a complete, traceable record of data provenance, movement, transformation, and consumption across organizational systems (data lineage).
- Define and operationalize structured data stewardship and ownership frameworks that clarify roles, responsibilities, and accountability across the organization. This includes establishing the Data Governance function as the enterprise-level owner and steward for data definitions, standards, and “source of truth” designations, and designating and overseeing domain-level data owners and stewards.
- Ensure compliance across the enterprise with regulatory, privacy, security, and records management requirements related to data handling and retention. This includes coordinating with Legal & Compliance and Information Security on interpretation, control design, and escalation for material risk.
- Develop, maintain, and audit enterprise-wide Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Model recommendations per industry best practice. This includes research, development, capability testing and other functions as needed.
Core Competencies
- Must be able to work independently and as part of a team
- Must be detail-oriented and display a high degree of accuracy
- Must be able to meet deadlines
- Enterprise level strategic thinking and systems problem solving
- Program leadership and organizational influence
- Ability to define, enforce, and operationalize standards across diverse teams
- Strong commitment to data quality, security, privacy, and compliance
Cibus provides an attractive compensation and benefits package that includes medical/dental/vision, flexible spending, 401(k) plan, vacation and sick leave. If you enjoy working as part of a team and want to participate in this exciting research, please e-mail resume to hr@cibus.com and put down job code: IT2603.
ONLY CANDIDATES WITH WORK AUTHORIZATION IN THE U.S. ARE CONSIDERED AT THIS TIME.