Senior Data Security & Governance Specialist

Summary

The Senior Data Security & Governance Specialist is responsible for defining and enforcing governance, compliance, and security controls across modern data platforms built on Azure and Databricks. This role ensures that data is secure, trusted, and compliant while supporting consistent data definitions and governance practices across analytics and reporting environments. The specialist plays a critical role in managing access, ensuring regulatory compliance, and building confidence in enterprise data assets.

Responsibilities

• Establish and maintain a data governance framework including policies, standards, and procedures.
• Implement and manage fine-grained access control using Azure AD, RBAC, and Databricks Unity Catalog.
• Oversee metadata management, data cataloging, and lineage tracking across data assets.
• Ensure secure data flows across ADF, Databricks, AAS, and Power BI.
• Define and enforce role-based and row-level security in semantic models.
• Partner with engineering teams to enforce encryption in transit and at rest.
• Implement and audit secret management practices using Azure Key Vault and Databricks secret scopes.
• Define and monitor data quality rules, including automated validation processes.
• Lead compliance initiatives to meet GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, or industry-specific requirements.
• Conduct regular audits, review access logs, and investigate anomalies.
• Provide governance oversight for semantic models to ensure consistent metric definitions.
• Collaborate with business data owners and stewards to assign ownership and accountability.
• Deliver training and communication to promote a data governance culture across teams.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in data governance, data security, or compliance-focused roles.
• Strong knowledge of data governance frameworks (e.g., DAMA DMBOK).
• Hands-on experience with Azure AD, RBAC, Key Vault, and Purview (or equivalent catalog tools).
• Experience with Databricks Unity Catalog and its access management capabilities.
• Familiarity with Power BI/AAS role-based security and administration.
• Strong knowledge of regulatory compliance (GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, SOC2, etc.).
• Proficiency in SQL and ability to analyze data lineage and access patterns.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with data catalog platforms (Microsoft Purview, Collibra, Alation).
• Knowledge of data quality management tools and frameworks.
• Familiarity with BI governance best practices (workspace management, certified datasets).
• Exposure to implementing privacy-by-design in data systems.
• Strong communication skills to lead workshops and governance committees.

Certifications

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500).
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate (DP-203).
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate (DP-500).
• Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP).
• Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP)
• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).