[Hiring] Principal, Data Governance Platforms @Alignment Health

Role Description

The Principal, Data Governance Platforms is the organization's technical authority for enabling enterprise data governance through purpose-built technology platforms and data management capabilities, spanning metadata, master data, data quality, and lineage. Working at the intersection of data engineering, enterprise architecture, and governance strategy, this role ensures that governance is not just a policy — it is a platform capability that operates reliably at scale. Collaborating closely with data engineering teams, enterprise architects, and governance operations counterparts, the Principal designs and implements the technical infrastructure that makes governance measurable, auditable, and sustainably automated.

Job Duties / Responsibilities

• Governance Platform Strategy & Architecture: Define the technology architecture for enterprise data governance capabilities — including metadata management, MDM, data quality, and lineage — ensuring the platform strategy supports both current operational requirements and future AI and analytics ambitions. Align platform decisions with enterprise data architecture principles and cloud ecosystem standards.
• Platform Implementation & Lifecycle Operations: Lead and execute the implementation of governance platforms, managing configuration, integration, testing, and go-live activities in partnership with engineering and IT teams. Ensure platforms operate at production-grade standards for performance, availability, and data integrity across all governance use cases.
• Data Lifecycle Capability Enablement: Enable governance-aligned data integration, transformation, enrichment, and standardization capabilities by embedding governance controls directly into data pipelines and processing workflows. Partner with data engineering to ensure governance requirements are built into platform architecture from the ground up, not layered on afterward.
• Data Integration & Workflow Automation: Design and implement automated governance workflows — including data quality rule execution, metadata harvesting, lineage capture, and MDM matching — within data pipelines and platform ecosystems. Reduce manual governance overhead by embedding automation at the point of data creation and movement.
• Lineage, Observability & Traceability: Enable comprehensive visibility into data flows, system dependencies, and transformation logic to support impact analysis, audit readiness, and root cause investigation. Maintain lineage capabilities that span the full data ecosystem from source systems through to downstream consumption in analytics, reporting, and AI model inputs.
• Technical Governance Standards & Documentation: Establish and maintain technical standards for how governance platforms are configured, integrated, and operated, ensuring consistency across platform implementations and enabling knowledge transfer to engineering teams. Produce platform architecture documentation that serves both technical teams and governance stakeholders.
• Collaboration with Engineering & Enterprise Architecture: Partner closely with data engineering, cloud infrastructure, and enterprise architecture teams to ensure governance platforms are integrated into the broader data and technology ecosystem. Translate governance business requirements into scalable technical solutions that align with organizational standards and security controls.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, or data governance platform implementation.
• Demonstrated experience implementing and operating enterprise-scale data governance or data management platforms.
• Experience integrating governance tooling into cloud-based data platforms and pipelines.
• Healthcare industry experience preferred; Medicare Advantage or payer experience is a significant differentiator.
• Experience implementing MDM, data catalog, or data quality platforms in a regulated healthcare environment.

Requirements

• Education Required: Bachelor's degree in Information Management, Information Systems, Computer Science, Data Engineering, Business, Health Informatics, or a related field.
• Training Required: Hands-on platform experience with at least one enterprise data catalog (e.g., Purview, Alation), one MDM platform (e.g., Reltio, Informatica, Profisee), and one data quality/observability tool (e.g., Acceldata, Informatica DQ).
• HIPAA technical compliance knowledge as it applies to data platform architecture.

Skills & Competencies

• Metadata Management & Data Catalog Platforms: Hands-on expertise with Microsoft Purview or Alation for metadata ingestion, cataloging, lineage capture, and governance policy enforcement.
• Master Data Management Systems: Deep implementation experience with MDM platforms such as Reltio, Informatica MDM, or Profisee; understanding of matching, merging, and golden record architecture.
• Data Quality & Observability Tools: Proficiency with data quality platforms including Acceldata or Informatica Data Quality; ability to configure rules, scoring frameworks, and alerting at scale.
• Data Pipeline & Integration Design: Solid grounding in data engineering practices including ETL/ELT pipelines, API integration, and cloud-native data platforms (Azure Data Factory, Databricks, or equivalent).
• Cloud Data Platforms & Architecture: Experience architecting governance solutions within enterprise cloud ecosystems; working knowledge of cloud security controls, access management, and data classification.
• SQL & Data Querying: Proficiency in SQL for data validation, quality rule development, and governance investigation workflows.
• Technical Documentation & Architecture Communication: Ability to produce clear platform architecture documents and translate technical design decisions for non-technical governance stakeholders.

Essential Physical Functions

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee regularly is required to stand, walk, sit, use hand to finger, handle or feel objects, tools, or controls; and reach with hands and arms.
• The employee frequently lifts and/or moves up to 10 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and the ability to adjust focus.

Pay Range

Pay Range: $149,882.00 - $224,823.00. Pay range may be based on a number of factors including market location, education, responsibilities, experience, etc.