Wait, What Do You Do?

About the Role:

Grade Level (for internal use):

The Role Scope:

The Data Steward Lead is an individual contributor role that supports datasets end‑to‑end with strong ownership and alignment to product deliveries and roadmaps. The role drives the execution of multiple projects, gaining exposure to product deliveries, managing data ingestion activities, overseeing vendor data reviews, and leading user acceptance testing cycles for backend tables and data distribution. The position also addresses complex client queries and manages related escalations.

The Data Steward Lead advances operational excellence by streamlining backend database curation, refining, and enforcing data policies, ensuring compliance, maintaining taxonomy and metadata, and coordinating effectively with Technology and Operations teams. The role also leads targeted automation initiatives and supports the adoption of artificial‑intelligence‑enabled stewardship practices to enhance efficiency and data quality.

What You’ll Do (Key Responsibilities)

Operational Delivery

Define validation rules, checkpoints, and minor policy or process enhancements.
Manage dataset ingestion, taxonomy governance, and data lineage.
Contribute to strengthening the data governance framework for assigned datasets by designing, refining, and enforcing robust governance controls that align with enterprise standards and data management standards.
Execute vendor reviews and coordinate vendor data integration and cost‑optimization activities.
Own parts of user acceptance testing cycles for assigned datasets, including backend database changes, downstream data flows, and risk assessments.
Govern stewardship tasks and identify process improvements to streamline workflows and remove duplication.
Expand scope across multiple projects within a domain and begin defining validation and policy standards.
Balance project execution (approximately 70 percent) with governance and vendor coordination (approximately 30 percent).
Write requirements for small to medium‑sized projects and manage user acceptance testing.
Respond to complex client queries, review client escalations, and provide robust root‑cause analysis for resolution.
Ensure delivery of assigned projects is on track through close coordination with internal teams and Technology groups.
Lead smaller artificial‑intelligence‑enabled stewardship use cases within a dataset.

Process Excellence

Own a defined scope of user acceptance testing activities for the dataset.
Ensure adherence to established data, quality, and process standards.
Maintain high‑quality, accurate, and up‑to‑date documentation.

Stakeholder Management

Collaborate with Data Risk & Oversight (DRO) and Data Quality (DQ) teams acting as a key governance partner on governance requirements, control execution, and issue management.
Partner with Product and Technology teams to support data delivery, change implementation, and issue triage.
Engage proactively with stakeholders (Technology, Product, Operations) to communicate data standards, clarify ownership, and ensure governance principles are embedded into data workflows, issue resolution, and delivery outcomes
Support vendor data reviews, onboarding coordination, and validation activities as required.

How impact will be measured (Success Metrics)

Reduction in data defects and repeat issues across assigned datasets through strengthened validation, improved controls, and proactive remediation.
Vendor SLA adherence, including timely completion of vendor reviews, data corrections, integrations, and related turnaround expectations.
Improved data coverage and completeness for supported products and datasets, contributing to higher-quality outputs and enhanced downstream usability.

For This Role You'll Need to Have (Skills & Competencies)

Technical Skills

Demonstrates working proficiency in SQL and basic Python (preferred) to perform data analysis, validation, reconciliation, and issue investigation.
Understands and operates within agile delivery models, participating in sprint-based execution and iterative delivery cycles. based execution and iterative delivery cycles. based execution and iterative delivery cycles.
Capable of supporting prompt writing and interacting with AI enabled tooling to enhance stewardship, data quality checks, and workflow efficiency.

Functional Skills

Possesses strong domain and process understanding, enabling effective stewardship decisions across assigned datasets.
Knowledgeable in data governance policies and frameworks, ensuring consistent application across ingestion, validation, and distribution workflows.
Experienced in vendor data management, including review cycles, coordination with external providers, and issue identification or resolution.

Behavioral Skills

Applies structured, analytical problem‑solving to diagnose issues, drive root‑cause analysis, and propose practical interim and permanent fixes as remediation steps.
Communicates proactively and clearly with technical and non‑technical stakeholders, enabling effective collaboration.
Applies critical thinking & creative problem solving to build solutions for business problems.
Demonstrates strong learning agility and digital acumen, with a continuous learning mindset and the ability to adapt to evolving tools and technologies.
Shows willingness and capability to mentor junior stewards, foster knowledge sharing, and building broader team capability.

Preferred Education & Experience

Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field; professional coursework or certification in data governance is preferred.
5+ years of experience in data stewardship, data management, data governance, or related function.

Key Interfaces & Stakeholders

Data Quality, Data Governance
Technology teams, Product teams
Data Operations, Customer Success, and Compliance functions.

What’s In It For You?

Our Mission:

Advancing Essential Intelligence.

Our People:

We're more than 35,000 strong worldwide—so we're able to understand nuances while having a broad perspective. Our team is driven by curiosity and a shared belief that Essential Intelligence can help build a more prosperous future for us all.From finding new ways to measure sustainability to analyzing energy transition across the supply chain to building workflow solutions that make it easy to tap into insight and apply it. We are changing the way people see things and empowering them to make an impact on the world we live in. We’re committed to a more equitable future and to helping our customers find new, sustainable ways of doing business. Join us and help create the critical insights that truly make a difference.

Our Values:
Integrity, Discovery, Partnership

Throughout our history, the world's leading organizations have relied on us for the Essential Intelligence they need to make confident decisions about the road ahead. We start with a foundation of integrity in all we do, bring a spirit of discovery to our work, and collaborate in close partnership with each other and our customers to achieve shared goals.

Benefits:

We take care of you, so you can take care of business. We care about our people. That’s why we provide everything you—and your career—need to thrive at S&P Global.

Our benefits include:

Health & Wellness: Health care coverage designed for the mind and body.
Flexible Downtime: Generous time off helps keep you energized for your time on.
Continuous Learning: Access a wealth of resources to grow your career and learn valuable new skills.
Invest in Your Future: Secure your financial future through competitive pay, retirement planning, a continuing education program with a company-matched student loan contribution, and financial wellness programs.
Family Friendly Perks: It’s not just about you. S&P Global has perks for your partners and little ones, too, with some best-in class benefits for families.
Beyond the Basics: From retail discounts to referral incentive awards—small perks can make a big difference.

For more information on benefits by country visit: https://spgbenefits.com/benefit-summaries

Global Hiring and Opportunity at S&P Global:

At S&P Global, we are committed to fostering a connected and engaged workplace where all individuals have access to opportunities based on their skills, experience, and contributions. Our hiring practices emphasize fairness, transparency, and merit, ensuring that we attract and retain top talent. By valuing different perspectives and promoting a culture of respect and collaboration, we drive innovation and power global markets.

Recruitment Fraud Alert:

If you receive an email from a spglobalind.com domain or any other regionally based domains, it is a scam and should be reported to reportfraud@spglobal.com. S&P Global never requires any candidate to pay money for job applications, interviews, offer letters, “pre-employment training” or for equipment/delivery of equipment. Stay informed and protect yourself from recruitment fraud by reviewing our guidelines, fraudulent domains, and how to report suspicious activity here.

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Equal Opportunity Employer

S&P Global is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race/ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, marital status, military veteran status, unemployment status, or any other status protected by law. Only electronic job submissions will be considered for employment.

If you need an accommodation during the application process due to a disability, please send an email to: EEO.Compliance@spglobal.com and your request will be forwarded to the appropriate person. 

US Candidates Only: Know Your Rights: Workplace discrimination is illegal

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20 - Professional (EEO-2 Job Categories-United States of America), DTMGOP202.1 - Middle Professional Tier I (EEO Job Group), SWP Priority – Ratings - (Strategic Workforce Planning)

Data Specialist_Institution & People Profiles