Lead, Data Governance

Stack

Responsibilities

• ▹Build and maintain data governance policies, classification standards, the ownership model and the exception process, in line with Security and Privacy requirements
• ▹Own data access governance for the lakehouse and analytics stack, including entitlement standards, periodic access reviews and least-privilege access across Trino, Ranger, Cube, Metabase and related tools
• ▹Work with Data Engineering on the technical side of controls such as Ranger policies, schema restrictions and service account management
• ▹Set data quality standards and help Data teams track and improve against them
• ▹Keep the data inventory, metadata and lineage documentation current for compliance and audit purposes
• ▹Review data-related vendors and new use cases (analytics platforms, reverse ETL, AI query tools, notebooks and similar) with Security, Privacy and Legal
• ▹Support sensitive and cross-border data requests, including PII handling and regional data flows for Engineering, Operations and New Markets
• ▹Prepare evidence for SOC 2, ISO 27001, CSA STAR, partner security reviews and regulatory exams
• ▹Track data risks and control gaps as part of the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program
• ▹Be the go-to governance partner for Data and Security on access, classification and tooling questions
• ▹Help define guardrails as AI and agentic use of corporate data in analytics workflows expands

Requirements

• ▹5+ years in data governance, data security, GRC, privacy engineering or a related field
• ▹At least 2 years working with modern data platforms (lakehouse/warehouse, SQL engines, BI, semantic layers)
• ▹Solid grasp of data governance frameworks (DAMA-DMBOK, NIST or similar) and how to apply them in a company that moves quickly
• ▹Have built or run data classification, access control or entitlement review programs, not just written the policies
• ▹Familiar with cloud data platforms (GCP a plus) and typical analytics tooling
• ▹Working knowledge of privacy and regulatory requirements in financial services (GDPR, CCPA, cross-border transfers and similar)
• ▹Experience supporting SOC 2, ISO 27001 or similar audits
• ▹Works well with engineering teams and knows how to push for good controls without becoming a bottleneck
• ▹Strong written and verbal communication skills
• ▹Organized, detail-oriented and comfortable in a fast-paced remote environment
• ▹Comfortable as an IC with no direct reports

Nice to have

• ▹Fintech, brokerage or regulated financial services background
• ▹Hands-on experience with Trino, Apache Ranger, dbt, Cube, Metabase, Airflow or Iceberg
• ▹Experience reviewing AI/ML and analytics tools
• ▹Privacy program or vendor/DPA review experience
• ▹CIPT, CIPM, CISM, CISSP, CDMP, CRISC or similar certifications
• ▹Has been the first governance hire at a growing company before
• ▹Experience with Japan or EU data residency and cross-border data issues
• ▹Exposure to ERM or operational risk
• ▹Remote or distributed team experience

Soft skills

What we offer

• ▹Competitive salary and stock options
• ▹Health benefits
• ▹New hire home-office setup: one-time USD 500
• ▹Monthly stipend: USD 150 via a Brex Card

About the company

Alpaca is a US-headquartered global provider of brokerage infrastructure (stocks, ETFs, options, crypto and more), serving hundreds of financial institutions in 40 countries through its APIs. The 400+ person team works remotely around the world.