Data Governance / Target Operating Model (TOM) Lead
We are
At Synechron, we believe in the power of digital to transform businesses for the better. Our global consulting firm combines creativity and innovative technology to deliver industry-leading digital solutions. Synechron’s progressive technologies and optimization strategies span end-to-end Artificial Intelligence, Consulting, Digital, Cloud & DevOps, Data, and Software Engineering, servicing an array of noteworthy financial services and technology firms. Through research and development initiatives in our FinLabs we develop solutions for modernization, from Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain to Data Science models, Digital Underwriting, mobile-first applications and more. Over the last 20+ years, our company has been honored with multiple employer awards, recognizing our commitment to our talented teams. With top clients to boast about, Synechron has a global workforce of 17,000+, and has 58 offices in 22 countries within key global markets.
Our challenge
Synechron is seeking an experienced Data Governance & Operating Model Lead to design and implement a federated data-governance model across a banking or capital-markets environment. The role will establish a canonical business taxonomy, define clear domain boundaries, assign accountable producing domains and develop producer-consumer data contracts. Candidate will translate complex dependency and lineage findings into practical ownership, stewardship and contract obligations, while ensuring that the target governance model is embedded into the organisation’s architecture and operating practices. The successful candidate will be comfortable working at enterprise scale, challenging ambiguous ownership decisions and producing governance artefacts that are practical for domain teams and defensible to internal audit, regulators and senior stakeholders.
Additional Information*
The base salary for this position will vary based on geography and other factors. In accordance with law, the base salary for this role if filled within New York, NY is $130k - $145k/year & benefits (see below).
The Role
Responsibilities:
- Agree the taxonomy normalisation method and the metadata standard (ISO/IEC 11179)
- Establish the four boundary tests as the documented decision method: business capability rather than schema; origination beats usage; change cadence and cohesion; accountability for the business decision the data supports.
- Normalise the inventory into a canonical, FIBO-informed taxonomy with explicit boundary definitions, collapsing variants such as "Reference" / "Market Data" / "Reference / Market Data", "Equities Front Office" versus "Equity Front Office", and the several spellings of "Derivatives Operations (Reg Ops)".
- Assign exactly one accountable producing domain to every item and produce the domain-assignment matrix with written rationale (DDD context mapping).
- Resolve multi-domain and contested items through DACI. Contested artefacts, typically cross-domain stored procedures - are decomposed into origination logic held by the producer and derivation logic held as a consumer-side product; they are not shared.
- Convert the dependency and lineage map into named consuming domains and contract obligations for every UI, extract feed and downstream application.
- Draft provisional producer-consumer data contracts to ODCS, each specifying all six mandatory elements: schema and semantics; quality SLOs; freshness and availability; access and entitlement; versioning; change and deprecation.
- Define the target operating model across the four roles: Domain Owner (accountable), Data Product Owner (responsible), Data Steward (quality and metadata), Platform team (enablement, never ownership) - with a stewardship RACI that names real people or real positions
- Supply the governance plane definition into the target-state architecture: taxonomy conformance, contract registry, policy-as-code, quality SLOs and access entitlement enforced at the point of publish.
- Advise on adoption sequencing, which domains are ready to hold accountability on day one and which need an interim arrangement.
Requirements:
- 10+ years in data governance within banking or capital markets; 5+ leading governance or TOM design at enterprise scale.
- Federated governance design experience, evidence of a model that was adopted by domain teams, not a policy set that was published and ignored. Ask for the adoption evidence.
- Domain-Driven Design context mapping applied to data domains, and working familiarity with FIBO and BIAN service domains as sources of canonical boundaries.
- Data contract standards (ODCS or equivalent) and metadata registry standards (ISO/IEC 11179).
- Regulatory grounding that makes the governance defensible under examination: BCBS 239 principles, critical data element definition and coverage, Dodd-Frank, MiFID II
- Practical facility with catalogue, lineage and data-quality tooling: Unity Catalog, Microsoft Purview, Collibra, Alation, Solidatus, Securiti.ai, Anomalo.
- Ability to write a decision rationale that will still be defensible to an internal auditor two years from now.
Preferred, but not required:
- Domain-assignment matrix with rationale (Excel; DDD context mapping)
- Refined domain taxonomy and boundary definitions (Word; DDD + FIBO)
- Target operating model for ownership and stewardship (Word + RACI)
- Provisional producer-consumer data contracts (YAML/Excel; ODCS)
We offer:
- A highly competitive compensation and benefits package.
- A multinational organization with 58 offices in 22 countries and the possibility to work abroad.
- 10 days of paid annual leave (plus sick leave and national holidays).
- Maternity & paternity leave plans.
- A comprehensive insurance plan including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and long-/short-term disability (plans vary by region).
- Retirement savings plans.
- A higher education certification policy.
- Commuter benefits (varies by region).
- Extensive training opportunities, focused on skills, substantive knowledge, and personal development.
- On-demand Udemy for Business for all Synechron employees with free access to more than 5000 curated courses.
- Coaching opportunities with experienced colleagues from our Financial Innovation Labs (FinLabs) and Center of Excellences (CoE) groups.
- Cutting edge projects at the world’s leading tier-one banks, financial institutions and insurance firms.
- A flat and approachable organization.
- A truly diverse, fun-loving, and global work culture.
S YNECHRON’S DIVERSITY & INCLUSION STATEMENT
Diversity & Inclusion are fundamental to our culture, and Synechron is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiative ‘Same Difference’ is committed to fostering an inclusive culture - promoting equality, diversity and an environment that is respectful to all. We strongly believe that a diverse workforce helps build stronger, successful businesses as a global company. We encourage applicants from across diverse backgrounds, race, ethnicities, religion, age, marital status, gender, sexual orientations, or disabilities to apply. We empower our global workforce by offering flexible workplace arrangements, mentoring, internal mobility, learning and development programs, and more.
All employment decisions at Synechron are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to the applicant’s gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disabled or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.