Lead Specialist Governance & Master Data

About Ma'aden and the Role

Ma'aden, established in 1997, is a global mining company and the largest multi-commodity mining and metals company in the Middle East. It plays a role in developing the mining industry as a key economic pillar in Saudi Arabia. This full-time role for a Lead Specialist, Governance & Master Data, based in Riyadh, contributes to the company's growth by strengthening data management practices.

Role Purpose and Impact

The Lead Specialist, Governance & Master Data, is responsible for treating data as a trusted enterprise asset. This involves establishing standards, ownership, controls, and master data foundations to support reliable reporting, analytics, artificial intelligence, automation, and business decision-making. The role aims to improve data accuracy, consistency, traceability, and usability across business functions and technology platforms, thereby reducing operational inefficiency, mitigating data-related risks, and enhancing regulatory and audit readiness.

Key Responsibilities

• Establish governance frameworks, policies, standards, and decision rights for critical data ownership and accountability.
• Align governance practices with enterprise data strategy, architecture principles, cybersecurity, and regulatory obligations.
• Govern master data definitions, hierarchies, business rules, and lifecycle controls across domains such as assets, materials, suppliers, and employees.
• Improve master data consistency across systems to reduce duplication and reconciliation efforts.
• Define measurable quality rules and controls for data completeness, accuracy, consistency, validity, and timeliness.
• Drive root-cause resolution of recurring data issues and track improvements using quality indicators.
• Strengthen data discoverability and trust through effective metadata, lineage, cataloguing, and traceability practices.
• Integrate data quality, ownership, security, metadata, and lineage controls into data pipelines, cloud environments, and analytics platforms.
• Identify and mitigate governance, privacy, security, and master data risks.
• Maintain evidence-based controls for regulatory compliance and audit readiness.
• Equip data owners, stewards, analysts, and technology teams with practical playbooks and governance guidance.
• Influence stakeholders to adopt master data standards and accountable data practices.

Experience and Qualifications

• 5-10 years of relevant experience in data governance and master data management.
• Demonstrated ability to establish governance frameworks and policies.
• Experience in improving data quality and consistency across systems.
• Proficiency in integrating data controls into various technology platforms.

Measures of Success

• Achieving agreed improvements in completeness, accuracy, consistency, validity, and timeliness for critical data domains.
• Consistent adoption of master data standards and hierarchies across priority systems and business processes.
• Reduction in recurring data issues, duplicate records, reconciliation efforts, and control exceptions.
• Clear assignment of owners and stewards for critical data assets, supported by documented accountability.
• Improved metadata, lineage, and catalogue coverage for priority data assets, enhancing traceability and user confidence.
• Ensuring analytics, AI, reporting, and automation initiatives utilize governed data that meets defined quality and compliance requirements.

Work Environment

This is a full-time position located in Riyadh. The role involves working within a team focused on strengthening Ma'aden's data capabilities and contributing to the development of the mining industry in Saudi Arabia.