Head of Data Governance at Kifiya Financial Technology

About the Role

• The Head of Data Governance will lead the establishment, implementation, and continuous improvement of Kifiya’s data governance framework to ensure that data across all business functions is accurate, consistent, secure, and compliant. This role balances strategic oversight with operational enablement and plays a pivotal part in enabling intelligent, data-driven decisioning by driving policies, standards, and controls that promote trusted data across the enterprise.

What You’ll Do

• Develop, implement, and maintain the enterprise-wide Data Governance Framework, aligned with organizational strategy and regulatory requirements.
• Define and enforce data ownership, stewardship, and accountability structures across all data domains.
• Establish clear data policies, standards, and operating procedures for data quality, metadata, lineage, and classification.
• Oversee data quality programs to ensure accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and consistency of data across systems.
• Work closely with compliance, risk, and legal teams to ensure adherence to data protection and privacy regulations (e.g., POPIA, GDPR).
• Drive remediation initiatives for data-related risks and ensure consistent application of governance standards.
• Lead the adoption of tools and practices for metadata management, data cataloguing, and data lineage tracking.
• Partner with data engineering and architecture teams to integrate governance into data pipelines and lifecycle management.
• Support the development and management of Master and Reference Data to ensure consistency across business domains.
• Establish and lead a community of Data Stewards across business and technical units.
• Define roles and responsibilities for data owners, custodians, and users to ensure accountability.
• Provide guidance and training to embed governance practices into everyday operations.
• Partner with data engineering, data science, analytics, and credit risk teams to ensure governance principles are integrated throughout the IDD value chain.
• Serve as the primary governance liaison between IDD and other business units to ensure alignment on data priorities and standards.
• Report regularly to the CDO on governance maturity, data risks, and improvement initiatives.
• Define and track Key Data Governance Metrics (DG KPIs) such as data quality scores, policy adoption rates, and issue resolution trends.
• Maintain a governance dashboard to support management and regulatory reporting.
• Support audit and assurance processes related to data management.

What You’ll Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Management, Data Science, Computer Science, or a related field (Master’s preferred).
• Minimum of 8–10 years of experience in data governance, data management, or information architecture roles.
• Proven experience in establishing or scaling data governance frameworks within complex organizations.
• Familiarity with data governance tools (e.g., Collibra, Alation, Apache Atlas, Informatica).
• Experience working within financial services, fintech, or regulated industries is highly advantageous.
• Strong understanding of data management principles (DAMA-DMBOK, DCAM, or equivalent frameworks).
• In-depth knowledge of data quality management, metadata management, and data privacy regulations.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and influencing skills.
• Ability to work cross-functionally with technical and business stakeholders.
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking capabilities with a focus on operational excellence.