Data Governance Lead

About Us

Tamara is the leading fintech platform in Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC region with a mission to help people make their dreams come true by building the most customer-centric financial super-app on earth. The company serves millions of users in the region and partners with leading global and regional brands such as Apple, SHEIN, Jarir, noon, IKEA and Amazon, as well as small and medium businesses.

Tamara is Saudi Arabia’s first fintech unicorn and is backed by Sanabil Investments, a wholly owned company by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), SNB Capital, Checkout.com, amongst others. The company operates from its headquarters in Riyadh, with additional regional and global support offices.

Your Role

The Data Governance Lead will be responsible for leading the implementation, operation, and continuous improvement of Tamara’s data governance framework, ensuring that data is managed as a trusted, secure, well-controlled, and valuable organizational asset.

You will work closely with business, data, engineering, security, privacy, compliance, risk, and product teams to establish clear data ownership, strengthen data quality, maintain data governance standards, embed governance requirements into business and technology processes, and support regulatory and audit readiness. You will play a key role in maturing Tamara’s data governance capabilities across data ownership, classification, quality, lifecycle management, metadata, reporting, and governance assurance.

Your Responsibilities

• Lead the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of Tamara’s data governance policies, standards, procedures, and operating models.

• Establish and maintain data ownership, stewardship, and accountability models across business and technology functions.

• Define, monitor, and report on data governance KPIs, KRIs, maturity indicators, and management updates.

• Identify opportunities to improve data governance maturity, operational efficiency, reporting quality, and control effectiveness.

• Drive the execution of data governance practices, including data classification, lifecycle management, retention, metadata management, and business glossaries.

• Oversee data quality monitoring, including identifying, prioritizing, and remediating issues related to accuracy, completeness, consistency, and integrity.

• Maintain and enhance governance documentation, including data inventories, ownership registers, data lineage, and governance dashboards.

• Provide governance input and challenge for projects involving data usage, sharing, new platforms, analytics, and integrations.

• Support compliance with regulatory and industry requirements (SAMA, PDPL, PCI-DSS, and other financial services obligations).

• Lead data governance assessments and control reviews to evaluate adherence to internal policies and regulatory standards.

• Identify data-related risks and control gaps, working with stakeholders to define and track remediation plans to closure.

• Lead the preparation of data governance evidence and documentation for internal audits, external audits, and regulatory inspections.

• Partner with cross-functional teams (engineering, security, privacy, compliance, risk, product) to embed governance requirements into new systems and technology changes.

• Drive stakeholder engagement to improve data governance awareness, accountability, and adoption across the organization.

• Provide ongoing guidance and support to data owners, data stewards, and technical teams on governance best practices.

Your Expertise

• 2-5 years of experience in Data Governance, Data Management, Data Quality, or Compliance. Previous experience in fintech, banking, or a regulated financial environment is preferred.

• Strong understanding of data ownership, stewardship, metadata management, data lineage, and lifecycle management.

• Strong grasp of compliance expectations related to data management and privacy, particularly SAMA requirements, PDPL, and PCI-DSS.

• Strong analytical skills with proficiency in Excel and experience with SQL, Power BI, Tableau, or similar reporting tools. Good understanding of enterprise data environments and reporting layers.

• Proven ability to identify data quality root causes, define remediation actions, and conduct governance assessments and audit support.

• Exceptional stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence cross-functional teams and produce clear documentation for technical and non-technical audiences.

• Ability to operate independently and manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• University degree in Information Management, Computer Science, Risk Management, or a related field.

• Professional certifications such as CDMP, DCAM, COBIT, CIPP, or ISO 27001.

• Experience leading enterprise data governance programs or maturity improvement initiatives.

• Hands-on experience with dedicated data governance, cataloging, metadata, lineage, or GRC tools.

• Prior experience operating under SAMA regulatory oversight.