Data Governance Lead

Company Description
Are you ready to trade your job for a journey? Become a FlyMate
Passion, excitement & global collaboration are all core to what it means to be a FlyMate. At Flywire, we're on a mission to deliver the world's most important and complex payments. We use our Flywire Advantage - the combination of our next-gen payments platform, proprietary payment network and vertical specific software, to help our clients get paid, and help their customers pay with ease - no matter where they are in the world.

What more do we need to truly be unstoppable? Perhaps, that is you

Who We Are
Flywire is a global payments enablement and software company, founded more than a decade ago to solve high-stakes, high-value payments in higher education. We've since scaled into new regions and industry verticals and expanded our product offerings to deliver meaningful value to our clients around the world.

Today we support more than 4,800 clients across the global education, healthcare, travel & B2B industries, with diverse payment methods across 240 countries & territories and more than 140 currencies.

With over 1,200 global FlyMates, representing more than 40 nationalities, and in 12 offices world-wide, we're looking for FlyMates to join the next stage of our journey as we continue to grow.

Job Description
The Opportunity:
We are seeking an experienced
Data Governance Lead
to establish and scale our data governance framework across Flywire's global operations. As our first dedicated data governance professional, you will build the foundation for data governance practices that support our rapidly growing fintech business.

This role is critical to ensuring our data products are managed as strategic business assets while maintaining compliance with global financial regulations. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to implement governance processes that enable data democratization while maintaining trust, security, and regulatory compliance.

What You'll Do
Strategy & Framework Development

• Governance Strategy: Develop and implement comprehensive data governance strategy aligned with business objectives and regulatory requirements
• Policy Creation: Establish data policies, standards, and procedures covering data quality, privacy, security, and lifecycle management
• Framework Design: Build scalable governance frameworks that support both self-service analytics and regulatory compliance
• Metrics & KPIs: Define and track data governance metrics including data quality scores, compliance rates, and stewardship effectiveness

Data Product Ownership

• Data Product Owner: Once frameworks are established and where appropriate serve as a data product owner for one or more data products.
• Data Product Leadership: Ensure data product owners roll up up their plans as part of the overall data and analytics strategic roadmap
• Data Governance: Ensure governance process are followed and metadata documentation captured for our data products

Data Quality & Standards

• Quality Management: Oversee data quality monitoring, profiling, and remediation processes across the modern data stack
• Data Lineage: Work with engineering and analytics teams to establish comprehensive data lineage tracking from source systems through analytics and reporting
• Classification: Work with stakeholders to develop and maintain a data classification framework for (Public, Internal, Confidential, Regulated, and Restricted data
• Catalog Management: Work with our development team and business stakeholders to build and maintain our enterprise data catalog with a certified business glossary and technical metadata

Compliance & Risk Management

• Regulatory Compliance: Ensure data practices meet requirements for PCI-DSS, GDPR, CCPA, and other financial services regulations outlined by our compliance and security teams
• Audit Support: Lead data-related audits, SOX reporting, and regulatory examinations
• Privacy Management: Implement data privacy controls and support privacy impact assessments
• Stewardship & Culture
• Stewardship Program: Establish a network of data stewards across business units with clear roles and responsibilities
• Training & Adoption: Develop training programs to promote data literacy and governance awareness
• Change Management: Drive cultural change toward data-driven decision making with appropriate governance controls
• Stakeholder Engagement: Partner with business leaders to align governance initiatives with business priorities

Qualifications
Here's What We're Looking For:
Experience

• Degree in business administration, computer science, or business analytics preferred
• 10+ years of leadership experience for large data management programs
• Certified in Agile Scrum, DAMA, or other data governance alliances preferred but not required

Technical Competencies

• Data Management: Deep understanding of data architecture, modeling, and lifecycle management
• Analytics Platforms: Familiarity with modern data stack tools and cloud data platforms
• Master Data: Experience delivering master data programs, and core understanding of master data concepts
• Compliance Tools: Experience with GRC (Governance, Risk, Compliance) platforms and audit management systems
• Data Governance Tools: Experience with one or more of the following tools: Collibra, Alation, Atlan, etc.
• Documentation: Strong technical writing skills for policies, procedures, and training materials

Leadership & Communication

• Stakeholder Management: Ability to influence and collaborate with technical and business stakeholders at all levels
• Change Leadership: Experience driving organizational change and building consensus around new processes
• Communication: Excellent presentation and communication skills with ability to translate technical concepts for business audiences
• Problem Solving: Strong analytical thinking and ability to balance competing priorities and requirements

Additional Information
What We Offer:

• Competitive compensation, including Restricted Stock Units
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
• Flying Start - Our immersive Global Induction Program
• Work with brilliant people that will keep you on your toes, learn more about their journeys by checking out #InsideFlywire on social media
• Dynamic & Global Team (we have been collaborating virtually for years)
• Wellbeing Programs (Mental Health, Wellness) with Global FlyMates
• Be a meaningful part in our success - every FlyMate makes an impact
• Competitive time off including FlyBetter Days to volunteer in a cause you believe in and Digital Disconnect Days
• Great Talent & Development Programs

Submit today and get started
We are excited to get to know you Throughout our process you can expect to meet with different FlyMates including the Hiring Manager, Peers on the team, the VP of the department, and a skills assessment. Your Talent Acquisition Partner will walk you through the steps and be your "go-to" person for any questions.

Flywire is an equal opportunity employer. With over 30 nationalities across 12 different offices, and diversity and inclusion at the core of our people agenda, we believe our FlyMates are our greatest asset, and we're excited to watch our unique culture evolve with each new hire.

Flywire is an equal opportunity employer.