Metadata Specialist | Data Catalog Administrator

About the Role

We seek a meticulous Metadata Specialist and Data Catalog Administrator to oversee enterprise metadata, maintain data catalogs, and enhance the findability, clarity, and governance of organizational data assets. This position requires collaboration with data owners, analysts, engineers, governance teams, and business stakeholders to ensure precise and consistent documentation and classification of data assets.

Primary Responsibilities

• Oversee and update enterprise data catalogs, metadata repositories, and business glossaries.
• Develop and maintain metadata for databases, applications, reports, dashboards, and other data resources.
• Define technical, business, operational, and descriptive metadata accurately.
• Ensure comprehensive documentation of data assets including descriptions, classifications, ownership, and usage details.
• Manage business glossaries, data dictionaries, reference data, and standardized terminologies.
• Collaborate with data experts to capture precise business definitions.
• Map relationships among datasets, systems, reports, and business workflows.
• Maintain data lineage and support traceability from source systems through downstream applications.
• Continuously monitor metadata completeness, consistency, and quality across the enterprise.
• Conduct regular metadata audits to uncover missing, outdated, or inconsistent information.
• Establish metadata management standards like naming conventions, classification rules, and documentation guidelines.
• Support data governance efforts by aligning metadata with organizational policies and standards.
• Configure and manage data catalog platforms including category structures, tags, user permissions, workflows, and approvals.
• Coordinate onboarding of metadata for new datasets, systems, applications, and data products.
• Enhance data discovery by improving searchability, categorization, and tagging within the data catalog.
• Work closely with data engineers to capture metadata from diverse sources including databases, APIs, data warehouses, and data lakes.
• Assist with metadata harvesting, scanning, profiling, and synchronization processes.
• Maintain documentation on data ownership, stewardship, sensitivity classifications, and access controls.
• Support data privacy and security initiatives by classifying sensitive and personally identifiable information appropriately.
• Create metadata quality reports and monitor key metrics.
• Investigate metadata discrepancies and collaborate on corrective actions.
• Assist with data lineage, impact analysis, and dependency assessments related to business and technical changes.
• Contribute to data migration, system implementations, cloud transformations, and data platform projects.
• Provide training and guidance to users on metadata standards, data catalogs, and discovery processes.
• Develop operational documentation, standards, and user manuals for managing metadata.
• Engage in data governance working groups and cross-functional initiatives.
• Identify and implement automation opportunities to enhance metadata collection and management.
• Continuously work to improve usability, coverage, and dependability of the organization's data catalog.

Candidate Profile

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science, Data Management, Information Systems, Business Analytics, or related areas.
• Demonstrated expertise in metadata management, data catalog administration, data governance, or data management disciplines.
• In-depth understanding of metadata concepts, catalogs, data dictionaries, glossaries, and data lineage.
• Hands-on experience with enterprise data catalog or metadata management platforms.
• Knowledge of data governance frameworks, stewardship practices, and standards.
• Experience documenting both technical and business metadata.
• Familiarity with databases, data warehouses, data lakes, and enterprise information systems.
• Preferred knowledge of SQL and relational databases.
• Understanding of APIs, ETL/ELT workflows, data integration, and pipelines.
• Beneficial experience with cloud data platforms like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
• Knowledge of tools such as Collibra, Alation, Informatica, Microsoft Purview, Atlan, or similar platforms is advantageous.
• Understanding of data lineage and impact analysis.
• Familiarity with data classification, privacy, security, and access control principles.
• Excellent analytical thinking, problem-solving, and attention to detail.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Capability to collaborate effectively with data teams, owners, and business users.
• Strong organizational and project management abilities to handle concurrent metadata initiatives.
• Experience in metadata quality monitoring and improvements is a plus.
• Awareness of data modeling, taxonomy, ontology, or semantic data concepts is favorable.
• Understanding of data standards, naming conventions, and controlled vocabularies.
• Proactive in identifying gaps and enhancing data discoverability.
• Relevant certifications in data governance, metadata management, or information management are desirable.

Benefits and Opportunities

• Competitive salary with comprehensive employee benefits.
• Experience working with large-scale enterprise data platforms and systems.
• Exposure to current data governance, metadata management, and catalog technologies.
• Professional growth opportunities in data management, governance, analytics, and information architecture.
• Support and training for technical certifications.
• Participation in cloud migration, data transformation, and enterprise data projects.
• Collaboration with experienced data engineers, architects, analysts, and governance specialists.
• Contribute to enterprise data standards and governance frameworks.
• Recognition for improvements in data discovery, documentation quality, and governance maturity.
• Clear career progression paths toward senior roles such as Senior Metadata Specialist, Data Governance Specialist, Data Catalog Manager, Metadata Manager, or Data Governance Lead.