Data Governance Lead (Hybrid)

Thndr was founded with the dream to democratize access to investing through smart tech and human design, which is just a fancy way of saying giving anyone with a smartphone easy access to preserve and grow their wealth. At the same time, we’re promoting local investment products to propel the economies that we serve
History has shown that investing is the single greatest way to build long term wealth - but before Thndr, only a very small percentage of people had access to investing due to:

• High barriers to entry - In the form of minimum account balances, brick and mortar onboarding and low financial literacy.
• Irrelevant experience - Catered towards traders and financial experts, therefore alienating the majority of the population.
• Fragmented offering - Investment products are not gathered in a single outlet.

On our short journey we’ve validated that there is a need for our solution, as illustrated by these key figures:

• 3 million app downloads
• $8.8bn in annualized traded value
• #1 platform in terms of traded value
• 84% of our users are investing for the first time
• 65% of our users come from outside of capital cities and have previously had limited access to financial institutions

We’re proud of how far we’ve come and the size of our impact in just a few years - but we’re just getting started and are excited for what’s to come.
It’ll take a lot of passion, bold risks, and hard work to fulfill our mission of democratizing investing in MENA and giving everyone an equal opportunity to generate and grow their wealth.
About The Role

Thndr is searching for a meticulous and experienced data governance & compliance expert to join our talented data team. 

You will be responsible for the following: 

• Leading Data Governance (DG) talent within Enterprise Data & Analytics (EDA)

  
  

• Leading DG team across three main sub-domains: a) Data Protection (Security and Privacy), b) Data Quality Assurance, and c) Metadata Management, all of which are strongly business oriented. 

  
  

• Driving DG activities through a network of business Data Custodians (executive level) and business Data Stewards (specialist level) across the organization, as well as representing DG on behalf of the various business functions across Thndr entities within EDA ensuring that data is properly governed and treated as a corporate asset across all Enterprise Data & Analytics Platforms, Processes and Services. 

  
  

The job holder will define and implement the DG Strategy for Thndr in alignment with the VP of Data and various business executives across the organization, define DG processes and procedures as well as manage the various DG structures across the business. You will work across all business pillars of the organization and within complex programs at executive level, where data protection requirements and corporate metric and KPI decisions need to be made and aligned. You will report into the VP of Data.

What You'll Do

• Define Data Governance mission and purpose for Data & Analytics, and translate it into a DG strategy and roadmap aligning with company objectives.

  
  

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and stakeholders to cultivate a culture of data governance, encouraging proactive engagement and participation from all team members. Increase awareness of risks by integrating ongoing risk assessments and training initiatives. Strengthen audit trailing and data lineage monitoring by implementing agile methodologies and tools for real-time tracking and analysis.

  
  

• Ensure the systematic collection and alignment of Data Protection requirements for all data entrusted to Data & Analytics platforms and systems. This includes selecting the necessary Data Protection controls, closely collaborating with Thndr’s Legal, compliance & Safety, and considering other protection requirements, such as competitive data sensitivity. Oversee the planning and implementation of these controls across all data products, platforms and services, as well as within the organization's Cyber Security function.

  
  

• The Data Governance (DG) lead ensures the reliability of data by defining standards, conducting assessments, implementing controls, and fostering continuous improvement.

  
  

• Advise and support various business areas (Data Custodians and Data Stewards) on mitigation and resolution of DQ issues resulting from lack of master data management or source data challenges in the business.

  
  

• Ensure semantic alignment and consistency of information matrices, data models, metric and KPI definitions across the whole Enterprise through the relevant Data Governance forums, business Data Stewards and Data Custodians.

  
  

• Ensure systematic context, definition and documentation of all relevant metadata for Enterprise Data & Analytics platforms and systems across all EDA products and services.

  
  

• Stay connected with EDA's product and services roadmap as well as industry trends and developments in the areas of Data Governance, Data Management and Analytics. Define analytics self-service model for business users across the organization, i.e. different governance and DQ levels for business self-service, etc.

  
  

• Manage and prioritize DG related feature backlog (Data Protection controls, metadata changes, etc.) on behalf of the business for implementation in Enterprise Data & Analytics platforms and systems, across different products and services, in close collaboration with associated Product community.

  
  

• Build productive relationships with other capability heads such as Architecture, Delivery, Product Management, Data Engineering, Data Science, Business Intelligence, DevOps, Quality Assurance, tool providers and business stakeholders like Data Custodians and Data Stewards to enable collaboration at scale and effective resolution of any impediments encountered by the autonomous teams.

  
  

What You'll Need

Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent in information technology, management, data specific or related field. Master’s degree is preferable.

KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS REQUIRED

• Knowledge of the Data & Analytics platform stacks from datalakes, ETL/ELT tooling to BI tools and Data Science Platforms.

  
  

• Demonstrated expertise in developing robust data classification and lineage frameworks.

  
  

• Extensive knowledge of various data protection controls (encryption, anonymization, tokenization, user access controls, etc.)

  
  

• Solid grasp of contemporary data privacy regulations such as GDPR, coupled with extensive familiarity with financial markets and adherence to data privacy and legal compliance standards in the Egypt, ADGM, and Saudi markets.

  
  

• Excellent communication and influencing skills, in particular working with senior and diverse business stakeholders across the organization as well as solution architects and Data Engineers to align and drive value from Data Governance practices.

  
  

• Ability to use professional concepts and company objectives to solve complex issues.

  
  

• Research industry innovations and best practices. Apply appropriately in the solution domain.

  
  

• Familiarity with existing industry best-practice DG frameworks and methodologies.

  
  

• Excellent team building and team working skills in a multicultural and diverse environment.

  
  

At Thndr, we’re looking for people invigorated by our mission, not just those who simply check off all the boxes. We’re looking for people that are hungry to become agents of change and that understand the huge responsibility associated with dealing with people’s money.