Data Governance Manager

Where industry intelligence is going next, and who's building it

For over five decades, the world's most sophisticated institutions have relied on IBISWorld to navigate uncertainty, identify opportunity and stay ahead of change. Banks, consulting firms, governments: when the stakes are high and the answer has to be right, they come to us.

That trust is our legacy, and it's our starting point. We're advancing beyond traditional research into AI-enabled, actionable intelligence, embedding human-verified insight directly into the workflows our clients live in so they can see further and decide faster. The ground is shifting in our industry, and we are the ones moving it.

You'd be joining at the most exciting moment to do so.

Why this role, right now

IBISWorld is reinventing itself. We're evolving our business model, launching new product lines and building AI into everything we sell. Every one of those moves changes the numbers underneath: new revenue types, new pricing, new ways of counting a customer and a sale. Someone has to work out what those numbers should mean, and make sure the business can trust them from day one.

That's this role. You'll partner directly with our executive team as the business evolves, turning big commercial decisions into clear definitions, sound controls and reporting the Board can rely on. It's rare to join a business while it's actively redesigning how it makes money, and rarer still to be the person shaping how that change is measured.

We're starting from a strong foundation: a Microsoft Fabric platform, working integrations and accurate numbers across sales, finance, contracts, pricing, commissions and headcount. This is a dedicated, hands-on governance role, and governance will stay at its core as the business grows. You'll report to the Chief Information Officer, who is also our Data Protection Officer, and lead a small Melbourne-based team of one to two data engineers who turn your rules and controls into working pipelines, security and monitoring.

Your next leadership step

If you've been leading governance work inside someone else's function and you're ready to own one outright, this is the one to look at.

• A function that's yours. You'll set the standards, write the rules and decide how governance works here, rather than inheriting someone else's framework.
• A team to lead. You'll manage one to two data engineers, setting their priorities, developing their skills and turning governance from policy into working code.
• A seat with the executive team. You'll work alongside our executives on how a changing business model is defined and measured, with real influence on decisions at the top.
• Visibility that builds a career. Your work will sit behind every executive and Board report, and the people who matter will know your name.
• Room to grow. As the framework matures and the business keeps changing, the role grows with it, with scope to grow your team and broaden your leadership over time.

What you'll own

You'll own the governance of the data IBISWorld runs on: the definitions, the controls, the quality, and the trust that executive and Board decisions depend on.

• Partner with the executive team as the business model changes, shaping how new product lines, pricing and revenue are defined, measured and reported
• Lead and develop a team of one to two data engineers, directing how governance controls, quality checks and lineage are built into our Fabric platform
• Author and maintain the metrics dictionary and business glossary, with a named business owner against every definition
• Get departments to one answer when they define the same metric differently, and write down why
• Assure executive and Board reporting, so every number reconciles and rests on current rules
• Own access and protection: row-level security, scheduled access reviews, query audit logging, retention and personal data handling
• Set up data quality monitoring and reconciliation across Salesforce, NetSuite and Fabric, with a clear process for when a number is wrong
• Own data lineage and change control, assessing impact before a change ships rather than after someone notices
• Govern our Copilot and agent-based data access: what models are grounded on, where humans stay in the loop, and how we roll back a wrong answer

Your first 90 days

• Map the numbers. Inventory every metric in executive and Board reporting and trace where each one comes from.
• Meet the owners. Sit down with Sales, Finance and People & Culture leads to understand how they use the data and where they don't trust it.
• Start the dictionary. Write up the core sales and finance definitions and agree a named owner for each.
• Stand up change control. Put a simple, working process in place for changes to data, definitions and rules.
• Review access. Assess who can see what today and identify the gaps in row-level security and audit logging.
• Set the roadmap. Agree priorities for the rest of year one with the CIO, covering quality monitoring, access controls and AI oversight.

Who thrives here

We hire for culture as deliberately as we hire for capability, and we're specific about it. The people who do their best work at IBISWorld:

• Hold a high bar for the quality of their own work, without being asked to.
• Make decisions with the customer's experience as the top priority.
• Stay honest and transparent, even when the news is hard to deliver.
• Stay curious, pursuing learning, experimentation, and continual growth.
• Build genuine teamwork and collaborate by default.
• Question assumptions and look for evidence before making decisions.
• Stay calm under pressure and steady the team through any setbacks.

If you read that list and recognise yourself, we should talk.

What you'll bring

• 5+ years in data governance or data management, with at least 3 where governance was the primary focus of your role
• Hands-on experience building and maintaining a metrics dictionary or business glossary the business actually uses
• A track record of implementing access models, row-level security, data quality rules and change control, not just recommending them
• Working knowledge of privacy obligations under the Australian Privacy Act
• Practical technical depth across Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, semantic models and ETL/ELT, enough to direct data engineers, trace lineage and spot a change that will break something
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to get two departments to agree on one definition
• Experience leading, managing or mentoring technical people such as data engineers, whether formally or as the lead on governance work
• Experience delivering under external scrutiny such as regulatory reporting, audit sign-off or privacy review (a plus)
• Experience governing AI or self-service analytics tools such as Copilot (a plus)

The offer

This is a chance to help steer a 50-year business through its biggest change yet. You'll build and lead a governance function from a strong foundation, with a team of your own, the authority to write the rules, a CIO who wants them followed, and an executive team that wants your input as the business model takes shape.

Beyond the role: a team that holds the same standards and values you do, hands-on exposure to how AI is changing the way a business uses its own data, and the backing of a brand the world's biggest institutions already trust.

We're not interested in building an average team. If that's the kind of place you've been looking for, bring the bar. We'll meet it.

Compensation - AU$150,000 – $175,000 + superannuation

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