Senior Data Management Consultant

Senior Data Management Consultant

Data Management Programme | Abu Dhabi Government Entity

Location

Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Employment Type

Employment Type: On-Rolls

Experience

Experience: 7+ years

Candidate Level

Level: L3

Notice Period

Notice Period: Immediate

Work Arrangement

Work Arrangement: Primarily onsite, with regular engagement with client stakeholders

Engagement Focus

Engagement Focus: Data management assessment readiness, documentation uplift, corrective-action closure and next-cycle preparation

Seniority

Seniority: Senior Consultant / Subject Matter Expert

Role Overview

The Senior Data Management Consultant will support an Abu Dhabi-based government entity in strengthening its enterprise data management programme and improving readiness for the Abu Dhabi Government Data Management Assessment cycle. The role will review, improve and, where necessary, recreate governance and operating documentation across the majority of the 13 data management domains covered by the Abu Dhabi Government Data Management Standards.

The consultant will work closely with data owners, data stewards, domain specialists, control functions and programme leadership to address assessment findings, close corrective actions, strengthen documentary evidence and prepare the organisation for the next assessment cycle. Success requires a combination of hands-on assessment experience, strong technical writing, practical DAMA/DMBOK knowledge, KPI design capability and confidence operating in a confidential government environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Assessment framework alignment: Interpret and apply the DGE/Abu Dhabi Data Management Assessment checklist, staging model, control expectations and evidence requirements across relevant data management domains.
• Documentation review and uplift: Assess existing policies, standards, procedures, guidelines, registers, templates, KPI reports, committee papers and evidence artefacts for completeness, consistency, usability and assessment compliance.
• Document recreation: Draft or substantially redesign missing, outdated or insufficient documentation, ensuring clear ownership, scope, controls, workflows, roles, approval points, monitoring requirements and document governance.
• Corrective-action closure: Analyse assessment observations, identify root causes and documentation gaps, define practical remediation actions, coordinate owners and compile closure evidence.
• Evidence management: Establish traceable evidence packs that clearly map artefacts to checklist requirements, maturity stages, controls, responsible parties and approval records.
• Next-cycle preparation: Support readiness planning, mock reviews, gap assessments, action tracking and prioritisation for the next Data Management Assessment cycle.
• Stakeholder engagement: Facilitate working sessions with data owners, stewards, custodians, technology teams, information security, privacy, legal, risk, audit and executive committees.
• Quality assurance: Perform structured peer and quality reviews to confirm that documents are internally consistent, technically accurate, implementable and suitable for committee or executive approval.
• Knowledge transfer: Coach client teams on documentation standards, evidence expectations, KPI measurement methods and sustainable ownership of data management controls.

Data Management Domain Coverage

The consultant is expected to contribute across the majority of the 13 data management domains, with particular depth in the following areas:

• Data governance, operating model, roles, councils and decision rights
• Data quality rules, issue management, remediation and monitoring
• Metadata management, business glossary and data catalogue
• Data classification, privacy, protection and handling controls
• Reference data and master data management
• Data architecture, modelling and integration controls
• Data lifecycle, retention, archival and disposal
• Data sharing, interoperability and open-data-related controls, where applicable
• Documented performance management, compliance monitoring and continuous improvement

Key Deliverables

• Current-state review and domain-level gap assessment
• Updated or newly authored data management policies, standards and procedures
• Governance registers, role matrices, control logs and action trackers
• Assessment checklist mapping and evidence traceability matrix
• Corrective-action plans with owners, milestones, dependencies and closure criteria
• KPI catalogue with definitions, formulas, data sources, ownership, frequency and thresholds
• KPI performance reports, dashboards and management scorecards
• Committee-ready papers, decision requests and progress reports
• Structured evidence repository and assessment submission pack
• Readiness report and prioritised roadmap for the next assessment cycle

Requirements

• Significant professional experience in enterprise data management, data governance or data advisory roles, preferably within government or highly regulated organisations.
• Hands-on experience with the DGE/Abu Dhabi Data Management Assessment framework, including checklist structure, staging or maturity expectations, evidence requirements and assessment preparation.
• Prior participation in an Abu Dhabi government Data Management Assessment cycle is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to author and quality-review policies, standards, operating procedures, process documents, KPI reports, committee papers and executive-level documentation in English.
• Practical knowledge of DAMA-DMBOK principles and their application across multiple data management domains.
• Strong knowledge of data governance, data quality, catalogue and metadata management, data classification and privacy, and reference and master data management.
• Experience translating assessment findings and control requirements into implementable actions, documentary evidence and sustainable operating practices.
• Strong KPI design and measurement capability, including defining calculable indicators, baselines, targets, thresholds, measurement evidence and reporting logic.
• Experience preparing dashboards, scorecards and progress reports for senior management and governance committees.
• Ability to conduct structured stakeholder interviews, facilitate workshops and drive actions to closure across business and technology teams.
• Excellent analytical, organisation, document-control and attention-to-detail skills.
• Professional fluency in written and spoken English; Arabic drafting or review capability is an advantage.

Nice to Have

• Bachelor’s degree in information management, computer science, information systems, business, engineering or a related discipline.
• Relevant professional certifications such as DAMA CDMP, DCAM, DGSP, COBIT, ISO 8000, ISO/IEC 27001, privacy or data governance certifications are advantageous.
• Experience with data catalogue, data quality, governance workflow, reporting or business intelligence platforms is desirable.
• Consulting experience delivering documentation-led transformation, regulatory remediation or maturity-improvement programmes.

Core Competencies

• Technical writing excellence: Produces clear, controlled and audit-ready documents that can be understood and implemented by business and technical stakeholders.
• Assessment judgement: Distinguishes between nominal documentation and evidence of effective, repeatable operation.
• Pragmatic problem-solving: Converts standards and findings into proportionate, achievable improvements.
• Stakeholder influence: Builds alignment across multiple owners without compromising control requirements.
• Delivery discipline: Manages competing priorities, dependencies, reviews and approvals against fixed assessment timelines.
• Confidentiality and integrity: Handles sensitive government information in accordance with client classification, access and handling rules.

Working Model and Expectations

• Work primarily onsite in Abu Dhabi and collaborate directly with data owners, stewards and programme leadership.
• Operate within the client’s information-classification, confidentiality, security and document-retention requirements.
• Maintain complete version history, review comments, approvals and evidence traceability for all controlled artefacts.
• Provide clear weekly progress reporting, risks, issues, decisions required and upcoming priorities.
• Be prepared to work across several data management domains in parallel and respond to evolving assessment priorities.

Keywords

Data Governance, Data Quality, DAMA-DMBOK, Metadata Management, Master Data Management, KPI Design, Assessment Readiness, Technical Writing, Regulatory Compliance, Stakeholder Management, Abu Dhabi Government Data Management Standards, Data Privacy, Business Intelligence, Data Architecture, Information Security