Manager Data Governance and Metadata

At Johnson & Johnson, we believe health is everything. Our strength in healthcare innovation empowers us to build a world where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured, where treatments are smarter and less invasive, and solutions are personal. Through our expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech, we are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow, and profoundly impact health for humanity. Learn more at

Job Function:

Data Analytics & Computational Sciences

Job Sub Function:

Data Governance & Policy

Job Category:

Professional

All Job Posting Locations:

Cornellà de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain, Madrid, Spain

Job Description:

Johnson and Johnson Innovative Medicine (J&J IM), a pharmaceutical company of Johnson & Johnson is recruiting for a Manager Data Governance and Metadata

This position has a primary location Madrid, Spain but is also open to Barcelona, Spain.

About Innovative Medicine

Our expertise in Innovative Medicine is informed and inspired by patients, whose insights fuel our science-based advancements. Visionaries like you work on teams that save lives by developing the medicines of tomorrow. Join us in developing treatments, finding cures, and pioneering the path from lab to life while championing patients every step of the way. Learn more at

Position Summary

The Manager, Data Governance, Compliance and Metadata works with the R&D Ecosystem and the DSDH Data Governance, Metadata and Cataloging team to ensure that critical business data is well-defined, high-quality, and properly managed in alignment with DSDH, FAIR and ALCOA data principles, regulatory requirements, and enterprise-wide data governance and metadata standards.

This role is responsible for partnering with the R&D data ecosystem to execute and operate the frameworks, standards, and practices for all data types such as Multi-Omics, real world, clinical, digital health, MRI, CT, Videoso that R&D data is trusted, well-documented, and easily discoverable.

This role combines hands-on data management and governance expertise to execute and operate the frameworks, standards, and practices set up and act as champions for data governance and metadata. The manager will partner closely to efficiently manage , analyze and document all data including multi-omics, real world, clinical, and digital health data. Supports regulatory, audit, and control reviews related to metadata accuracy, lineage traceability, and data quality controls. This position supports the company's commitment to risk management and protecting the integrity and confidentiality of systems and data. As a core team member, this position champions a culture of data literacy, promoting the benefits of discoverable, well-documented, and well-governed and compliant data.

Key Responsibilities:

• Oversee the metadata lifecycle and governance; maintain and enhance the enterprise data catalog (glossary, data dictionaries, lineage).
• Document business terms, data elements, and approved definitions with Data Owners and SMEs.
• Ensure critical R&D datasets, data products, and master entities are indexed, searchable, and properly described.
• Integrate metadata and governance capabilities into R&D workflows with Knowledge Management, Data Products, and Platform teams.
• Collaborate with Legal, Privacy, Compliance, JJT, external vendors, and DSDH teams to align business definitions, technical metadata, and lineage.
• Identify and validate data sources and systems of record; confirm ownership, stewardship, and usage context.
• Participate in ontology and knowledge graph initiatives to harmonize metadata with enterprise semantic frameworks.
• Define and maintain data governance rules (completeness, accuracy, timeliness, validity, consistency) and create SOPs, WIs, and SOWs.
• Implement automated governance monitoring, reporting, data profiling, issue investigation, and remediation; monitor metadata quality KPIs.
• Execute R&D data governance strategy: govern via Domain Councils, harmonize with Master Data Management, and lead policy/tool adoption.
• Ensure regulatory compliance (GxP, GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA): maintain lineage/traceability for audits, protect PII/PHI, and enforce retention/disposal policies.
• Provide direction and mentorship to stewardship teams, escalate persistent issues, and support POCs to quantify business value from governance improvements.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education or experience typically obtained through completion of a bachelor's degree.
• Bachelors or master's in computer science, Datascience, Information Systems (or equivalent degree)
• 5+ years of experience in data management, business analysis, or related fields within Life Sciences or a regulated industry.
• Familiarity with ontologies, semantic standards, and data lineage frameworks.
• Experience with data governance and metadata platforms and repositories with proven success in implementing governance frameworks and metadata tools at scale.
• Good leadership, communication (both written & verbal) and interpersonal skills are required to perform the function and the ability to effectively motivate team members.
• Strong understanding of data governance frameworks (e.g., DAMA-DMBOK), metadata management, data lineage, data quality, and compliance.
• Familiarity with data governance & metadata tools (e.g., Collibra, Informatica, Alation, TileDb) and cloud platforms (e.g., Snowflake, Azure, AWS).
• Understanding of governance principles, metadata management, relevant regulatory, privacy/security standards and FAIR data.
• Experience with creating Statement of Work (SOW's), Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's) and Work Instructions (WI's) with ability to implement technical controls via SOP's, WI's.
• Highly motivated with strong presentation skills with proven ability to communicate complex data concepts in business-friendly language.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ability to think tactically and build consensus to make projects successful Ability to resolve technical issues and resource conflicts
• Basic understanding of software development principles Previous experience in life science or a regulated environment.
• DCAM, CDMP or similar certification
• Experience with Agile processes and the Atlassian suite (e.g., Jira, Confluence)
• Ability to present and communicate with senior management on process and performance in a structured environment

Johnson & Johnson is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by federal, state or local law. We actively seek qualified candidates who are protected veterans and individuals with disabilities as defined under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Johnson & Johnson is committed to providing an interview process that is inclusive of our applicants' needs. If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request an accommodation, external applicants please contact us via , internal employees contact AskGS to be directed to your accommodation resource.

#JRDDS 

Required Skills:

Preferred Skills:

Advanced Analytics, Coaching, Critical Thinking, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Database Management, Data Governance, Data Management, Data Privacy Standards, Data Savvy, Data Security, Emerging Technologies, Information Security Risk Management, Performance Measurement, Process Improvements, Risk Assessments, Strategic Thinking, Technical Credibility

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