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(Data Quality Analyst, Data Steward, Data Integrity Officer, Data Quality Specialist)
IT & Data
Salary
€42,000 - €80,000/yr
Level
Professional
Outlook
Growing
Sector
IT & Data
As a Data Governance Analyst you are responsible for ensuring that an organisation's data is accurate, consistent, secure and used in compliance with relevant regulations, including GDPR. You define and enforce data quality standards, maintain data catalogues and data lineage records, and develop the policies that govern how data is collected, stored and shared across the business. Day-to-day work involves auditing datasets, identifying quality issues, running data cleansing processes and writing queries against databases to investigate anomalies. You collaborate closely with data engineers, compliance officers, legal teams and business stakeholders, particularly in sectors such as banking, insurance and healthcare where data integrity carries significant regulatory weight.
Listen: a day as a Data Governance Analyst
You arrive at your desk in a Dublin city-centre financial services office at half eight. Before the morning stand-up, you check the overnight data quality dashboard in your organisation's data catalogue tool. Two pipelines have flagged anomalies: a batch of customer records imported from a third-party provider contains mismatched date formats and several blank mandatory fields. You log the issue in the data quality register and assign it a severity rating before the nine o'clock call. The stand-up lasts fifteen minutes. You update the data engineering team on the pipeline failures and agree that a data engineer will fix the ingestion script while you draft a formal data quality incident note to send to the compliance officer. This kind of back-and-forth is a daily reality; nothing gets resolved in isolation.
Most Data Governance Analysts enter the field with an NFQ Level 8 Honours Bachelor degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems or Business Information Technology from a university or technological university such as TU Dublin, UCD, UCC or University of Galway. Leaving Certificate subjects that provide a strong foundation include Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Business and Accounting. Some analysts move into the role from adjacent data or IT positions after completing a Level 9 postgraduate qualification in Data Analytics, Information Management or a related discipline, which is increasingly common in regulated sectors. There is no single statutory registration body for this role in Ireland, but working in financial services may involve engagement with Central Bank of Ireland compliance frameworks, while healthcare data work intersects with HSE data governance standards and GDPR obligations enforced by the Data Protection Commission. Professional certifications such as DAMA's Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP) or ISACA's CDPSE are valued by Irish employers alongside academic qualifications.
Many Data Governance Analysts begin their careers in entry-level data analyst or data operations roles, building practical experience with databases, reporting tools and compliance processes before specialising in governance. With three to five years of experience, progression typically moves towards a Senior Data Governance Analyst or Data Steward role, taking on ownership of specific data domains and mentoring junior colleagues. Further advancement can lead to positions such as Data Governance Manager or Chief Data Officer, particularly within large financial institutions, multinational technology companies or the HSE. Obtaining a Level 9 postgraduate qualification or a recognised professional certification such as CDMP significantly strengthens the case for senior appointments in Ireland.
AI tools are increasingly assisting Data Governance Analysts by automating routine data profiling, anomaly detection and metadata tagging tasks, reducing the manual effort involved in cataloguing large datasets. This allows analysts to focus more on policy design, regulatory interpretation and strategic data management rather than repetitive cleansing work. However, AI also introduces new governance challenges, particularly around the traceability, fairness and compliance of AI-generated outputs, which fall squarely within the analyst's remit under frameworks such as the EU AI Act. The role is therefore evolving rather than being displaced, with analysts needing to develop literacy around AI governance alongside their existing data management expertise.
→ Data Governance Analyst (Current role)
4 year • Tech & Engineering
Bachelor4 year • Science & Mathematics
Postgraduate2 year • Tech & Engineering
Postgraduate2 year • Tech & Engineering
Bachelor4 year • Languages & Humanities
Postgraduate2 year • Languages & Humanities
Organisations in Ireland that employ people in this occupation.
Dublin city centre
Govern customer and financial data across regulated banking operations.
Dublin, Nationwide
Enforce data quality and GDPR compliance across retail and business banking.
Dublin Docklands
Deliver data governance consulting and frameworks to large enterprise clients.
Dublin, Nationwide
Manage health data quality, lineage and compliance across national systems.
Dublin Docklands
Implement data cataloguing, stewardship and governance tooling for clients.
Dublin Docklands
Maintain data governance policies and quality standards for global CRM platform.
Dublin, North Wall Quay
Govern statistical and regulatory data underpinning financial system oversight.
Dublin, Cork
Provide managed data governance and compliance services to Irish organisations.
Dublin, Cork, Limerick
Advise clients on data governance strategy, policy design and GDPR auditing.
Dublin, Nationwide
Govern operational and customer energy data across national infrastructure.
Galway, Dublin
Ensure data accuracy and compliance within financial services data platforms.
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