Operations Data Steward

Salary: £120,000 - 160,000 per year

Requirements:

• Demonstrable experience in data stewardship, data governance, data quality, data management, operational risk, or a closely related discipline
• Practical experience maintaining data inventories, metadata, critical data elements, data definitions, ownership records, and end-to-end lineage
• Experience designing or executing data controls, investigating complex data-quality issues, and driving cross-functional remediation to closure
• Working knowledge of data lifecycle, retention, privacy, information security, and records-management principles in a regulated environment
• Strong analytical capability, including advanced Microsoft Excel and experience with data visualisation or business intelligence tools such as Power BI
• Ability to translate technical data issues into clear business impacts, decisions, and actions for senior operational stakeholders
• Strong stakeholder management, judgement, and organisation, with the confidence to challenge constructively, manage competing priorities, and escalate risk
• Nice to have: Experience in financial services, banking, wealth management, or another regulated operational environment
• Nice to have: Hands-on experience with governance, catalogue, or metadata-management tools such as Collibra or Microsoft Purview
• Nice to have: Working knowledge of SQL and/or Python for data interrogation, profiling, or automation
• Nice to have: Knowledge of UK GDPR, Consumer Duty, and regulatory expectations relating to data accuracy, controls, retention, and operational resilience
• Nice to have: Relevant professional certification or qualification in data management, governance, risk, or analytics

Responsibilities:

• Maintain an accurate inventory of structured and unstructured operational data assets, including ownership, location, classification, business purpose, criticality, and lifecycle status
• Maintain business metadata, data definitions, critical data elements, glossaries, data dictionaries, and ownership records in approved governance repositories
• Document and maintain operational data lineage, process flows, source systems, hand-offs, transformations, business rules, and third-party dependencies
• Implement data governance policies, standards, processes, and controls, and maintain evidence that requirements are operating as intended
• Ensure operational management information and reporting use authoritative, controlled, consistently defined data sources
• Define and maintain data-quality rules, thresholds, and monitoring for critical operational data; monitor performance, identify emerging risks, and report transparently
• Investigate data issues, perform root-cause analysis, coordinate corrective actions, and drive remediation plans through sustainable closure
• Execute and evidence data governance controls, support assurance and audit activity, respond to findings, and escalate overdue actions, control failures, or risks outside tolerance
• Implement approved data-retention schedules and records-management requirements; coordinate and evidence archival, deletion, obfuscation, or disposition activity
• Partner with Privacy, Records Management, Information Security, Technology, and third-party owners to resolve lifecycle and data-protection issues
• Act as the primary data-governance and data-quality contact for UKPI Operations, provide advice and constructive challenge, and represent Operations in governance forums
• Present performance, risks, and remediation progress, and track governance decisions and actions to closure
• Assess projects, process changes, and new data uses for governance, quality, lineage, retention, privacy, and control impacts before implementation
• Develop reporting, analysis, and data-quality insights to support operational performance, risk management, and evidence-based decisions
• Identify opportunities to automate monitoring and controls, reduce manual workarounds and duplicate data, and strengthen authoritative data sources
• Promote data-management capability across Operations through guidance, practical training, and reusable standards

Technologies:

• Business Intelligence
• Embedded
• Excel
• Support
• Power BI
• Python
• SQL
• Security

More:

We are Vanguard, an investment company founded in the United States in 1975 with a mission to serve investors interests through low-cost, uncomplicated investments. This full-time Operations Data Steward role sits within our UK Personal Investor Operations team in Manchester and reports to the Head of Operations, UK Personal Investor. The role is embedded in Operations and works with operational leaders and experts, Technology, Risk, Compliance, Privacy, Information Security, and our Chief Data & Analytics Office to put data-governance standards into practice and support safe client outcomes, operational resilience, and effective decision-making. We are committed to diversity and inclusion and to building teams where crew members feel valued and can contribute their distinct strengths. We use a hybrid working model, with office attendance required Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We are not offering visa sponsorship for this position. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, and the role may close early if interest is high.

last updated 40 week of 2026