A Data Steward is responsible for ensuring the quality, integrity, and governance of an organization’s data assets. They act as a bridge between business users, IT teams, and data governance policies, ensuring that data is well-defined, accurate, and used appropriately.
Key Responsibilities of a Data Steward
- Data Quality Management – Ensuring data accuracy, completeness, consistency, and reliability across systems.
- Metadata Management – Documenting data definitions, relationships, and lineage.
- Data Governance Compliance – Implementing policies, standards, and best practices for data handling.
- Master Data Management (MDM) – Managing critical business data entities like customers, products, and suppliers.
- Collaboration with Stakeholders – Acting as a liaison between business units, data engineers, and data governance teams.
- Issue Resolution – Identifying and resolving data-related issues such as duplicates, missing values, and inconsistencies.
- Data Security & Privacy – Ensuring compliance with regulations (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) by monitoring access and usage.
Why is a Data Steward Important?
- Enhances data trustworthiness, leading to better decision-making.
- Reduces data inconsistencies and errors in analytics and reporting.
- Supports regulatory compliance and risk management.
- Enables efficient data integration across systems and departments.
- Responsible for data governance and quality.
- Ensures that data policies and standards are adhered to across the organization.
- Acts as a liaison between data users and IT to facilitate data management.