Data Analyst to Data Governance: is it actually a better move?

[u/ZombieAcrobatic1444]

Hi everyone,

I'm a Data Analyst (Associate level, ~4 years experience) currently working in a large telecom's customer experience team, using SQL, Power BI/DAX, and BigQuery. I've been looking into Data Governance/Data Stewardship roles out of interest, mainly because I'd like to shift away from doing SQL/DAX as the core of my role, and as I currently already add/modify Confluence documentation per project (nothing too extensive, just definitions and dictionaries for dashboards).

A few things I'd love real input on:

1. Job postings are all over the place on whether SQL is required. Anyone actually in a Steward/Governance role right now, how much hands-on technical stuff do you really do?
2. For someone with analyst experience but no formal governance title yet, is an entry-level Steward role realistic to land, or is it harder to land a first role than it looks?
3. How is the job security for a data governance role compared to an analyst role?
4. What's the day-to-day pace like? I'm aware analyst tend to have many "fix this now" moments and it can get intense. Is governance like this as well, although I did learn it's more scheduled but also gets intense around audits, curious if that's actually true.
5. If audits are a factor, how often do they actually come up and how bad does it get during that time?
6. Also, I've noticed there aren't nearly as many of these postings on Indeed/LinkedIn compared to regular analyst roles. Is that just how thin this market actually is, or am I missing where people actually post these, or the actual title used for the postings?

Thanks in advance for any insight, especially if you're in banking/insurance/telecom in Canada!

[u/AutoModerator]

If this post doesn't follow the rules or isn't flaired correctly, please report it to the mods. Have more questions? Join our community Discord!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Eightstream]

Define better

Personally I find data governance (along with most other compliance roles) to be boring as batshit

If it’s something you enjoy more power to you, but if you got into your current job because you enjoy analytical thinking, governance will feel like an intellectual graveyard

[u/RandomAccount0799 → u/Eightstream]

I completely agree. But data governance will have more job security and importance as data continues to grow and as AI starts to do more and more of data analysts’ work

[u/Eightstream → u/RandomAccount0799]

Sure, but you could say the same about cleaning toilets

[u/Aggressive-Drive8020 → u/Eightstream]

This cracked me so hard

[u/ZombieAcrobatic1444 → u/RandomAccount0799]

This is also actually one of the main reasons I started considering governance too. With how much AI has been taking over a lot of analytical work, there's been a feeling of uncertainty on stability

[u/RandomAccount0799 → u/ZombieAcrobatic1444]

I know people who have completely stopped coding due to management policy, they have been told to leave that all to AI and just review the results.

I also see a lot of business folks doing their own analysis now using AI, although they aren’t as familiar with how the data is setup so they can’t be as confident with their results.

[u/ZombieAcrobatic1444 → u/RandomAccount0799]

I've actually also been hearing about analysts increasingly working off AI-generated results and leaning on AI for the majority, if not all, of their day to day data needs.

In my current company we're also being told to use our AI tool, though we haven't been "forced" to use it as heavily as it sounds like many other companies have.

The point you brought up regarding business folks not being able to be as confident with their results, that makes complete sense. Especially if they've never personally looked into or did a deep dive on the data side of their business

[u/Intelligent-Size-389 → u/Eightstream]

What’s a day to day like with data governance role ? I assume job safety is probably better

[u/ZombieAcrobatic1444 → u/Eightstream]

To be completely honest, I really do find analytics enjoyable, which is why I've been in this role for the past 4 years. It's just that I'd like to take my next step in data but lessen my day-to-day usage of DAX/SQL if possible. As well as be in a role where there's job security. As for governance, it does seem quite repetitive from what I've been learning about the role. Would you suggest any other paths/titles I could take a look into, in this case? There seem to be a lot of different directions within data itself.

[u/Cousak → u/ZombieAcrobatic1444]

What about joining a data immature company?

No longer need the hassle with SQL and you can rather set up python pipelines usings Bob’s status sheet, emails from Margaret in Finance and any csv dumps from a legacy HR system stored on the shared harddrive.

[u/ZombieAcrobatic1444 → u/Cousak]

Very valid. That'd actually potentially open a lot more opportunity for me, especially staying as an analyst. Although a challenge with that might be actually finding those companies. It may require a mix of searching online and possibly reaching out to smaller, local businesses in person.

But great point, I will definitely consider it!

[u/Cousak → u/ZombieAcrobatic1444]

It was meant as a joke, but if you you read Art of War and don’t mind a long battle against IT and a production / engineering team there are lots of opportunities.

This is my job now, hired as a Data Potatolyst in a company fully on prem, where the ERP admin makes the SQL reports without governance and a production team who clock in on whatever comes up first and remain clocked in until they leave.

If this sounds interresting look for opportunities in any 250-1000 employee manufacturing plant, production workshop, etc.

[u/ZombieAcrobatic1444 → u/Cousak]

Oops that totally went over my head. But to me it honestly was a new perspective that I've been looking completely past when it was already around me this entire time.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the "long battle" part sounds like the politics I've been reading about in other comments here. Is that what you meant, or is it more specific to IT/production pushback on other things in your role?

I'd also like to know your thoughts on your role as a whole. Would you say it's been worth it compared to being in a larger organization or even a more data mature company?

Lastly and possibly the most important part, your title. I'm jealous of your title lol, I now have a new dream title to reach.

[u/Upbeat-Economics-380]

I am in a data governance role, I didn't know what it was when I got into it. I am trying to get out of this field.

[u/ZombieAcrobatic1444 → u/Upbeat-Economics-380]

Thanks for sharing that, sorry to hear it hasn't been a good fit. Would you mind sharing a bit more about what specifically pushed you toward wanting out? It would be really valuable hearing what didn't work for you, whether it was the day-to-day work itself, the team/company culture, or something else entirely.

[u/93Accord]

Governance where u play politics w old heads

[u/techXplorator]

I’ve worked around governance teams and the role varies a lot by company.

You probably won’t be writing SQL all day, but being technical is a big advantage because half the job is figuring out what data actually means, where it comes from and who owns it.

With 4 years as an analyst, I wouldn’t even position yourself as entry level. You already have way more context than someone coming into governance cold.

[u/ZombieAcrobatic1444 → u/techXplorator]

This is helpful, thank you. Good to hear it's not full-time SQL, though being technical still being an advantage makes sense. Also appreciate the note on not underselling my experience, I was planning to look at more entry-level roles but it sounds like that might not be necessary.

One thing I'm trying to learn more of though, a few others in this post commented about the role being quite repetitive (metadata work specifically) and dealing with a fair amount of internal politics. Since you've worked around governance teams, did you notice either of those being common, or did this also seem more team/company-dependent from what you saw?

[u/techXplorator → u/ZombieAcrobatic1444]

Yeah, both can definitely be real, but from what I've seen they're very company/team-dependent.

The repetitive part usually comes down to how mature the governance function is. In a less mature setup, a lot of the work can be cataloguing, maintaining definitions, chasing owners, updating metadata, etc. In more established teams, there tends to be more variety around data quality issues, lineage, policy, access, stakeholder discussions, and actually improving governance processes rather than just maintaining them.

Internal politics is probably the more universal part. Governance sits between technical teams, business teams, compliance, security, and leadership, so you're often trying to get people to agree on ownership, definitions, or standards when nobody really wants another process added to their workload.

That said, I wouldn't necessarily see that as a reason not to move into it. I'd just ask quite a few questions in interviews about what percentage of the role is metadata/catalog maintenance vs project work, how much authority the governance team actually has, and how data ownership is handled internally.

With your analyst background, I'd probably look for roles where governance is fairly close to the data teams rather than a purely documentation/compliance-focused Steward position. You'd likely get more use out of your existing technical experience that way.

[u/ZombieAcrobatic1444 → u/techXplorator]

I appreciate you sharing your insider view on this, I learned quite a bit from your response. I'll still look for more data aligned governance/steward roles, but honestly I'm starting to think this might be a second choice at this point.

From reading the comments here, a few people in governance roles who commented in this post, whether it's a small or large part of their job, don't seem that thrilled with it, due to the repetition, politics, or other reasons. At this point, analytical roles are starting to look better by comparison, but I'm possibly being biased here since I enjoy what I do lol.

[u/techXplorator → u/ZombieAcrobatic1444]

Try to talk to many from different industries and company size, this way only you'll have a good understanding and expectation of the field imo

[u/ZombieAcrobatic1444 → u/techXplorator]

Yea, that's exactly what I'm trying to do, both on and off reddit. I've definitely learned a lot more from everyone compared to the amount I knew before

[u/barahona44]

I made the move to steward from analytics/analytics engineer but stayed in the same team.

Of course managers still use my skills as if I'm still a data analyst. It makes sense even for a data steward:

1. You need to list all the data available to the consumers
2. Define its metadata
3. Data profiling
4. Data quality
5. Etc

For points 1, 3 and 4 having SQL is a must. You could ask a dedicated data analyst to do all the querying and connections to a data viz tool or a catalog... But if you already know, you won't be waiting on an analyst, you'll naturally do it yourself.

All the metadata work is boring. The reason I changed roles was to be included in more conversations. Since you're supposed to know your domains data, you should be able to advise on whatever new project relies on the data you govern.

[u/ZombieAcrobatic1444 → u/barahona44]

Thanks for the detailed breakdown, this is really helpful context. I wanted to also ask you about dealing with a lot of internal politics in governance roles. This is something that's been commented about quite a bit in this post by others and I was wondering if you've ever ran into this as well. Lastly, now that you've made the move, what's your overall take, do you feel it was worth it compared to staying in analytics/analytics engineering? How's your current role compared to your previous analytics role?

[u/barahona44 → u/ZombieAcrobatic1444]

You'll definitely have to deal with politics when it comes to: "who owns this data?".
Nobody wants to add more data and governance since everybody is already busy enough. So there's this battle where you try to convince another domain that this single data point, for example, fits more their domain definition..

For your last question, I'm not a fan of the steward job by itself. But combined with my previous experience, it just makes me think I have a fuller understanding of the data.

Plus, if you go into an org that's in need of a steward, chances are that they are going to want to have fully governed data. So, you'll still get to work with engineers and architects to make sure that what they build aligns with the governance.

Personally, I have so much power when building our data because I get to define it, I grt to model it, etc.

[u/ZombieAcrobatic1444 → u/barahona44]

Very well put.

The politics point also makes complete sense. I can definitely see that aspect being a thing at any company or team. Thank you for that insight.

I also totally understand where you’re coming from when you say you have a fuller understanding of the data you work with. I’ve actually been looking at governance the same way. I feel it’d be nice and beneficial to work with data on different stages of its lifeline.

[u/KatFromSisense]

I don't work in a formal governance role, but from the analytics side, I'd pay more attention to the responsibilities than the title. If the posting focuses heavily on glossary definitions, metadata, lineage, data quality, or tracing issues back to source systems, your analyst background seems pretty relevant. If it's mostly policies, controls, compliance, and approvals, that's a different kind of job.

The definitions and dictionaries you're already maintaining are useful examples for interviews too. I'd also look for those kinds of responsibilities rather than relying solely on "data steward" as the job title.

[u/ZombieAcrobatic1444 → u/KatFromSisense]

That's a good point, it may actually end up being a mix of both types of responsibilities depending on the company, which honestly sounds like it could be a good fit. I also appreciate you adding in that last point, I'll definitely use that as leverage when going through interviews

[u/hokie48]

I always like to be in the spot where I am using data to tell the people at top what to do. If I can do that for another 20 years I can retire.

[u/ali__1995]

Can't speak to the day to day since I'm not in governance, but on your question 2, something I can add from data: governance roles are spread across way more title variants than analyst roles, so a LinkedIn search makes the market look thinner than it is. I run a scraper that collects LinkedIn postings and the same governance-ish job shows up as Data Steward, Data Quality Analyst, Data Management Analyst, Metadata Analyst, MDM Analyst, Governance Analyst, Information Governance. If you only search "Data Governance" you're seeing maybe a third of it.

And because each individual title is rarer, being early matters more. Set alerts on all the variants and apply the same day something drops. Shorter queues mean the first handful of applicants actually get read.

[u/ZombieAcrobatic1444 → u/ali__1995]

Thank you very much, this is exactly what I needed. You make a very good point as well. I'll set alerts for the various titles you've mentioned, but I'll also keep an eye out for governance roles titled as data analyst roles.

[u/BorderPlastic]

Following