Data Catalog Manager

Career Guide
A Data Catalog Manager leads the strategy and day to day operations of a company data catalog so people can find, understand, trust, and use data safely. The role connects business teams, data owners, and technical teams to improve data discovery, data quality visibility, and responsible access.

Key Responsibilities

  • Own the data catalog roadmap and prioritize improvements based on user needs
  • Define standards for data descriptions, naming, tags, and ownership
  • Coordinate data onboarding so important datasets are documented and searchable
  • Partner with data governance teams to align policies and controls
  • Work with security and privacy teams to ensure access rules are reflected in the catalog
  • Set up workflows for stewardship, reviews, and approvals
  • Improve data trust by tracking data quality indicators and known issues
  • Create training and guidance so teams adopt the catalog in daily work
  • Monitor usage metrics and gather feedback to increase adoption
  • Manage vendor relationships and tool configuration for the catalog platform

Top Skills for Success

Stakeholder Management
Program Management
Change Management
Communication
Process Design
Data Governance
Data Stewardship
Metadata Management
Data Catalog Strategy
Data Lineage
Data Quality Management
Access Control Concepts

Career Progression

Can Lead To
Senior Data Catalog Manager
Data Governance Manager
Data Product Manager
Data Platform Manager
Head of Data Governance
Transition Opportunities
Data Strategy Lead
Analytics Enablement Lead
Enterprise Data Management Lead
Responsible AI Program Manager

Common Skill Gaps

Often Missing Skills
Metadata StandardsData LineageData Quality MetricsWorkflow DesignData Privacy BasicsAccess Control BasicsTool ConfigurationAdoption Measurement
Development SuggestionsStart by owning a small catalog rollout for one domain, define a minimum documentation standard, and measure adoption with clear metrics. Pair with security and privacy partners to learn access concepts, and work with a platform team to practice configuring catalog workflows and integrations.

Salary & Demand

Median Salary Range
Entry LevelUnited States: 90000 to 120000 USD
Mid LevelUnited States: 120000 to 155000 USD
Senior LevelUnited States: 155000 to 210000 USD
Growth Trend
Growing steadily as companies expand analytics and AI efforts and need clearer data ownership, better documentation, and stronger controls.

Companies Hiring

Major Employers
MicrosoftGoogleAmazonIBMSalesforceAccentureDeloitteJPMorgan ChaseWells FargoUnitedHealth GroupWalmartPfizer
Industry Sectors
TechnologyFinancial ServicesHealthcareRetailManufacturingTelecommunicationsGovernmentConsulting

Recommended Next Steps

1
Review common data catalog tools and document the strengths of each for your environment
2
Create a one page standard for dataset descriptions, owners, and freshness expectations
3
Run a pilot to catalog a high value set of datasets and capture user feedback
4
Set up a simple stewardship workflow for reviews and approvals
5
Define three adoption metrics and report them monthly
6
Build a training guide that shows how to find data, request access, and interpret definitions
7
Partner with a data quality owner to surface quality signals in the catalog
8
Collect a list of top search terms and improve tags and descriptions to match them