Principal - Data Governance

Ally and Your Career

Ally Financial only succeeds when its people do - and that's more than some cliché people put on job postings. We love this stuff! We see our people as, well, people - with interests, families, friends, dreams, and causes that are all important to them. Our focus is on the health and safety of our teammates as well as work-life balance and diversity and inclusion.

From generous benefits to a variety of employee resource groups, we strive to build paths that encourage employees to stretch themselves professionally. We want to help you grow, develop, and learn new things. You're constantly evolving, so shouldn't your opportunities be, too?

Work Schedule: Ally designates roles as (1) fully on-site, (2) hybrid, or (3) fully remote. Hybrid roles are generally expected to be in the office a certain number of days per week as indicated by your manager. Your hiring manager will discuss this role's specific work requirements with you during the hiring process. All work requirements are subject to change at any time based on leader discretion and/or business need.

The Opportunity

Ally is committed to transforming our data governance and management capabilities to drive business value and uphold our "do it right" approach. We are seeking a results-oriented Principal who will bring hands-on experience to support the execution and continuous improvement of Ally's enterprise data catalog. This individual will support the tooling strategy, roadmap, prioritization, design, configuration, testing, and adoption to enable strong data management practices across Ally.

The Work Itself

• Lead Enterprise Data Governance Tooling

Manage the administration, configuration, enhancement, and ongoing optimization of enterprise data governance platform, including gathering business requirements and translating them into scalable tool capabilities.

• Manage Governance Tool Enhancement Roadmap

Partner with business and technology teams to collect, prioritize, document, and manage tool enhancement requests, ensuring alignment with enterprise data governance objectives.

• Serve as Functional Lead for Governance Capabilities

Provide subject matter expertise across Data Catalog, Data Lineage, Data Quality, Business Glossary, Critical Data Elements (CDEs), Metadata Management, and Data Products governance within the tool.

• Drive Data Quality and Governance Execution

Support the design and implementation of data quality controls, monitoring processes, data governance workflows, and remediation processes for data issues and defects.

• Develop Reporting and Executive Dashboards

Create and maintain governance metrics, Power BI dashboards, scorecards, and executive reporting to measure adoption, compliance, and program effectiveness.

• Automate Governance Processes

Utilize Power Automate, Excel Macros, and other automation tools to streamline governance processes, reporting, data collection, workflow management, and operational efficiency.

• Partner Across Business and Technology Teams

Collaborate with data owners, stewards, business data leads, technology teams, and risk partners to implement governance standards, resolve data issues, and support regulatory compliance requirements.

• Provide Training and Change Management Support

Develop training materials, conduct user enablement sessions, and support organizational change management efforts to increase adoption of governance tools and processes.

• Deliver Strategic Data Governance Leadership

Promote best practices in data governance, data management, data quality, and data products while staying current on emerging technologies, AI governance trends, and industry-leading governance capabilities.

Preferred Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in Data Governance, Data Management, Metadata Management, or related disciplines.
• Hands-on experience with enterprise Data Governance tools (Alation, Collibra, Informatica, or similar platforms).
• Advanced SQL skills with experience writing complex queries, analyzing large datasets, and producing governance reporting.
• Strong experience with Power Automate, workflow automation, and Excel Macros/VBA.
• Experience with Data Quality frameworks, policies, standards, and controls.
• Knowledge of Data Lineage, Metadata Management, Business Glossary, and Data Catalog capabilities.
• Strong stakeholder management, requirements gathering, and project leadership skills.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with the ability to engage executive leadership.
• Experience supporting Data Product Governance and enterprise data strategy initiatives.
• Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Data Analytics, or a related field. Advanced degree preferred.

Minimum Qualifications

• 7+ years of relevant experience or equivalent combination of education and experience
• High school Diploma or GED equivalent

Pay and benefits

Ally's compensation program offers market-competitive base pay and pay-for-performance incentives (bonuses) based on achieving personal and company goals. Our Total Rewards program includes industry-leading compensation and benefits plus additional incentives that are designed to meet your needs and those of your family so you can get the most out of your career and your life, including:

Time Away: Program starts at 20 paid time off days in addition to 11 paid holidays and 8 hours of volunteer time off yearly (time off days are prorated based on start date and program varies based on full or part-time status and management level).

Planning for the Future: plan for the near and long term with an industry-leading 401K retirement savings plan with matching and company contributions, student loan pay downs and 529 educational save up assistance programs, tuition reimbursement, employee stock purchase plan, and financial learning center and financial coach access.

Supporting your Health & Well-being: flexible health and insurance options including medical, dental and vision, employee, spouse and child life insurance, short- and long-term disability, pre-tax Health Savings Account with employer contributions, Healthcare FSA, critical illness, accident & hospital indemnity insurance, and a total well-being program that helps you and your family stay on track physically, socially, emotionally, and financially.

Building a Family: adoption, surrogacy and fertility assistance as well as paid parental and caregiver leave, Dependent Day Care FSA back-up child and adult/elder care days and childcare discounts.

Work-Life Integration: other benefits including Mentally Fit Employee Assistance Program, subsidized and discounted Weight Watchers® program and other employee discount programs.

Other Compensations: depending on the role for which you are considered, you may be eligible for travel allowances, relocation assistance, a signing bonus and/or equity.

Base Pay Range $110,000.00 - $180,000.00

An individual's position in the range is determined by the specific role, the scope and responsibilities of the role, work experience, education, certification(s), training, and additional qualifications. We review internal pay, the competitive market, and business environment prior to extending an offer.

Incentive Compensation: This position is eligible to participate in our annual incentive plan.