About this role
Job Description: Data Governance Lead – Mergers & Acquisitions (10-12 Years Experience)
Department: IT / Enterprise Data Governance
Location: (Gurgaon)
Experience: 10–12 years
Role Level: Lead – Data Governance, M&A
Role Overview: The Data Governance Lead – M&A will drive enterprise data governance activities across the full M&A lifecycle, including due diligence, integration planning, data consolidation, quality remediation, and post-merger stabilization. This role ensures that newly acquired entities are aligned to enterprise data standards, governance frameworks, and system requirements to accelerate value realization and minimize business disruption.
Key Responsibilities
Pre-Merger / Due Diligence
• Assess the data maturity, data landscape, and governance processes of target organizations.
• Identify data risks, dependencies, quality gaps, system overlaps, and integration challenges.
• Define the data governance playbook for integration, including standards, controls, and onboarding requirements.
• Build System, process and data mapping in coordination with CRM, Finacial system and DWH teams.
• Provide data inputs to IT, Finance, HR, Legal, and functional teams to support deal evaluation. Integration Planning
• Develop data integration and governance workstreams for M&A programs.
• Define master data alignment strategy (customer, vendor, employee, products, accounts, contacts, etc.).
• Draft data policies, workflows, and stewardship models to be adopted by the acquired entity.
• Build risk mitigation plans and integration timelines aligned with overall M&A strategy. Post-Merger Integration Execution
• Lead execution of data onboarding, quality checks, harmonization, and system mapping activities.
• Coordinate data migration and consolidation across enterprise systems (e.g., Salesforce, ERP, HRIS, Data Lake).
• Implement quality controls, validations, and lineage tracking to ensure accuracy and consistency.
• Oversee data cleansing, deduplication, archival and purging activities as applicable. Governance Framework & Standards
• Establish and enforce governance standards, policies, and data-quality rules across acquired entities.
• Manage the Data Strategy Council / Governance Council for integration decisions.
• Develop stewardship roles, RACI models, and accountability frameworks for business owners. Data Quality & Remediation
• Identify structural data issues and lead remediation sprints.
• Drive clean-up activities (e.g., duplicate reduction, obsolete data removal, reference data alignment).
• Monitor data quality KPIs, create dashboards, and provide insights to leadership. Stakeholder Management & Communication
• Partner with cross-functional teams (IT, HR, Finance, Sales Ops, Legal, Risk, and Business Units).
• Provide executive updates, integration status reporting, and risk/issue management.
• Act as the primary data governance point of contact for acquired entities. Tools, Systems & Technology
• Work with architects to align systems and data models across merged organizations.
• Support upgrades, migrations, and sunset activities for legacy systems (e.g., Splash or similar).
• Ensure compliance with data privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA, internal data policies).
Skills & Qualifications
• 10–14 years of experience in Data Governance, MDM, Data Quality, Data Strategy, or Data Management.
• 4–6 years of direct experience with M&A data integration (pre- and post-merger phases).
• Strong understanding of enterprise systems (CRM/Salesforce, SAP/ERP, HRIS, Data Lakes).
• Demonstrated experience in data profiling, quality management, metadata, lineage, DQ rules, and governance frameworks.
• Excellent understanding of data controls, compliance, privacy, and risk management.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence senior stakeholders.
• Strong analytical, communication, and executive-presentation skills.
Key Success Measures
• Faster and high-quality post-merger data integration.
• Reduction of data defects, duplicates, and structural inconsistencies.
• Adoption of governance standards across new entities.
• Improvements in system performance, reporting accuracy, and operational efficiency.
• Leadership satisfaction and smoother M&A integration cycles.