Senior Metadata, Data Cataloging Analyst

Guidehouse

Managing Consultant leading enterprise metadata baselining and operationalization for Guidehouse. Driving improvements in data discoverability, governance workflows, and semantic search through effective solutions.

Posted 5/21/2026full-timeMcLean • Virginia • 🇺🇸 United StatesSeniorWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

InformaticaSQL

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Lead structured metadata intake, normalization, and enterprise baselining
Lead and perform in-person/virtual interviews and working sessions with system owners, data stewards, custodians, and SMEs to capture and normalize technical, business, operational, and security metadata into catalog-ready records.
Own completeness and consistency checks; drive discrepancy resolution and steward validation cycles; ensure records are ready for ingestion and ongoing maintenance.
Configure and operationalize catalog capabilities
Configure catalog structures and operating patterns: domains, asset types, metadata templates, certification/attestation workflows, stewardship roles, approval gates, and change control.
Define and operationalize metadata quality controls (required attributes, validation rules, refresh cadence, auditability) and establish an evidence trail for governance reporting. Partner with engineering teams to implement integration patterns (connectors/APIs) sufficient to support ingestion/harvesting, lineage capture, and role-based access constructs.
Semantic search enablement
Lead and execute semantic search enablement across the catalog by implementing and curating: taxonomy/ontology alignment, business glossary harmonization, synonym mapping, and semantic tagging protocols search relevance improvements via metadata enrichment and curated relationships (e.g., knowledge-graph style linking) measurement of search quality (precision/recall proxies, click-through, “time-to-find,” zero-result queries, adoption metrics)
Support evaluation and demonstration of semantic search and discovery maturity (natural language queries, faceted discovery, ranking relevance, and cross-domain linking) as required by client objectives.
Lead AoA / tool evaluation and selection
Lead structured evaluations of catalog solutions (discovery, glossary, lineage, workflow, UX, APIs, security/access, vendor support), including demo scripting, evidence capture, gap analysis, and comparative scoring inputs.
Produce decision-quality artifacts (evidence logs, comparison matrices, tradeoff synthesis, recommendation inputs) and facilitate stakeholder workshops to converge on priorities.
Governance pilots, lifecycle workflows, and federated readiness
Lead governance and lifecycle pilots: federated stewardship readiness (role clarity, escalation, audit traceability) and data product lifecycle workflows (publish/discover/change control/versioning/SLA/deprecate).
Support catalog population sequencing and lineage validation approaches that demonstrate traceability and refresh cadence across systems/data products.
Delivery leadership and stakeholder management
Own workplan execution for the metadata/catalog workstream, including milestone management, RAID tracking, and stakeholder coordination; coach junior analysts on intake standards and catalog hygiene.
Prepare and deliver crisp status reporting and executive-ready readouts focused on outcomes (coverage, quality, adoption, time-to-discover, and backlog reduction).

Requirements

What you’ll need

US Citizenship required
Must be able to OBTAIN and MAINTAIN a Federal or DoD “PUBLIC TRUST”. Candidates with an ACTIVE SECRET CLEARANCE OR PUBLIC TRUST or suitability are preferred.
8+ years of experience in data governance, metadata management, and/or enterprise data cataloging in complex environments (federal/regulated preferred).
Bachelor’s degree obtained.
Ability to meet the project’s client security and access requirements.
Demonstrated, hands-on experience delivering enterprise metadata baselines and operationalizing catalog workflows (intake, normalization, validation, publishing and stewardship sustainment).
Hands-on proficiency with one or more leading catalog/metadata platforms (e.g., Collibra, Alation, Microsoft Purview, Informatica Axon/EDC), including configuration of workflows / templates and support for integration/harvesting concepts.
Working knowledge of metadata standards and structuring approaches (e.g., ISO/IEC 11179, DCAT-US) and practical application of schema categories (technical, business, operational, security).
Demonstrated experience implementing or enabling semantic search / enhanced discovery in a catalog context (semantic tagging, glossary alignment, taxonomy/ontology, synonym management, and measurable relevance improvements).
Working proficiency with SQL and comfort with APIs/integration patterns sufficient to partner with engineering and interpret technical artifacts.
Delivery leadership experience in structured delivery (Agile preferred), including ownership of workstream plans, risks/issues, and stakeholder-ready documentation.
Tool certification/training (required): Vendor-provided certification or formal training credential in at least one enterprise data catalog product. Collibra / Alation / Purview / Informatica or comparable), with ability to demonstrate applied use in delivery.
Strong client-facing communication skills: ability to lead interviews/workshops, resolve definition disputes, and translate technical metadata into business-consumable forms.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance
Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays
Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus
Parental Leave and Adoption Assistance
401(k) Retirement Plan
Basic Life & Supplemental Life
Health Savings Account, Dental/Vision & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
Student Loan PayDown
Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development & Learning Opportunities
Skills Development & Certifications
Employee Referral Program
Corporate Sponsored Events & Community Outreach
Emergency Back-Up Childcare Program
Mobility Stipend

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

data governancemetadata managemententerprise data catalogingsemantic searchmetadata normalizationmetadata validationSQLAPIsworkflow configurationmetadata standards

Soft Skills

delivery leadershipstakeholder managementcommunicationcoachingmilestone managementproblem resolutionworkshop facilitationstatus reportingcollaborationclient-facing skills

Certifications

Collibra certificationAlation certificationMicrosoft Purview certificationInformatica certificationvendor-provided certificationformal training credential