Data Management Steward

Who are we?

Howden is a collective – a group of talented and passionate people all around the world. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 18,000 employees spanning over 100 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

Position: Master & Reference Data Management Steward

Howden is evolving its Master and Reference data capability to provide a wider service to the organisation, so that trusted and enriched master and reference data entities are in place, enabling effective business operations and providing richer analytical capabilities.

The Group Data Management function is accountable for mastering the Group’s common critical data domains covering Party, Lloyd’s Market, Industry, Business Unit, Product and Geography utilising Howden’s strategic master data management solution, Reltio.  The overall goal is to ensure the critical data is appropriately governed through data stewardship and mastered to create a unique and enriched golden record. This enables the business to perform its critical operational processes more efficiently and provide greater insights to support new business opportunities.

The job holder will also act as an SME supporting Howden’s use of external company enrichment data (firmographics) to enhance the value of the Party master data records to the business. 

Specific Responsibilities

Master Data Management:

• Manage the queue of master data records in Reltio supporting high or new demand.
• Creation of golden master data records across the business for both operational and analytical use-cases, ensuring it is of high standard.
• Enable the mapping of master data to external data to enable the enrichment of firmographic data to increase value (e.g. industry, employee count, company revenue data from Dun & Bradstreet).
• Provide feedback and requirements to the Ingestion teams to drive the ingestion of higher value records, adding value to the mastering process.
• Support the creation of data standards for each of the priority data domains.
• Contribute to the “Reltio as a Service” project to support the transition of current ways of working to the new future strategic vision.
• Work closely with the data analysts to enable assessment of master data backlogs and identify options for reducing the backlog in an efficient way.
• Work collaboratively with the Data Quality team to drive a model of continuous improvement so that data is continually improving both at source and via the master data capability.

Reference Data Management:

• Perform stewardship activities of the current scope of group reference data.
• Perform periodic reviews of reference data through relevant governance forums to ensure it is always up to date, as required.
• Manage change requests and version control
• Work with the data platform team to enable the provision of reference data across the business (in line with Group Data’s hub and spoke model).
• Engage stakeholders to develop localised reference data and consumption of Group reference data.
• Work with Reltio Tech support team to develop the creation of new reference data requirements.

Key Stakeholders:

• Work with colleagues across Group Data, Data Platform, Data Ingestion, Data Governance & Data Quality and the wider data community.
• Work with business stakeholders across all parts of the Howden group.
• Work with external parties that support our business operations such as external data providers (Dun & Bradstreet, Moody’s, S&P Global) and vendors such as Reltio.

Representing the Company

• Any other reasonable duties, as required

Person Specification

Skills and Abilities needed to perform the Role

• Self-motivation to manage queues of records to ensure information flowing through Reltio is proactively and efficiently actioned.
• High levels of attention to detail to ensure that outputs are always of high quality and are impactful to the target audience.
• Effective communication skills both written and verbal, together with confidence to present at relevant meetings and business forums.
• Good stakeholder engagement with proven ability to liaise with the business, understand their requirements and suggest options/refinements.
• Ability to perform detailed data analysis in a small fast-moving team with shifting priorities
• Skilled in creating accurate business and technical documentation which is easily understood by the business
• Proficiency in management of data in technical solutions such as Reltio or similar master data management products
• Proficient with office productivity tools e.g. Microsoft Office products, Teams, MIRO, Visio, Confluence, etc

Knowledge and Experience

• Required: Knowledge of data disciplines such as master data, reference data, data quality and data governance
• Preferred: Knowledge of financial industry business, regulations and processes
• Preferred: Knowledge of our core policy management systems (Global XB and Sector)
• Preferred: Experience of working in Agile project environment

Professional/Technical Qualifications

• GCSEs / A-Levels or equivalent including English and Maths essential
• 5+ years in the Finance industry
• Technically relevant qualifications, such as CDMP
• Optional: BCS Diploma in Business Analysis, CII Certified

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define. At Howden, we value diversity – there is no one Howden type. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

• Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new

• We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges

• We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond

Reasonable adjustments

We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs.  Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.

If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.

*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.

Permanent