Senior Data Analyst (Metadata Lead) | Australian Government
Contract, up to 12 months with extension options | Senior (APS6 equivalent) | Baseline clearance
Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart, Cairns or Robina. Onsite for the first six weeks, then hybrid by agreement.
A large federal agency is putting proper metadata behind its highest-value datasets, including the data that feeds its approved AI projects. It needs someone who knows ISO/IEC 11179 well enough to apply it at scale, and who can lead a team of metadata developers to get records written, validated and registered. If you have spent years telling people why good metadata matters, this is a chance to build it with real backing and a clear mandate.
What you’ll do
- Lead the metadata workstream: shape scope, governance and success measures, pick the high-value assets to tackle first, and allocate work across the team.
- Keep a live view of progress, quality, coverage, risks and registration status.
- Dig through existing metadata, warehouse artefacts, data dictionaries, models, lineage and source-system documentation to find gaps, duplicates and conflicting terminology.
- Harmonise definitions, naming and governance attributes, and write plain-English descriptions that both business and technical readers can use.
- Work with subject matter experts, data stewards, engineers, analysts and AI project leads to validate metadata and take it through to registration.
- Coach the team in ISO/IEC 11179 and agency standards, review their work, and set up the handover to ongoing stewardship.
What you’ll bring
- Hands-on expertise implementing ISO/IEC 11179 for metadata registries.
- A track record leading metadata development, quality assurance or similar data management work.
- Working knowledge of ONDC metadata attributes, National Archives of Australia requirements and DCAT, or the ability to pick them up fast.
- Australian citizenship and the ability to obtain and hold a Baseline security clearance.
- Willingness to be based at the role location for the full contract.
Your application will be assessed against the Data Capability Framework: Level 2 in data communication, data outputs, research questions, statistical analysis and subject matter expertise, and Level 1 in data integration and visualisation.
It helps if you also have
- Data governance and data management experience
- Strong research, synthesis and facilitation skills
- Advanced Excel and project coordination skills
- Experience supervising or coaching staff
- A habit of getting across a new agency’s programs and data landscape quickly
- Start: 1 December 2026 (estimated)
- Term: up to 12 months, with extension options
- Hours: full time, up to 50 hours per week
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