Data Governance and Quality Analyst

Role: Data Governance and Quality Analyst

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 

Job type: Full time, permanent – hybrid

This position offers a hybrid work model, allowing flexibility between working from home and our office. Typically, employees are expected to work 2 days in the office per week.

Why QS?

At QS, we believe that work should empower you. That’s why we foster a flexible working environment that encourages every employee to own their career whilst flourishing personally and professionally.

Our commitment to people development is recognised globally: QS is a Gold-accredited Investors in People organisation, placing us among the top 28% of workplaces worldwide. Our company values underpin everything we do – we collaborate, respect and support each other.

It’s our mission to empower motivated people around the world to fulfil their potential through higher education, ensuring that everyone has access to opportunities that change lives.

Our diversity makes us stronger. By sharing our experiences, we learn from one another and achieve more together, driving progress across the sector.

At QS, you’ll be responsible for implementing real change in the international higher education landscape. You’ll take on meaningful challenges that see a positive impact across the business and the wider sector.

We’re confident you’ll feel right at home here. QS was named as one of Newsweek’s Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces® in the UK (October 2023), recognising the respect, trust and appreciation that drive our culture every day.

As a Data Governance and Quality Analyst, this is what you’ll be doing:

The Data Governance & Quality Analyst will be responsible for establishing, operating, and continuously improving governance and quality standards across our centralised data platforms, including the data warehouse, data lake, and related analytics environments. This role ensures that data entering and residing within these platforms is accurate, validated, trustworthy, documented, and aligned to organisational needs.

Unlike traditional compliance‑focused roles, this position champions quality, structure, lifecycle management, and controlled development practices. The Analyst will define data quality rules, validation frameworks, access role definitions, and data standards, ensuring our data platforms become stable, scalable, and high‑quality assets.

A key focus of the role will be addressing existing issues in our datasets — profiling, assessing, and remediating legacy data — and determining what should be retained, archived, or rebuilt. The role will partner closely with data engineering, data acquisition, and compliance, ensuring governance supports sustainable data engineering practices rather than restricting them.

Role responsibilities:

          Data Quality, Validation & Verification

• Design, implement, and maintain data quality frameworks and validation rules for all data entering centralised data platforms.

• Develop quality checks, verification workflows, and monitoring dashboards for ongoing data accuracy and completeness.


• Partner with data engineers to embed automated controls within ingestion and transformation pipelines.


• Conduct regular data profiling and root‑cause analysis to identify and resolve quality issues.


• Document and maintain a catalogue of quality rules, validation logic, and known data risks.
  
  Data Governance Standards & Controls

• Establish and enforce standards for naming conventions, dataset structures, metadata requirements, and lineage documentation.

• Review new datasets for structural, governance, and quality compliance before onboarding into centralised data platforms.

• Define best‑practice guidance for engineers on dataset creation, transformation, and management.
  
  Access Roles, Permissions & Controls

• Define data access roles to ensure a principle‑based, controlled access model.


• Advise central IT on how these roles should be structured and implemented (while IT retains operational control of user provisioning).


• Develop role‑based access principles aligned to security, data sensitivity, and governance needs.


• Liaise with the Compliance Officer to ensure alignment with regulatory obligations without creating operational bottlenecks.
  
  Legacy Data Assessment & Remediation

• Audit and catalogue existing datasets across centralised data platforms.

• Evaluate datasets for quality, usage, consistency, risk, and strategic value.


• Recommend and lead remediation actions: retain, repair, consolidate, archive, or deprecate.


• Support engineering teams to safely rebuild or retire legacy structures.
  
  Governance Roadmap & Continuous Improvement

• Develop and maintain a roadmap for maturing data governance and quality capabilities across the organisation.


• Track governance adoption and identify opportunities to streamline processes.


• Provide training and communication to promote data quality awareness and shared accountability.


• Ensure governance supports analytics, reporting, and data science teams through clarity, consistency, and improved data trust.
  
  Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as the primary point of contact for governance and quality matters across engineering, IT, analytics, and compliance.


• Facilitate discussions related to data quality issues, source system changes, and process improvements.


• Communicate governance updates and data quality findings to internal stakeholders.

Key skills and experience:

• Experience in data governance, data quality, data management, data engineering, or similar roles.


• Strong understanding of data quality frameworks, validation processes, and root‑cause analysis.


• Experience working with data lake or cloud‑based data platforms.


• Proficiency with SQL and data profiling techniques; familiarity with Python or ETL/ELT tooling is an excellent advantage.


• Experience working collaboratively with data engineering, IT, and compliance functions.


• Strong documentation skills, with the ability to articulate governance and quality standards.


• Strong analytical mindset and attention to detail.


• Excellent communication skills for both technical and non‑technical audiences.


• Ability to balance governance rigour with practical, outcome‑oriented decision‑making.

So, who are we and what do we do?

QS is the world leader in higher education services, analytics, insights and intelligence. From consultancy to student mobility, academic partnerships to branding solutions, our services power both institutional and individual success.

We’re behind the world’s most widely read university rankings. With an 85% share of all Google searches for university rankings, the QS World University Rankings® reach hundreds of millions, shaping decisions and guiding futures.

Since launching in 1990, our impact and influence have only grown. Today, we work with more than 2,000 of the world’s leading higher education institutions, over 12,000 employers, and governments seeking change and socioeconomic development through higher education – while helping more than 75,000 students enrol each year.

Join QS and you’ll join an 800-strong community of problem-solvers, creators, collaborators and change-makers based in 40+ countries and 11
international offices, including Australia, Malaysia, India, Romania, Singapore, France, Germany, the USA and our headquarters in London.

With every talented new hire, business acquisition and bold initiative, we’re strengthening our reach and delivering even greater value to institutions and learners worldwide. Are you ready to shape the future of higher education?

We take investing in our people very seriously.

As standard you will have:

• Competitive base salary


• Access to an annual bonus scheme (for qualifying roles only)


• 20 days annual leave, plus public holidays


• Generous maternity and paternity leave


• Access to an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and MiCare health


• A vibrant social environment and multicultural and multinational culture

But that’s not all. Outside of these standard benefits we also offer resources to allow professional growth and wellness initiatives to nurture a healthy mindset:

• Free subscription to the Calm App – the #1 app for sleep, meditation, and relaxation


• A focus on welfare which is led by our global wellness team, with mental health first aiders globally


• Access to a variety of diversity and inclusion initiatives and groups


• Strong recognition and reward programs – including a peer-to-peer recognition platform, quarterly and annual QS Applaud Awards, Connect with your Career annual PD event


• Support for volunteering and study leave
  


• Free subscription to LinkedIn learning – with over 5000 courses and programmes at your fingertips 


• Options to join our outstanding global Mentorship programme


• Brand new breakout and relaxing spaces in office

Like what you’ve heard? Great, apply now!

As a candidate, we know the application and interview process can be daunting and so it’s important that you have a great experience with us. Our dedicated Talent Team will work hard to ensure you are fully informed at all stages and you are really excited by this opportunity to do meaningful work in the education space.

Equal opportunities

QS Quacquarelli Symonds is proud to be a fair and equal organisation where everyone has the same opportunity to achieve their full potential, irrespective of their background or personal attributes. We celebrate our diversity and believe through sharing our experiences we can learn from one another, be stronger together, and enable our business to thrive.