Alcon

Associate Director, Data Quality Lead

Alcon$152K — $283K *
Pharmaceuticals & Biotech
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years in data quality, with 3+ years leading teams in a regulated industry (pharma/life sciences preferred)
  • Expertise in data quality dimensions, profiling, validation, and remediation
  • Familiarity with data governance frameworks and data stewardship
  • Proficiency with data quality tools, observability platforms, and SQL
  • Understanding of data engineering concepts and data pipeline management
  • Ability to define measurable data quality rules and translate business needs into technical terms
  • Knowledge of AI-ready data concepts and dataset governance

Responsibilities

  • Define and advance data quality standards and frameworks
  • Establish scalable quality control measures, dashboards, and scorecards
  • Translate business needs into data quality requirements in partnership with stakeholders
  • Embed quality controls in the data lifecycle and certification processes
  • Lead data monitoring, reporting, and performance tracking for critical assets
  • Manage data quality issues through analysis, escalation, and resolution
  • Collaborate with engineering teams to automate quality checks and enhance data observability

Benefits

  • Comprehensive health, life, and disability insurance
  • 401(k) retirement plan with company contributions and matching
  • Generous vacation and time off package, including holidays and personal days
  • Performance-based cash incentives and potential for annual equity awards
  • Opportunities for professional development and training
Full Job Description
Job Description Summary
#LI-Onsite

Location: East Hanover, New Jersey

Novartis is unable to offer relocation support: please only apply if accessible.

Company will not sponsor visas for this position.

The preferred location for this role is East Hanover, New Jersey site but remote work may be possible (there may be some restrictions based on legal entity). Please note that this role would not provide relocation as a result. If associate is remote, all home office expenses and any travel/lodging to specific East Hanover, New Jersey site for periodic live meetings will be at the employee's expense. The expectation of working hours and travel (domestic and/or international) will be defined by the hiring manager.

Help shape the foundation of trusted, AI-ready data that powers critical business decisions across Novartis. As Associate Director, Data Quality, you will play a pivotal role in building and advancing enterprise data quality practices that ensure our most important data assets are accurate, reliable, and fit for purpose. Working across Data Governance, Data Engineering, Data Product teams, and business stakeholders, you will drive measurable improvements in data trust, lead enterprise-wide quality initiatives, and help unlock the full value of data for analytics, innovation, regulatory excellence, and artificial intelligence. If you are passionate about data quality, operational excellence, and delivering meaningful impact at scale, this is an opportunity to help transform how data fuels the future of healthcare.

Job Description
Key Responsibilities
  • Define and advance enterprise data quality standards, frameworks, policies, and measurement practices.
  • Establish scalable quality rules, thresholds, scorecards, dashboards, and reusable control frameworks.
  • Partner with stakeholders to translate business needs into measurable data quality requirements.
  • Embed data quality controls throughout the data product lifecycle and certification process.
  • Lead enterprise monitoring, reporting, and performance tracking for critical data assets.
  • Drive data quality issue triage, root cause analysis, escalation, and resolution activities.
  • Collaborate with engineering teams to automate quality checks and data observability capabilities.
  • Support AI-ready data initiatives by ensuring trusted, governed, and high-quality datasets.
  • Maintain documentation, remediation plans, operational trackers, and control evidence.
  • Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and confidence in enterprise data.


Essential Requirements
  • 8+ years in data quality, including 3+ years leading teams in a regulated industry (pharma/life sciences strongly preferred).
  • Strong understanding of data quality dimensions, data profiling, data validation, data cleansing, root cause analysis, and remediation.
  • Knowledge of data governance frameworks, data stewardship, critical data elements, metadata, lineage, and data product certification.
  • Familiarity with data quality tools, data observability platforms, SQL, data catalogs, workflow tools, and reporting dashboards.
  • Understanding of data engineering concepts, including data pipelines, ingestion, transformation, controls, monitoring, and production support.
  • Ability to define measurable data quality rules and translate business requirements into technical requirements.
  • Knowledge of AI-ready data concepts, including trusted datasets, lineage, quality thresholds, and governed usage.


The salary for this position is expected to range between $152,600 - $283,400 per year. The final salary offered is determined based on factors like, but not limited to, relevant skills and experience, and upon joining Novartis will be reviewed periodically. Novartis may change the published salary range based on company and market factors.

Your compensation will include a performance-based cash incentive and, depending on the level of the role, eligibility to be considered for annual equity awards. US-based eligible employees will receive a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, life and disability benefits, a 401(k) with company contribution and match, and a

variety of other benefits. In addition, employees are eligible for a generous time off package including vacation, personal days, holidays and other leaves.

To learn more about the culture, rewards and benefits we offer our people click here.

Salary Range
$152,600.00 - $283,400.00

Skills Desired
Cross-Functional Collaboration, Customer Engagement, Customer Insights, Data Analytics, Digital Marketing, Market Research, Media Campaigns, Product Marketing, Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Management, Team Leadership, Waterfall Model

About Alcon

Alcon is a global medical company specializing in eye care products and services. The company's products include surgical equipment, contact lenses, and eye drops. Alcon was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Baar, Switzerland. The company operates in over 70 countries and has over 20,000 employees. In 2019, Alcon became an independent publicly traded company after being spun off from Novartis.
Learn more about Alcon
Size
24,389 employees
Market Cap
$33.3 billion
Industry
Founded
1945
NASDAQ

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