Data Steward Role Description Template
Data governance fails when nobody is named to do the daily work. This role description spells out what a master data steward does, what authority they have and how performance is measured, so you can hire, assign or document the role.
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Data Steward Role Description Template
Master Data Steward, Materials
Company: Acme Precision Ltd Data domain: Item / material Reports to: Supply Chain Operations Manager System: Infor SyteLine
Purpose
Keep the item master accurate, complete and unique so that planning, purchasing, costing and quality processes can rely on it.
Key duties
| Duty | Frequency |
|---|---|
| Review and process creation and change requests against naming and numbering standards | Daily |
| Search for and prevent duplicate records | Per request |
| Run data quality rules and distribute exception lists to owners | Weekly |
| Chase and verify fixes with data owners | Weekly |
| Maintain the data dictionary and field definitions | Monthly |
| Report quality KPIs to the governance board | Monthly |
Authority and limits
Can create and modify records in the assigned domain within approved standards. Can reject requests that do not meet standards. Cannot approve commercial decisions such as prices or supplier selection. Escalates policy conflicts to the data owner.
Performance measures
Request turnaround: 2 working days for new items, 1 day for changes Completeness target: 98% of active items with all mandatory fields Other: duplicate rate, rework rate, open defects past due date
Approvals
A starting point for discussion with HR and your governance board. Adjust duties to your organization size and ERP. Not employment or legal advice.
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How to use it
Choose the data domain, the system and the reporting line, then adjust the service level and target in the fields. The duties table is a baseline: creation and change processing, duplicate prevention, rule runs, exception follow-up, dictionary upkeep and reporting. Export it to Word for HR or to Excel if you want to add columns for backup coverage.
Owner versus steward
A common governance model separates the data owner from the data steward. The owner is accountable for the domain and makes policy and content decisions, often a business manager in purchasing, engineering or finance. The steward is responsible for day to day quality and process execution. A custodian, usually IT or the ERP administrator, runs the technical platform. Writing these boundaries down avoids requests bouncing between teams.
- Owner: accountable, sets policy
- Steward: operates the process and quality
- Custodian: runs the system and access
- Requester: raises needs and supplies facts
Measuring the role
Choose a few measures the steward can influence: request turnaround, completeness of mandatory fields, duplicate rate, repeat defects and overdue fixes. Avoid measures that depend on other departments' behavior unless the owner shares accountability. Review targets quarterly and tighten them as quality improves.
Common mistakes
Making the role a part time add-on with no time allocated, giving stewardship without authority to reject bad requests, and defining no backup. Another is a role description that lists tasks but no outcome. State the purpose clearly and tie the measures to it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a data steward a full time job?
It depends on volume. In smaller plants it is often part of a planner or buyer role with allocated hours. In larger companies with thousands of requests a year, a dedicated team per domain is common.
Who should the steward report to?
Often to the business function that depends most on the data, or to a central data or ERP team. The choice matters less than giving the steward authority to enforce standards.
What skills should a steward have?
Knowledge of the business process, attention to detail, comfort with the ERP and spreadsheets, and the confidence to push back on bad requests. Basic SQL or reporting skills are a strong advantage.
How is this different from an ERP administrator?
The administrator manages system configuration, security and technical operation. The steward manages the content and quality of business records inside the system.
If stewards spend their time searching for duplicates and building exception lists by hand, we can build read-only agents that prepare those lists from your ERP data.
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