Data governance salary and demand trends
Reviewed by Mark Dickie · Last updated
Data governance is the set of policies and tooling that keep an organization's data accurate and compliant. This report compiles salary percentiles and a hiring-demand series for the technology, giving you a read on what the market pays and how aggressively companies are recruiting.
Demand for data governance skills has climbed as regulatory pressure mounts and data platforms grow more complex. Employers are hiring across finance and healthcare, where the cost of poor data quality hits hardest. The spread between low and high salary percentiles shows how much room exists for negotiation depending on employer and location.
What does the data governance job market look like in 2026?
The tables below lay out the actual figures. Here is what each one represents:
| Figure on this page | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Salary percentiles | Pay spread across the market, from lower to upper earners |
| Hiring-demand series | Job-posting volume tracked over time |
| Demand direction | Whether postings are rising, flat, or cooling |
To get the most out of the data:
- Compare your current pay against the percentile band to see where you sit in the wider market.
- Track the demand series to judge whether hiring is accelerating or slowing.
- Use the salary spread to gauge negotiation room. A wide band means employer and location matter as much as the role itself.
- Pair the demand trend with hiring patterns in your sector to time a job search.
Data governance salary & hiring demand
From live job postings, the median Data governance salary is US$160,000, across 134 postings in August 2026. These figures are technology-wide across all seniority levels, as of August 2026.
| 25th percentile | US$134,160 |
|---|---|
| Median (50th percentile) | US$160,000 |
| 75th percentile | US$185,969 |
Hiring demand over time
We need 3 complete months of tracking before we publish a month-by-month series. Months we only partly covered are left out rather than shown as low demand.