Work Preference
Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Accomplishments
Certification
Data Governance
Advanced Analytics
Regulatory
Technology
Generic
SANDY H. LONG

SANDY H. LONG

Data Governance Strategist

Work Preference

Work Type

Full Time

Location Preference

Remote

Important To Me

Career advancementWork-life balanceCompany CultureWork from home optionHealthcare benefits

Summary

A trusted, thought leader with 15 years' experience in data strategy and governance with demonstrated fluency with Insurance, Financial, Marketing as well as Complaints/Advocacy data domain portfolios. Well-versed in setting the strategic direction and executing transformational solutions. Established change agent and a visionary leader who has expertise in delivering a responsible data culture, ethics and regulatory environment. A proven understanding of the relationship between technical and business interdependencies and ability to translate business needs into actionable outcomes. Fueled by an intellectual curiosity and propensity to organize and convey analytical & technical information. A skilled strategist with persuasive interpersonal skills. Capable of autonomously managing product, application, digital, program and data lifecycles. Demonstrated ability to be cursory, perceptive, and capable of dealing with ambiguity. Able to bring quick resolution to challenging situations as well as building lasting relationships with teams, partners, and colleagues. Proven ability to lead, inspire and scale high impact teams. Executive-level presence with exceptional stakeholder communication, capable of building optimal influence.

Overview

12
12

Years of relevant experience

15
15

Years of technology skills

9
9

Certifications

4
4
years of post-secondary education

Work History

Head of Data Governance & Management

USAA
Atlanta
10.2019 - Current
  • Oversees business strategy, roadmap, and direction and sets the strategic direction for data assets, ensuring quality and compliance within the federated Hub & Spoke model and for the associated data domains.
  • Develops and implements the data framework and standards for regulatory compliance.
  • Development of the Data Governance Center of Excellence (CoE) to standardize practices and fosters a data-driven culture, improving data literacy and compliant utilization.
  • Sets the strategic direction for data assets, ensuring quality and compliance within the insurance and financial domains.
  • Leads business engagement, advising on data strategies and governance across the data ecosystem, including cloud, data marts, and reporting solutions.
  • Builds and champions a high-caliber team, fostering a culture of continuous development, coaching, and accountability to drive results.
  • Orchestrates a data stewardship program that focuses on data literacy and governance, providing training and best practices to over 140 identified data stewards.
  • Ensures that business risks are effectively identified, measured, monitored, and controlled in accordance with risk and compliance policies.
  • Builds and maintains relationships with key executive/stakeholders across Business, IT, Legal, Privacy & Compliance to translate complex data concepts for both technical and nontechnical audiences.
  • Responsible for improving metric deliver for predictable saturation, churn, LTV, pipeline health for performance, stability & growth.
  • Manages budgeting, execution and reporting for multi-year financials to align with cost-containment targets.

Managing Information Steward Complaints

USAA
Atlanta
04.2024 - Current
  • Serves as the primary data steward for Complaints data across USAA (utilized by 3 LOBs Bank, LifeCo and P&C, as well as, CEO, CRO and CLO) where my core responsibilities were to ensure availability, integrity, and regulatory compliance.
  • Leads the Complaints Data CoE, governing compliant data utilization for 10 critical reports and managing 11 data-sharing agreements.
  • Defines and implements data standards, quality rules, and processes for capturing and resolving data failures.
  • Partners with IT and Data Governance to ensure data handling adheres to Laws, Rules & Regulations (LRRs) and controls.
  • Participates in management routines and Agile ceremonies to advocate for best practices and guidelines for Complaints data usage.
  • Monitors regulatory changes and industry trends to proactively manage data governance standards.
  • Oversees the migration of Complaints data from Cloudera to Snowflake, communicating biweekly updates to stakeholders and ensuring seamless report repointing for data consumers.

Lead Information Architect

USAA
San Antonio
05.2017 - 10.2019
  • Developed and optimized information for Insurance and Actuarial domains, improving data accessibility and usability, while driving alignment re-use of technology assets for cost containment.
  • Spearheaded the creation of a robust framework for measuring the success of business capabilities, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
  • Drove the strategic alignment of the metamodel with digital and analytical assets, enhancing data analysis capabilities and better business intelligence.
  • Successfully spearheaded the transfer of 13 applications and databases from Life to Bank to ensure frictionless migration for business continuity.
  • Created a 'Taxonomy Review' process to ensure consistent alignment of Micro-Service Containers and APIs across the organization, improving system interoperability and streamlining development.
  • Developed a Mapping Matrix strategy, facilitating efficient data flow, lineage and interoperability across diverse systems and applications.

Solution Architect

Cotiviti
Atlanta
05.2014 - 05.2017
  • Led IT-driven consolidation of 13 applications, standardizing two organizations' data systems. Selected and configured metadata and analytics tools. Enhanced information governance, addressing PHI data issues, and improved permissions and access for security and fraud teams.
  • Orchestrated the SharePoint migration across environments from SP2010 to SP2013 to a unified Office 365 cloud platform. Consolidation included 4TB data from two server farms due to a merger of two organizations.
  • Led the corporate rebranding campaign that included new content, responsive design for mobile devices, integration/SSO capabilities and a comprehensive brand-identity package for client-facing applications.
  • Championed the initial plan, research and POC that led to the Agile Transformation efforts within the SDLC and ADLC environments within IT. This was adopted company-wide. Provided substantive input into the selection, design and implementation of Saleforce.com for sales operations.
  • Developed and launched the inaugural Center of Excellence, focused on Business Analysts; expanded this to encompass the global COE for Agile Transformation.
  • Created the Release Management program whereby I generated, organized, and distributed documentation that communicates product changes internally to stakeholders and externally to customers. Improved user awareness, data unification with production releases, and knowledge transfer.

Education

Master Of Business - Analytics, Ethics & Management

Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA
08.2025 - 12.2026

Bachelor Of Science - Business Management

Athens State University
Athens, Alabama, AL
05.1992 - 06.1995

Accomplishments

  • Created and launched a producer-to-consumer self-service data ecosystem with established methods of lineage development, metadata capture to ensure findability and governance of the data while mitigating data silos, data quality concerns and slow access requests.
  • Created and managed the member advocacy data stewardship program for critical, regulated data related to Complaints.
  • Demonstrated exceptional data management capabilities from the outset, achieving a maturity score of 6 in two DCAM capability areas and a score of 5 in the other six, setting a high benchmark for the organization in its inaugural year 2022.
  • Led several teams through significant transformations from legacy systems to modern cloud ecosystems. This was accomplished by being focused on the human element, ensuring staff and stakeholders are prepared for and understand the deliverables.
  • By reducing redundant Critical Data Elements (CDEs) by 42%, substantial improvements in data quality and overall efficiency were achieved, supporting more accurate reporting and decision-making.
  • Accelerated a data governance initiative that led to delivering the project 7 months ahead of schedule and generating $560k in cost savings.

Certification

  • CIMP - EDM Council
  • CDMP - DAMA International
  • PMP - Project Management Institute
  • AI Aware - USAA Eagle Academy
  • AI Ethics - Udemy Business
  • SA - Scaled Agile
  • POPM - Scaled Agile
  • ARCH - Scaled Agile
  • SPC - Scaled Agile

Data Governance

  • Data Privacy/Consent
  • Data Quality Rules & Dimensions
  • Metadata Management
  • Data Lineage
  • Data Modeling
  • MDM/RDM
  • Stewardship
  • IT Controls
  • Policy/Standard Development
  • Data Sensitivity
  • Data Literacy
  • AI Governance
  • SDLC integration with DDLC
  • DMBOK
  • TOGAF

Advanced Analytics

- Experience with progression AI:

  • L1 Conversational; chatbot and prompts
  • L2 Problem Solvers & Reasoners; fraud detection and next best action
  • L3 Agentic; regulatory compliance monitoring
  • L4 Innovator; campaign adaptation and brand management

- AI Ethics & Bias Awareness

- Model Risk Management COE

- Data Mining & Pattern Recognition

- Data Visualization

Regulatory

  • BCBS-239
  • KYC
  • UDAAP
  • GLBA
  • GDPR
  • CPA
  • COPPA
  • FACTA
  • FCRA
  • HIPAA
  • SOX
  • NIST-AI
  • FedRAMP
  • ISO27001

Technology

  • Salesforce
  • SharePoint
  • Snowflake
  • dbt
  • AWS,
  • Netezza
  • Cloudera
  • Hadoop
  • Bigeye
  • Alation,
  • IGC/IA
  • Airflow
  • Control-M
  • Guidewire
  • Pega,
  • Zendesk
  • ServiceNow
  • SDLC

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Contributed to investor communications with data-backed insights to enhance stakeholder confidence and secure strategic funding.</li><li>Cross-Functional & Global Stakeholder Management: Functioned as the strategic finance business partner to cross-functional heads and the PUIG global finance team, aligning local execution with global financial strategies and compliance requirements.</li><li>ERP Transformation & System Automation: Led end-to-end ERP reimplementation to address system gaps, enforce role-based controls, and automate core finance processes—resulting in enhanced data accuracy, faster reporting and improved internal controls.</li><li>Costing, Inventory & Profitability Optimization: Designed and implemented plant-level costing models to ensure accurate COGS determination. Improved inventory management across pricing, consumption tracking, and aging analysis—enabling better working capital control and cost efficiency.</li><li>Manufacturing Finance & Statutory Compliance: Supervised end-to-end accounting for manufacturing operations and ensured full statutory compliance.</li><li>Financial Reporting, MIS & Profitability Analytics: Delivered accurate and timely monthly MIS reports, including P&L, Balance Sheet and KPI dashboards with deep-dive variance analysis across stores, business verticals, and geographies. Supported board-level decision-making through insightful presentations on financial health and business performance.</li><li>Budgeting, Forecasting & Business Planning: Led the Annual Operating Plan (AOP) and rolling forecasts, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives and market dynamics. 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