Enterprise Data Strategist

Job Description:
SECTION 1.0 PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Colorado Department of Education (CDE or the Department) is looking for a contractor to provide Data Governance services in support of the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) federal grant efforts. CDE received the grant award in 2020 and it will continue through February 2025. The early years of the grant focused on two use case areas Adult Education (AE) and Concurrent Enrollment (CE). There is a significant technology component to this grant effort CDE already has datalinking technology in place and part of the grant commitment is to modernize the technology. The project team comprises database experts ETL programmers business and data analysts and other technical experts. The focus of this SOW however is on the rules governing the K12 data while expanding to P20W (Preschool to College and the Workforce) and all associated data governance aspects. This will require implementing data governance at CDE and furthering that support to the needs and requirements of multiple agencies including the CDE. In addition it will include educating the internal CDE resources across the divisions on the need for and value of data governance.
The department which houses K12 and AE data is looking at how adulted students fare once they graduate. In the Concurrent Enrollment arena we are analyzing how well CE students do after completing their K12 education how their results compare to nonCE students etc. CDE will be combining data from the Departments data stores with data from other agencies e.g. the Colorado Department of Labor (CDLE) the Department of Higher Education (DHE) and the Department of Revenue (DOR) to answer critical questions about educational outcomes. This requires close cooperation across multiple agencies in Colorado. While there is already considerable data sharing across agencies in Colorado there are no agreedupon universal data governance protocols. Nor are there accepted standards for exactly how to document agreements between agencies for the rules around the types of data the protection of data shared and any combined data sets that may be created. Data Governance at the state is in its infancy so CDE is committed to developing crossagency data governance protocols and procedures that allow the SLDS grant to succeed but also to remain aligned with other developing statewide efforts as much as possible.
For this project CDE not only requires an individual with strong knowledge of data governance and data management best practices but also ideally someone familiar with statewide processes around data governance.

SECTION 2.0 GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
2.2. Contractor shall work closely and collaboratively with the Departments Project Manager throughout the Purchase Order to discuss suggestions or issues and incorporate guidance from the Department while performing the work described within this Statement of Work.
2.3. The Contractor shall alert the Project Director when issues or potential risks are encountered that will affect the project.
2.4. The Contractor shall submit detailed status reports and participate in weekly status meetings as required by the Department during the engagement.
2.5. The contractor shall participate in project team meetings workstream meetings and others as necessary to fully understand the project approach and progress. These meetings may be held in person or remotely at CDEs request.
2.6. The contractor shall coordinate and prioritize all work to ensure that all deliverables and deadlines are met.
2.7. The contractor shall employ an internal quality control process to ensure that all deliverables are complete accurate easy to understand and of high quality.
2.8. Contractor shall provide deliverables that at a minimum are responsive to the specific requirements of this Statement of Work organized into a logical order contain no spelling or grammatical errors formatted uniformly and contain accurate information and correct calculations.
2.9. The contractor shall submit each deliverable to the Departments Project Manager for review and approval.
2.10. The contractor shall retain all work papers generated for reference throughout the project and project acceptance.
2.11. The contractor shall participate in the review and revision process until the Department provides written acceptance of the deliverable.
2.12. The contractor shall research document and share any documentation as requested by the Department.
2.13. The contractor shall provide copies of any supporting documentation to the Department upon request of the Department and without charge.
2.14. The contractor shall assist the Department with planning scheduling and facilitating meetings within CDE; with other State of Colorado Agencies; and with other states as needed.
2.15. The contractor shall serve as a subject matter expert (SME) mentor and trainer for the CDEdesignated employees.
2.16. The contractor shall respond to all telephone calls voicemails and email inquiries from the Department within one business day.
2.17. The contractor shall enable all Contractor staff to exchange documents and electronic files with the Department in formats compatible with the Departments systems. The Department currently uses Microsoft Office 365.
2.18. Additional consulting projects as requested by the Department.

SECTION 3.0 Provide expert data governance consulting services
3.1. Contractor shall join the SLDS project team and interview all players to understand their level of knowledge of data governance and to understand the current data governance status and needs for the SLDS project.
All deliverables will be submitted in draft form to the SLDS Project Director on the deliverable dates defined below. There will be 3 weeks allowed for CDE review and approval of draft plans. Plans are not limited to the plans defined below. Additional deliverables identified as the project progresses will be included and may include but are not limited to:
Data Ownership/Stewardship Process
Leadership Buyin Approach
Development of clear consistent processes for the review and sharing of data including differentiation of various paths/processes (internally/externally research vs. contract work)
Establishing a clear scope of the data governance strategy with leadership (Executive Team and Cabinet) involvement and buyin/support.
Identification and documentation of Roles/Responsibilities (ownership vs. stewardship primary/secondary ownership roles etc.)
Documenting the data environment Data integration/dependencies external reporting/duplication and Data transparency/latency data dictionaries rules/standards processes etc.
Guidance/process for stakeholder involvement such as HE institutions and SBE roles/involvement with data (research process approvals/stages prereview committee etc.)

Identification of roles/committees necessary to ensure ongoing DG operations (owners stewards officers DG committees etc.)
DELIVERABLE DATE DUE(Draft Plan)
Review and finalize the Data Governance draft plan Contract Start 1 month
Technology/Data Governance Coordination Plan (draft and final) Contract Start 2 months
Contractor Data Governance operationalizing plan Contract Start 3 months
Data Governance Sustainability Plan (draft and final) December 1 2024

3.2. The contractor shall finalize and implement the draft Data Governance plan with the CDE Data Governance workstream team with recommendations on how the contractor can best support the team in data governance. This plan should include recommendations related to the standard best practice components of data governance including:
3.2.1. Decisionmaking
3.2.2. Data ownership/stewardship
3.2.3. Roles/responsibilities
3.2.4. Key policies/procedures
3.2.5. Sustainability
3.2.6. Data Quality
3.2.7. Data Access
3.2.8. Data Security
3.2.9. Data Privacy including governing data protection laws (Family Educational Rights and Privacy ActFERPA and Colorados Student Data Transparency and Privacy ActSDTPA)
3.2.10. Data Sharing Agreements
3.2.11. Others as applicable
3.2.12. Provide recommendations on how Data Governance can assist the Grant Project Manager with coordinating the technical workstreams with the governance and management streams.
3.2.13. Offer recommendations on how Data Governance can provide support to other agency partners and internal business partners to assist with the integration of technology management and governance decisions.

3.3. Once the draft Contractor Data Governance operationalizing plan and Technology/Data Governance Coordination Plans are agreed upon the contractor shall submit a Data Governance Plan to the Grant Project Director for approval that in addition to the agreed upon elements in 3.2 includes the items listed below:
3.3.1. Recommendations on how best to incorporate data governance into the ongoing technology decisions being made regularly.
3.3.2. Recommendations for Data Sharing Agreements after reviewing current plans and documents in place.
3.3.3. All suggestions shall be accompanied by associated timeline recommendations.

SECTION 4.0 Provide Onthejob training to data governance workstream members
4.1. The Departments Data Governance workstream team consists of a data privacy expert an expert in CDE data and collection systems/rules an SLDS Grant Project Manager and CDEs internal data governance coordinator. This team is well versed in internal data governance but none have worked with crossagency data governance. The contractor shall join this workstream group and work closely with these CDE employees. For the final SLDS solution to be sustainable CDE employees must understand data governance and how it shifts from the project implementation phase to an ongoing operational phase.
4.2. The intent is for the contractor to provide data governance services as needed throughout the remaining grant period.
4.3. The contractor shall share knowledge of data governance as required deliverables are developed and submitted. The data governance workstream members may also contribute to the work required for these deliverables as time allows and as negotiated with the Project Director.