Breaking down data silos by launching the State Enterprise Data Catalog

About State

The Department of State (State) leads America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance by advancing the interests of the American people, their safety and economic prosperity.

Within the State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, the Center for Analytics (CfA) transforms data into bold insights that help over 75,000 employees make data-driven management and foreign policy decisions. Its mission is to expand data access and grow analytics expertise across the Department, both State-side and at diplomatic missions around the world. As a central data hub, CfA tackles inter-departmental projects, prioritizing data quality, interoperability, and governance. CfA also serves as the source of data and AI policy for the Department.

The challenge

State’s data was siloed across disparate systems, requiring time-intensive and labor-intensive efforts to locate and integrate related data. Furthermore, data was not standardized across systems, making it difficult to generate insights needed for decision-making and planning.

The approach

To address these issues, a U.S. Digital Corps Product Management Fellow at CfA led an initiative to design, develop, and launch the State Enterprise Data Catalog.

The Fellow rapidly developed expertise on existing systems to propose targeted solutions addressing critical gaps and led the Data Catalog team to pilot new capabilities, including developing a new Enterprise Metadata Schema to standardize data across source systems, and implementing direct metadata connections to facilitate interoperability. Working closely with senior technical leaders, the Fellow incorporated stakeholder input to ensure changes met the needs of all affected teams.

The impact

This work directly supports Executive Order 14243 (March 2025): “Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos.” The Fellow’s efforts have significantly accelerated data discoverability and interoperability for hundreds of catalogued data assets across the Department of State. The Enterprise Metadata Schema improves data standards and enables an automated metadata display, greatly increasing data integration across teams. The Enterprise Data Catalog significantly reduces time to insight for data teams and leaders across State, with estimated savings of thousands of aggregate hours. The work also directly supports Executive Order 14028: “Improving the Nation’s Cyber Security” through enhanced data visibility and control, improved sensitive data categorization, and stronger risk mitigation. In sum, the Fellow’s work strengthened data governance, improved data standardization and stewardship, and optimized data for advanced analytics and AI initiatives at State.