Data Contract
A written, usually machine-checked agreement between the team that produces data and the teams that use it, covering which fields exist, what they mean and how fresh they are, so an upstream change can't silently break reports downstream.
Think of it like
Like an API contract, but for the tables analysts depend on: change the shape without warning and the build fails, not the CEO's dashboard.
Junior or senior?
Still unusual in practice, so a candidate who has actually rolled one out is a strong signal. Many use the phrase for ordinary schema tests.
Ask them
“Which team had to agree to the contract, and what happened the first time they wanted to change a field?”
Sounds like real experience
Describes negotiating it with a real producing team (often software engineers) and a change that was caught or had to go through a process.
Probe further if
Describes only dbt tests or column checks inside the data team, with no producer on the other side of the agreement.