Data Governance Assurance & Stewardship Associate Director

Position Summary:

The Governance Monitoring, Assurance & Stewardship SME is an Associate Director role within the Global Data Stewardship Office, combining data governance and assurance expertise with practical technology delivery and business engagement. The role designs and operates governance monitoring, evidence and stewardship-effectiveness capabilities, providing objective second-line insight into whether governance accountabilities and controls are embedded and operating effectively. It translates approved governance requirements into indicator and evidence models, monitoring rules, dashboards, integrations and attestation and remediation workflows. Findings inform measurable improvement across ownership, metadata, lineage, data quality, classification, access, sharing, retention and responsible data and AI use. Working with business, Service Line Quality, data and technology stakeholders, the role applies product management practices from discovery and requirements definition through prioritisation, design, configuration, testing, approved release, adoption and operational handover. It delivers scoped capabilities within delegated authority and approved architecture, security and change controls, measuring business value, adoption and control effectiveness. The role strengthens federated stewardship without taking over first-line data or control ownership or third-line Internal Audit responsibilities; independent review addresses self-review conflicts arising from its implementation work.

Essential Functions of the Job:

• Establish continuous governance monitoring, evidence and assurance capability, connecting findings and stewardship insight to measurable improvement.
• Define and configure governance measures, indicators, thresholds, reporting rules and a risk-based monitoring plan; translate approved policy and control requirements into traceable, machine-readable monitoring rules and metadata, maintaining links to source requirements and control evidence.
• Assess whether accountabilities, decision rights, metadata, lineage, data-quality and lifecycle controls are embedded and operating.
• Translate approved control objectives into test procedures, sampling approaches, evidence standards, rating criteria and escalation thresholds, agreeing interpretations with designated control owners and recommending changes where gaps are identified.
• Validate self-assessments and attestations and analyse key risk, control and performance indicators.
• Identify systemic gaps, recurring themes and root causes; track findings, agree remediation actions with accountable owners, validate closure evidence and escalate overdue or material issues. Accountable owners remain responsible for implementing remediation and accepting residual risk.
• Define role profiles, competency expectations, guidance, learning pathways and communities of practice for Data Owners and Data Stewards.
• Configure and validate supported evidence integrations from governance platforms, catalogues, lineage, data-quality, workflow and issue-management sources using approved APIs, connectors or scripts; verify evidence provenance, completeness, accuracy and timeliness with accountable source owners.
• Conduct discovery with Service Lines, Service Line Quality, Data Owners, Regional Data Stewards, assurance users and control and platform owners to understand business problems and user needs. Engage the data ecosystem, including the Global Data Office (GDO), Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs), to translate needs into business, functional and non-functional requirements, capability roadmaps, prioritised backlogs, user stories and measurable acceptance criteria. Maintain requirements traceability and agree priorities, dependencies and trade-offs with accountable product and platform owners.
• Evaluate platform capabilities against agreed requirements and acceptance criteria; deliver proofs of concept and scoped implementations for continuous governance monitoring, automated evidence, dashboards, stewardship attestations and findings and remediation workflows. Directly configure evidence and metadata models, monitoring rules, workflows, escalation pathways and auditable decision records within authorised environments; coordinate specialist engineering where integrations or platform changes exceed the role’s remit.
• Use agreed acceptance criteria to guide design, build and testing, including applicable non-functional requirements for evidence reliability, access, secure handling and maintainability. Execute configuration and integration tests, coordinate user acceptance testing and defect resolution, and maintain traceable test results and implementation evidence. Prepare release, rollback and support documentation; support approved release, user adoption and operational handover with authorised change and support owners.
• Agree outcome measures with stakeholders and track business value, adoption and control effectiveness, including evidence coverage, monitoring timeliness, attestation completion, remediation turnaround and stewardship effectiveness. Use findings and user feedback to improve capabilities and reduce manual effort.
• Report concise governance insights and prioritised improvement actions to accountable stakeholders and governance forums.
• Provide constructive second-line challenge and facilitate agreement across business, Service Line Quality, data and technology teams on delivery, adoption and governance outcomes, resolving dependencies and escalating decisions outside delegated authority.

Analytical/Decision Making Responsibilities:

• Exercises the judgement expected of an Associate Director where governance requirements are interpreted inconsistently, evidence is incomplete or accountability is fragmented.
• Defines the governance objective and risk, triangulates policy requirements, data and evidence, and applies a proportionate assessment methodology.
• Distinguishes isolated exceptions from systemic issues and determines whether weaknesses arise from local control gaps, unclear standards or ineffective stewardship.
• Assesses the reliability of self-assessments, indicators, attestations and evidence and reaches defensible conclusions on control design and operating effectiveness.
• Recommends proportionate remediation and improvement priorities, constructively challenges risk-acceptance proposals and escalates unresolved decisions to accountable owners or the appropriate governance forum.
• Assesses implementation options, platform constraints, integration dependencies, maintainability and evidence reliability; selects configuration and automation approaches within approved patterns and recommends interim monitoring and evidence arrangements where capability gaps remain.
• Delivers the design, configuration, integration, testing and implementation evidence for assigned monitoring and stewardship capabilities within delegated authority. Approved policy owners, Data Owners, Data Stewards, designated control owners, product teams and platform owners retain their respective accountabilities. The role does not assume policy ownership, Data Product Owner or Technology Product Owner accountability, enterprise architecture authority, security approval, infrastructure engineering, production change authority or production operations. It recommends or escalates decisions requiring these authorities and coordinates specialist support and operational handover.
• Maintains second-line independence, clarifies advisory and implementation boundaries and refers formal third-line assurance matters to Internal Audit. Identifies and escalates self-review conflicts and arranges independent review of control-effectiveness conclusions relating to capabilities the role has designed or implemented.

Knowledge and Skills Requirements:

• Deep expertise in modern data governance, federated operating models, Data Owner and Data Steward accountabilities and decision rights.
• Strong knowledge of data domains, critical data elements, business glossaries, metadata, lineage, catalogues, data quality and observability.
• Working knowledge of classification, access, privacy, security, records, retention, data sharing, third-party and cross-border data, and responsible data and AI governance.
• Expertise in policy-to-control traceability, risk and control self-assessment, control design and operating-effectiveness testing, sampling and evidence evaluation.
• Experience with management attestation, issue rating, root-cause analysis, remediation validation, governance maturity assessment and executive reporting.
• Hands-on capability in at least one enterprise governance, monitoring, analytics, workflow or GRC platform relevant to this remit. Ability to model evidence and metadata, configure dashboards, monitoring rules and attestation or remediation workflows, and automate evidence collection and escalation using supported capabilities. Comparable platform experience is valued; expertise in every platform or discipline is not required.
• Practical technical knowledge of cloud data platforms, source-system APIs, connectors and evidence pipelines. Ability to validate metadata, indicators and evidence, implement supported integrations and diagnose data or integration issues using appropriate platform, query or analytics tools within approved environments. SQL and scripting skills, such as Python, for evidence validation, analysis or automation are desirable but not mandatory. Work with source owners and specialist engineers on issues beyond the scoped solution; infrastructure engineering and production operations remain with designated teams.
• Ability to translate business and user needs and approved governance requirements into business, functional and non-functional requirements, technical specifications, user stories, evidence schemas, machine-readable monitoring rules, configured workflows and measurable acceptance criteria, maintaining traceability through implementation, testing and control evidence.
• Strong applied product management skills in user discovery, roadmap development, backlog prioritisation, dependency and trade-off management, iterative delivery, release planning, adoption and business-value measurement. Ability to turn user feedback and control-effectiveness findings into prioritised improvements, balancing monitoring coverage, evidence reliability, usability, risk and delivery constraints. Applies these practices to assigned capabilities in collaboration with accountable product and platform owners, without assuming formal Product Owner accountability.
• Ability to apply version control, environment separation, configuration and integration testing, defect management, least-privilege access and secure handling of credentials and sensitive evidence. Validates functional and non-functional acceptance criteria, retains test and implementation evidence, and prepares solution, approved deployment, rollback and support documentation for handover to designated change and operational owners.
• Strong analytical judgement, professional scepticism, facilitation, interviewing, concise report writing and root-cause analysis.
• Ability to explain technical and governance concepts in practical business language, translate needs into implementable solutions, facilitate decisions, negotiate priorities and resolve dependencies. Builds agreement with business, Service Line Quality, data and technology stakeholders and influences delivery, adoption and outcomes outside the reporting line in a global, federated organisation.
• Applied knowledge of DAMA-DMBOK and/or EDM Council DCAM to inform governance accountabilities, metadata, data quality and capability assessment, together with relevant data, risk, privacy, security and records standards. Familiarity with EDM Council CDMC for cloud data-management controls and automation is advantageous; these frameworks inform practice rather than imply formal compliance or certification.

Supervision Responsibilities:

• Operates with a high degree of independence within approved governance, policy and delivery parameters, with direction on major priorities and material accountability decisions.
• Has no direct reports and no indirect supervisory accountability.
• Provides specialist functional leadership across monitoring, assurance and stewardship activity; people-management accountability remains with the relevant team leaders.

Other Requirements:

• Works globally across the Global Data Stewardship Office and partners with the Global Data Office, Client Technology, Enterprise Technology, Information Security, Global Data Protection, General Counsel’s Office, relevant Risk and Business Administration teams, Service Lines, Service Line Quality, Regions and EY member firms.
• Aligns monitoring, assurance and stewardship activity to DSO strategy, the Global Data Stewardship Policy and priorities approved through relevant EY governance forums.
• Maintains clear accountability boundaries between first-line ownership and stewardship, second-line monitoring and challenge, and third-line independent audit.
• Works with DSO leaders, Data Owners, Data Stewards, product managers, Technology Product Owners, Enterprise Architecture and engineering teams to deliver scoped capabilities. Engages Global Records and Information Management and Internal Audit on relevant evidence, lifecycle and assurance matters.
• Works within the delegated delivery and approval boundaries described under Analytical/Decision Making Responsibilities, coordinating required specialist support, approvals and operational handover with designated owners.

Job Requirements:

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent tertiary qualification in data or information management, information systems, computer science, software or data engineering, business, risk, audit, accounting or a related discipline, or equivalent substantial professional experience. Relevant data governance, risk, controls and assurance knowledge is essential, together with technical foundations and practical implementation capability. Candidates from business, risk, audit or information management disciplines must demonstrate equivalent technical capability in configuring and integrating governance monitoring, evidence or stewardship solutions.

Experience:

• 8 or more years of relevant experience across data governance, data risk, controls, assurance, stewardship, data quality or monitoring.
• Demonstrated experience designing or operating risk-based monitoring, evidence, findings and remediation processes in a complex enterprise.
• Practical experience deriving indicators and evidence from relevant sources, such as catalogues, lineage, data-quality, workflow, access, security, records or service-management systems, and validating evidence reliability with source owners.
• Experience translating approved governance and control requirements into data-source specifications, monitoring thresholds, test procedures, evidence standards, rating criteria and escalation thresholds.
• Hands-on implementation experience with at least one enterprise governance, monitoring, analytics, workflow or GRC platform is essential. Demonstrate direct configuration of indicator or evidence models, dashboards, monitoring rules or attestation and remediation workflows, and supported integration or automation using platform capabilities, connectors or APIs. Evidence should include data validation using appropriate platform, query or analytics tools, configuration and integration testing, defect resolution, and release and handover documentation. Experience using SQL or scripting for evidence validation, analysis or automation is desirable but not mandatory. Advisory expertise or requirements definition alone is insufficient; specialist engineering may be delivered with designated teams.
• Practical experience using metadata, lineage or data-quality evidence from Microsoft Purview, Databricks Unity Catalog or Microsoft Fabric/OneLake for governance monitoring is advantageous. Comparable experience with platforms such as Collibra, Informatica IDMC, Alation or Atlan is also valued. Experience with every named platform is not required.
• Demonstrated experience applying product management practices to governance monitoring, evidence or stewardship capabilities: discovering business and user needs; translating them into business, functional and non-functional requirements, roadmaps, prioritised backlogs, user stories and measurable acceptance criteria; managing dependencies and trade-offs; and supporting approved release, adoption and operational handover. Show how user feedback, business value, adoption and control-effectiveness measures informed priorities and iterative improvement with accountable product and platform teams. A formal Product Owner title is not required.
• Evidence of measurable improvements from technology-enabled governance, such as broader evidence coverage, more timely monitoring, reduced manual attestation effort, faster remediation validation or improved stewardship effectiveness; experience maintaining objective second-line assessment and managing self-review conflicts alongside implementation responsibilities.
• Experience defining stewardship role profiles, competencies, guidance, learning pathways and effectiveness measures.
• Experience engaging business, data and technology stakeholders across a global, federated organisation, explaining technical concepts in practical terms, negotiating priorities, resolving dependencies and securing agreement on delivery, adoption and outcomes without direct reporting-line authority.

Certification Requirements:

• Relevant credentials, such as DAMA CDMP, CIA or ISACA qualifications such as CRISC, are advantageous but not mandatory. Relevant risk, controls, data-quality, privacy, information-security, product management, cloud, data platform or governance platform qualifications are also valued.

What we offer you
The compensation ranges below are provided in order to comply with United States pay transparency laws. Other geographies will follow their local salary guidelines, which may not be a direct conversion of published US salary ranges. At EY, we harness our collective strength to empower you to shape your future with confidence through professional growth, personal fulfillment and an inclusive culture. Learn more at ey.com/us/careers.

• We offer a comprehensive compensation and benefits package where you’ll be rewarded based on your performance and recognized for the value you bring to the business.  The base salary range for this job is: 
  • New York City, Boston, and Washington DC Metro Areas, Washington State, and Southern California offices – $180,000 to $324,000
  • Bay Area California offices – $187,500 to $337,500
  • All other offices locations in the US, including Sacramento – $150,000 to $297,000
• Individual salaries within these ranges are determined through a wide variety of factors including but not limited to education, experience, knowledge, skills and geography.  In addition, our Total Rewards package includes medical and dental coverage, pension and 401(k) plans, and a wide range of paid time off options.
• Under our flexible vacation policy, you’ll decide how much vacation time you need based on your own personal circumstances. You’ll also be granted time off for designated EY Paid Holidays, Winter/Summer breaks, Personal/Family Care, and other leaves of absence when needed to support your physical, financial, and emotional well-being.

Are you ready to shape your future with confidence? Apply today.                                              

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• EY accepts applications for this position on an on-going basis.
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