Associate Director – Data Governance Lead

Job Description Summary

#LI-Hybrid

This position will be located at East Hanover, NJ site and will not have the ability to be located remotely. This position will require 10% travel as defined by the business (domestic and/ or international).

Job description summary
The AD, Data Governance Lead is accountable for designing, standing up, and operating the enterprise data governance program. This individual establishes the governance operating model- including the Executive Council and core functional sub-committees- de-fines data lifecycle controls, builds performance scorecards, and partners cross-functionally with IT, Compliance, Legal, and Privacy to embed sustainable, auditable da-ta controls across the organization.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities:

• Stand up and co-chair the Executive Council and coordinate all sub-committees.
• Develop charters, terms of reference, meeting cadences, agendas, and decision-tracking.
• Drive alignment of governance priorities with enterprise strategy and risk appetite.
• Establish federated data ownership and stewardship model across domains.
• Partner with IT, Compliance, Legal, and Privacy to fully develop, validate, and operationalize required controls.
• Develop, document, and maintain control frameworks at each lifecycle stage.
• Collaborate with data owners and enforce governance standards across the end-to-end data lifecycle.
• Build Data Management Lifecycle Scorecards measuring quality, coverage, compliance, and maturity.
• Define Governance KPIs/KRIs (e.g., data quality scores, classification coverage %, access-review completion, issue MTTR, policy adoption).
• Deliver executive dashboards and periodic DCAM maturity assessments.

Essential Requirements:

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Information Systems, Data Management, Engineering, Finance, or a related field.
• Strong facilitation and stakeholder-management skills — this role lives in meetings with functional VPs.
• Minimum 8+ years in Data governance, BI governance, or commercial analytics in a regulated industry.  Preferably in pharma or life sciences industries.
• Extensive Experience running a cross-functional governance council or working group with real decision authority.
• Influence without authority across IT, Legal, Compliance, and Privacy.
• Deep knowledge of governance frameworks (DAMA-DMBOK, DCAM), privacy regulations, and control design.
• Experience with governance/catalog tooling (e.g., OpenMetadata, Collibra).
• Analytical rigor for scorecard/metric design and maturity assessment.

Novartis Compensation Summary:

The salary for this position is expected to range between $145,600.00 and $270,400.00 per year.

The final salary offered is determined based on factors like, but not limited to, relevant skills and experience, and upon joining Novartis will be reviewed periodically. Novartis may change the published salary range based on company and market factors.

Your compensation will include a performance-based cash incentive and, depending on the level of the role, eligibility to be considered for annual equity awards.

US-based eligible employees will receive a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, life and disability benefits, a 401(k) with company contribution and match, and a variety of other benefits. In addition, employees are eligible for a generous time off package including vacation, personal days, holidays and other leaves.

EEO Statement:

The Novartis Group of Companies are Equal Opportunity Employers. We do not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. 

Accessibility and reasonable accommodations

The Novartis Group of Companies are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, or to perform the essential functions of a position, please send an e-mail to [email protected] or call +1(877)395-2339 and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Please include the job requisition number in your message.

Salary Range

$145,600.00 - $270,400.00

Skills Desired

Cross-Functional Collaboration, Customer Engagement, Customer Insights, Data Analytics, Digital Marketing, Market Research, Media Campaigns, Product Marketing, Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Management, Team Leadership, Waterfall Model