Head of Data Governance

JOB DETAILS

Band: F
Location: London Salford Glasgow Cardiff Newcastle hybrid working
Contract Type: Permanent / Full Time
Proposed Salary Range: 105000 - 120000 depending on relevant skills knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

Were happy to discuss flexible working. If youd like to please indicate your preference in the application though theres no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

The BBC has been serving audiences online for more than 20 years. Across key products including BBC iPlayer BBC News BBC Sport BBC Weather BBC Sounds and we entertain educate and inform millions every day.

We are making a fundamental shift from being a broadcaster that speaks to audiences to becoming a service shaped by them designed around their needs expectations and trust. Personalisation data-driven decision-making and responsible use of technology are central to this ambition.

As Head of Data Governance and Responsible AI you will lead the enterprise-wide vision strategy and operating model that ensures the BBCs data and AI are trusted well-governed ethical and product-focused. You will enable innovation across multiple enterprise data platforms and product domains while safeguarding audience trust editorial integrity and regulatory compliance.

This role operates across a complex federated data and AI landscape spanning multiple platforms diverse business domains and a wide range of stakeholders across technology product editorial and corporate functions. You will be accountable for governance across a broad portfolio of data products and AI use cases balancing consistency with local autonomy in a large regulated public-service organisation.

This role is critical to ensuring data and AI are treated as products with clear ownership quality standards lifecycle management and accountability and that Data Governance best practises and Responsible AI principles are embedded into the platforms and services that power the BBC rather than applied retrospectively.

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT

Strategic Leadership

• Define prioritise and deliver the BBCs enterprise Data Governance and Responsible AI strategy across a diverse portfolio of data platforms and AI initiatives.
• Own the governance roadmap sequencing capability in line with organisational readiness transformation milestones and business priorities.
• Set clear enterprise-wide expectations for how data and AI are created governed and consumed across platforms.
• Act as a senior advisor to executives on data and AI risk ethics opportunity and platform readiness.
• Make informed trade-offs between innovation delivery pace risk and trust escalating and resolving issues at senior level where required.
• Represent data governance and Responsible AI at senior leadership forums and externally where appropriate.

Data Governance Platforms & Data-as-a-Product

• Establish and maintain enterprise data governance frameworks covering ownership quality metadata lineage classification lifecycle management and access controls.
• Embed data-as-a-product thinking across enterprise data platforms ensuring data products have:
  o named owners
  o clear service expectations and contracts
  o measurable quality and usability metrics
  o defined lifecycle and support models
• Work closely with data platform product and engineering teams to ensure governance is designed into platforms tooling and operating models rather than applied retrospectively.
• Enable scalable secure and trusted use of data across analytics AI and operational use cases.
• Ensure transparency consistency and trust across the BBCs digital and enterprise data ecosystem.

Responsible AI Leadership

• Lead the BBCs Responsible AI principles policies and operating model ensuring ethical transparent and accountable use of AI across platforms and products and enabling teams to make informed decisions.
• Define and implement a risk-based governance framework for AI systems covering risk assessment bias mitigation explainability human oversight and auditability with accountability embedded in delivery teams.
• Operationalise Responsible AI by embedding measurable requirements into delivery pipelines and platform tooling enabling teams to meet standards through normal development workflows.

Records Management

• Set and steward enterprise records management standards and policies ensuring consistent classification retention disposal and defensible record-keeping across data content and AI-related artefacts.
• Lead the central records management capability coordinating lifecycle management of records across platforms and teams and providing guidance and assurance to support regulatory legal and editorial obligations.

Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary Data Governance and Responsible AI team fostering strong ethical judgement collaboration and delivery focus.
• Build data governance and Responsible AI capability across product engineering and data communities through guidance training and communities of practice.
• Operate effectively within a matrix and federated organisation influencing senior leaders and delivery teams without relying on direct line authority.
• Partner closely with Heads of Data Platform Product Technology Editorial Policy and Compliance to ensure shared standards and alignment.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

You are a senior data leader with a proven track record of governing data and AI at enterprise scale and of operating confidently across complex platform-based organisations.

Essential

• Significant experience leading enterprise-scale data governance across multiple platforms domains or business units within a large or complex organisation.
• Demonstrable experience owning or leading a governance portfolio including prioritisation delivery sequencing and senior stakeholder trade-offs.
• Proven experience defining and implementing enterprise data governance frameworks across multiple teams and platforms.
• Strong experience working with enterprise data platforms (e.g. cloud data platforms data lakes warehouses streaming platforms) and shaping governance that enables scale and self-service.
• Deep practical experience applying data-as-a-product practices including ownership models lifecycle management quality metrics and consumer-focused design.
• Strong understanding of UK and EU data protection privacy and regulatory requirements.
• Experience shaping governing or advising on the responsible and ethical use of AI in live environments.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills with the ability to influence at executive level.
• Ability to translate complex technical legal and ethical issues into clear pragmatic guidance.

Desirable

• Media public-service or digital product domain experience.
• Familiarity with emerging AI regulation and standards (e.g. UK AI regulation EU AI Act).
• Understanding of modern data architecture analytics and AI delivery models.
• Experience influencing platform roadmaps and operating models alongside engineering teams.
• Experience engaging with regulators auditors or industry bodies.

Important Note

This role is not a purely policy compliance or advisory position. It requires hands-on leadership of governance operating models embedded into platforms products and delivery processes at enterprise scale.

Interviews:

Please note that interviews will take place from 16th February 2026 onwards (subject to change) and will be a 2-stage interview process.

Before your start date you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges in line with our Contracts of Employment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.