Vice President, Data Governance & Strategy

We are UMG the Universal Music Group. We are the worlds leading music everything we do we are committed to artistry innovation and entrepreneurship. We own and operate a broad array of businesses engaged in recorded music music publishing merchandising and audiovisual content in more than 60 countries. We identify and develop recording artists and songwriters and we produce distribute and promote the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful music to delight and entertain fans around the world.

How Youll Lead:

The Vice President Data Governance & Strategy is a senior executive leader responsible for defining and operationalizing a comprehensive enterprise data governance and data strategy across UMG. This role ensures that critical data assetsspanning music rights royalties digital consumption fan engagement e-commerce and merchandise (online and on-tour) physical products and artist developmentare accurate trusted compliant and strategically leveraged.

Operating at the intersection of business strategy technology privacy and partnerships the VP champions a data-driven culture and enables scalable compliant data usage that fuels monetization fan growth and innovation in a rapidly evolving global music ecosystem.

How Youll Create:

Strategic Leadership

• Define and drive the enterprise data strategy to support business growth monetization of music assets and fan engagement.
• Identify and assess new fan data sources and partnership opportunities aligned with the enterprise data strategy accounting for label and regional differences.
• Align data initiatives with music industry trends business priorities and evolving digital platforms including streaming social platforms AI-enabled services and emerging distribution models.
• Partner with C-level executives and senior leaders across Legal Finance Marketing Commercial HR and Technology to integrate data insights into strategic and operational decision-making.
• Serve as a trusted executive advisor on data value risk and opportunity across the organization.

Data Governance

• Develop and implement a robust scalable data governance framework covering:
  • Fan CRM and e-commerce data
  • Digital consumption and DSP reporting
  • Artist repertoire and product metadata
  • Financial royalty and rights data
• Establish clear data ownership stewardship quality standards and accountability models across business units and regions.
• Standardize data definitions and identifiers (e.g. ISRC ISWC IPI) to ensure consistency transparency and auditability across systems and partners.
• Ensure compliance with global music rights regulations licensing requirements and data privacy laws (e.g. GDPR CCPA) in close partnership with Legal Privacy and Security teams.

Collaboration & Enablement

• Work cross-functionally with legal operations analytics product and technology teams to operationalize governance standards through platforms processes and workflows.
• Promote data literacy stewardship and accountability across departments and business units.
• Lead organizational change to position data as a managed enterprise asset enabling trusted insights and scalable innovation.

Technology Innovation & Future-Readiness

• Evaluate select and deploy enterprise data governance and cataloging technologies supporting discovery classification lineage quality monitoring and access controls.
• Drive automation and scalability in data ingestion normalization and reconciliation from digital platforms such as Spotify Apple Music YouTube TikTok and emerging channels.

AI Readiness Responsible AI & Privacy by Design

• Facilitate in establishing AI-ready data foundations ensuring data used for advanced analytics machine learning and generative AI is accurate well-governed traceable and ethically sourced.
• Partner with Legal Privacy Security and Technology teams to define and operationalize AI governance frameworks including controls for data usage consent provenance bias mitigation explainability and auditability.
• Embed privacy-by-design and privacy-by-default principles into AI-enabled initiatives involving fan artist and partner data ensuring compliance with global privacy regulations and contractual obligations.
• Play an active role in defining policies and guardrails for the responsible use of generative AI across the music lifecycle including metadata enrichment rights identification royalty processing fan engagement marketing optimization and internal productivity tools.
• Assess and mitigate risks related to AI-driven data sharing automated decision-making synthetic data and data leakage while enabling innovation that supports monetization efficiency and trust.
• Stay informed on emerging technologies such as AI/ML blockchain smart contracts NFTs and next-generation rights management and evaluate their implications for music data governance licensing and revenue models.

Bring your VIBE:

Experience & Expertise

• Bachelors degree in Information Systems Data Science Music Business or a related field; Masters degree or MBA preferred.
• 10 years of progressive experience in data governance data strategy information management or digital rights managementpreferably within music media or entertainment.
• Deep understanding of music rights publishing royalties and global distribution models.
• Strong familiarity with industry standards and ecosystems including DDEX ISRC ISWC IPI and global licensing organizations.
• Hands-on experience with data governance catalog and rights/royalty platforms (e.g. Collibra Informatica SynchTank Vistex Revelator or similar).

Leadership & Influence

• Proven ability to operate at the executive level influencing across technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Track record of driving enterprise-wide data transformation and cultural change.
• Exceptional communication storytelling and stakeholder-management skills.

Key Competencies

• Visionary leadership at the intersection of data music and innovation
• Strong grasp of digital music consumption fan data and data monetization models
• Compliance-minded detail-oriented with a pragmatic business lens
• Ability to align diverse teams and priorities in a complex global organization

Perks Playlist:

Join an entrepreneurial global organization where authenticity boldness creativity connection drive and insight arent just valuestheyre how we work every day. Here are some of the ways we support you along the way (and just a few of the benefits we offer):

• Comprehensive medical dental and vision coverage

• Including 100% coverage for out-patient in-network mental health services

• Fertility coverage for eligible medical plan participants

• Wellbeing reimbursements for fitness classes spa treatments meal services travel and so much more (up to $720/year)

• Student Loan Repayment Assistance and Tuition Reimbursement

• 401(k) with 100% immediate vesting on the first 5% of your contributions plus an additional UMG contribution

A variety of ways to prioritize much-needed time away from work including:

• Flexible Paid Time Off (PTO) for exempt employees

• 3-weeks PTO for non-exempt employees

• 2-weeks paid Winter Break

• 10 Company Holidays (including Juneteenth and Wellbeing Day)

• Summer Fridays (between Memorial Day and Labor Day)

• Generous paid parental leave for every type of parent

Check out our full overview of benefits on the Perks Playlist page of the career site.

Disclaimer: This job description only provides an overview of job responsibilities that are subject to change.

Universal Music Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer

We are an E-Verify employer in Alabama Arizona Georgia Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee and Utah.

Please note UMG is not enrolled in E-Verify in California and New York and cannot support employment of candidates whose employer must enroll in E-Verify for example candidates on STEM-OPT.

For more information please click on the following links.

E-Verify Participation Poster:English / Spanish

E-Verify Right to Work Poster:EnglishSpanish

Job Category:

Salary Range:

The actual base salary offered depends on a variety of factors which may include as applicable the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position years of relevant experience specific and unique skills level of education attained certifications or other professional licenses held and the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job. All candidates are encouraged to apply.