Data Governance Lead

We work together.

Your team and the people you will work with include a close-knit group of experts within our Technology & Product function. You will work as a true peer to our Data Architect, jointly building our enterprise data foundations by combining architecture, governance, quality, and lineage into a cohesive ecosystem. You will act as the vital bridge between Business, Analytics, Engineering, and Architecture teams, building a community of data owners and stewards across the organisation to ensure governance provides clarity rather than bottlenecks.

We deliver progress.

What you’ll do and how you will make an impact: As our first Data Governance Lead, you will establish enterprise-wide governance from the ground up for a FTSE 250 organisation. You will:

• Define and implement the enterprise data governance strategy and roadmap, ensuring frameworks enable domain-led analytics.

• Establish clear data ownership and accountability across various business domains.

• Design an enterprise data quality framework, defining KPIs and monitoring approaches to drive measurable improvement in data trust.

• Lead the selection of governance tooling and define a canonical metric registry for critical enterprise KPIs.

• Develop practical policies and standards regarding data access and lifecycle management, ensuring alignment with GDPR and regulatory expectations.

• Partner with Engineering to embed governance and lineage directly into our core data pipelines and medallion architecture.

• Drive adoption through enablement and pragmatic change management, ensuring our data is fit for both operational and analytical use.

Qualifications

We put people first.

It’s all about you. We are looking for a Data Governance Lead with a "builder" mindset—someone who thrives on creating structure from ambiguity and is comfortable challenging existing ways of working. You should be a pragmatic, outcomes-focused professional who can balance high-level strategy with hands-on delivery. To be successful in this role, you will bring:

• 8+ years of experience in data governance, data management, or related roles.

• A proven track record of building data governance capabilities from scratch within complex organisations.

• Deep practical knowledge of data ownership and stewardship models, data quality frameworks, and metadata/lineage concepts.

• Experience selecting and implementing governance tooling (catalog, lineage, quality).

• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to navigate environments with low-to-medium data maturity.

• Core competencies in prioritisation, collaboration, and meticulous attention to detail.

• Familiarity with frameworks like DAMA or DCAM is desired, as is experience in regulated industries (Energy, Telecoms, or Financial Services).

Additional Information

So why pick UW? We’ve got big ambitions so there’s going to be plenty of challenges. There are also a lot of benefits:

• Competitive salary: We benchmark against the industry and will share the salary openly during our first conversation.
• Performance bonus: An annual discretionary bonus ranging from 15-40%.
• Flexible working: We’re a remote-first business.
• Work-life balance: We offer an optional four-day working week (90% pay for 90% impact).
• Work from anywhere: You can work abroad for up to three weeks, twice every tax year.
• Holiday: 25 days plus bank holidays (increasing with tenure), with the option to trade up to five days each year.
• UW discounts: Save on our services and get a free Cashback Card.
• Future planning: Matched-contribution pension scheme and life assurance (up to 4x salary).
• Family first: Policies designed to help you and your family thrive.
• Flexible benefits: An allowance for private health insurance, dental insurance, or gym membership.
• Sabbaticals: An eight-week paid sabbatical after four years of service.
• Growth: A dedicated learning and development budget and bi-annual promotion cycles.
• Inclusion: Join belonging groups that help shape our culture.
• Events: Company-wide celebrations including the ‘Great Big Get Together’ and our ‘Good Hearted Go-Getter Awards’.

Apply here!

You’ve got this far... Hit apply - we can’t wait to hear from you! Worried you don’t hit all the criteria? We welcome applications from diverse and varied backgrounds so get your application in and let’s chat!

Beth Rodgers will be your point of contact throughout the recruitment process.

Not sure you meet all the requirements? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other underrepresented groups tend not to apply for jobs if they think they may not meet every qualification, when in fact they often do.

We provide equal opportunities, a diverse and inclusive work environment, and fairness for everyone. You are welcome to apply no matter your age, disability, gender, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity status, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation. Please don’t be afraid to ask about what we can do to support your needs. All requests will be carefully and fairly considered.

Please note, if you are successful and offered a role at UW, you will be subject to a background check. Where checks are unsatisfactory or incomplete and/or a failure to reveal information relating to convictions that you are required to identify as part of the background checks, could lead to withdrawal of an offer of employment.