Head of Data Governance

Cardiff, GBR, CF10 1FT
Glasgow, GBR, G511DA
London, GBR, W1A 1AA
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, GBR, NE991RN
Salford, GBR, M50 2QH

JOB DETAILS Band: F
Location: London, Salford, Glasgow, Cardiff, Newcastle - hybrid working
Contract Type: Permanent / Full Time
Proposed Salary Range: £105,000 - £120,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

We're happy to discuss flexible working. If you'd like to, please indicate your preference in the application - though there's 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 bbc.co.uk, 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 BBC's 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 BBC's 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.
• 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 BBC's digital and enterprise data ecosystem.
• Lead the BBC's 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.

• 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.
• 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.

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.

Disclaimer This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC and they will be given priority consideration ahead of the other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

Information at a Glance This is your BBC At the BBC you can create and innovate in an inclusive environment while contributing to some of the world's best-loved content, and the BBC's mission to inform, educate and entertain.

Life at BBC Here you will benefit from:
• Fair pay and flexible benefits including a competitive salary package, a flexible 35 hour working week . click apply for full job details