Head of Data Governance

Company Description/ Business Unit

Location:

Basingstoke (hybrid working 3 office days per week)

Employment Type:

Permanent, full time
Additional Benefits:
Annual Bonus, Cash-Car Allowance & Private Medical Insurance

Think the AA is just about roadside assistance? Think again. For over a century, we've been evolving and adapting. Today, as the nation's leading motoring organisation, we offer a wide range of products and services to millions of customers. From roadside assistance to home and motor insurance, and the latest driving technologies, we have it all. As we continue to expand, diversify, and modernise, joining us as a Head of Data Governance means you'll play a crucial role in our success and be part of this exciting motoring journey.

Our Chief Operating Office (COO) are the backbone of The AA, providing both stability and structure to support growth and innovation. We are the drivers of change.

At The AA, we are putting data at the heart of how we make better decisions, deliver better customer outcomes and shape the future of our business. As we continue centralising our key commercial and customer data onto a modern lakehouse platform, we are looking for a Head of Data Governance to build and embed the operating model that ensures our most critical data is trusted, controlled and used with confidence.

This is a high impact leadership role where you will shape data governance from an early stage across a large, complex and well recognised organisation. You will lead the rollout of our critical data governance operating model, introducing data domain ownership and stewardship, embedding governance controls into business change, and ope rationalising data quality monitoring across our lakehouse platform.

You will play a visible Group level role, partnering with senior leaders across Data, Technology, Risk, Compliance, Cyber Security, Data Privacy and business domains. With strong executive sponsorship and the foundations in place, this is an opportunity to build a meaningful, lasting capability and create governance that enables the business rather than slows it down.

• Lead the design, rollout and embedding of a critical data governance operating model across the Group, including data domain owners, data stewards, critical data elements, definitions, lineage, quality rules and service levels.
• Embed data governance controls into business and technology change, ensuring upstream changes are managed effectively and do not compromise critical data, reporting or customer outcomes.
• Own Group wide oversight of data and reporting risk, including governance, controls, Key Risk Indicators and audit actions across the Data and AI function.
• Select, deliver and ope rationalise enterprise grade data governance and data quality tooling across a modern lakehouse environment, including Microsoft Purview and comparable platforms.
• Work closely with senior stakeholders to build confidence, understanding and advocacy for data governance, translating complex topics into clear business value.
• Lead and develop a small specialist team, creating a positive, delivery focused culture with clear standards, strong accountability and room for professional growth.

• Proven experience rolling out a critical data governance operating model in a large, complex or regulated organisation, preferably from an early stage rather than only operating an established model.
• Strong practical knowledge of data governance and data management principles, including data ownership, stewardship, critical data elements, data quality, metadata, lineage, controls and governance by design.
• Hands on experience selecting, implementing or ope rationalising enterprise data governance tooling, preferably Microsoft Purview, with exposure to tools such as Soda, Great Expectations, Databricks, Unity Catalog or comparable platforms.
• Strong understanding of risk and controls, ideally including first line risk oversight, Three Lines of Defence, data reporting risk, privacy, compliance and regulatory expectations.
• The confidence and communication style to influence senior leaders, engage domain experts and take stakeholders…