Data and AI Governance Lead

CDM Smith is seeking a Data and AI Governance Lead to join our Digital Capital team. As a key member of our team, you will advance and mature the firm’s data governance and AI governance capabilities through strong stewardship of data standards, policies, and governance processes. You will help define standards, improve data quality, and embed governance practices into everyday workflows so that data can be used confidently and consistently across the business.

In this role you will also support the development and operationalization of AI governance practices, including model transparency, responsible AI usage, data lineage management, and governance controls that help ensure AI solutions are trusted, explainable, and compliant with organization policies. You will collaborate with business, analytics, and platform teams to help ensure governance guardrails that enable innovation while managing risk.

• Operationalize data governance standards, policies and controls approved by the Data Governance Board and leadership.
• Own and maintain governance artifacts including the data dictionary, metadata standards, data lineage documentation, and data quality rules.
• Partner with data owners, data stewards, analytics and platform teams to monitor and improve data quality, resolve data quality issues through a defined governance process, and ensure governance practices are embedded in analytics and reporting workflows.
• Serve as the custodian of governance tooling to support metadata management, lineage, quality monitoring, and access control.
• Develop and maintain data governance KPIs and reporting.
• Support change management by introducing updates to governance processes, roles, and standards in partnership with business and technical stakeholders.
• Develop and support governance education, communications, and training materials that improve adoption across business and technical teams.
• Stay current with emerging data governance and AI governance best practices and help incorporate approved advancements into operational processes.

• Partner with the AI Governance Board, AI delivery teams, and platform teams to operationalize approved AI governance requirements.
• Ensure AI solutions and agents are supported by trusted and governed source data and have clear data lineage in and out of AI models.
• Maintain an Agent inventory including what models are used for each agent.
• Collaborate with AI and analytics teams to ensure governance controls are embedded into AI platforms and workflows, enabling responsible innovation while managing risk.
• Support governance readiness for audits, risk assessments, and compliance activities related to AI systems.

• Bachelor’s Degree.
• 8 years of related experience. Equivalent additional directly related experience will be considered in lieu of a degree.

• Strong understanding of Data Governance principles, including data quality, metadata management, stewardship, lineage, policy management, and data standards.
• Foundational understanding of AI Governance concepts, including responsible AI, model transparency, explainability, bias awareness, and AI risk management.
• Proven experience working within enterprise data governance frameworks and operating models.
• Hands on experience with governance, catalog, or lineage tools such as Databricks Unity Catalog, Microsoft Purview, or Alation.
• Experience working with cloud and analytics platforms such as Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI.
• Experience using SQL or similar query languages to analyze, validate, and troubleshoot data quality issues.
• Strong analytical, problem‑solving, and communication skills.
• Curiosity and willingness to continuously learn emerging technologies, governance practices, and AI‑related trends.
• Working knowledge of data privacy, security, retention, and regulatory considerations related to data and AI governance.
• Strong facilitation and relationship‑building skills with the ability to influence and build consensus without direct authority.

Colorado - Denver

Hybrid Work Options may be considered for successful candidate.

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