Executive Director, Data Governance and Data Strategy

Executive Director, Data Governance and Data Strategy

Founded in 1841, Fordham is the Jesuit University of New York, offering an exceptional education distinguished by the Jesuit tradition to more than 16,000 students in its nine colleges and schools. It has residential campuses in the Bronx and Manhattan, a campus in West Harrison, N.Y., the Louis Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk, N.Y., and the London Centre in the United Kingdom.

The University offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision insurance; flexible spending accounts; retirement plans; life insurance; short and long‑term disability; employee assistance program (EAP); tuition remission; and generous time off.

Successful candidates should have a knowledge of and commitment to the goals of Jesuit Education.

Reporting to the Associate VP of Dev Ops, the Executive Director of Data Governance and Strategy serves as the university’s senior leader responsible for shaping and executing a forward‑looking data strategy that enables institutional excellence, informed decision‑making, and innovation across academic and administrative domains. This role aligns the university’s data platform and governance initiatives to ensure data is accessible, actionable, scalable, secure, and strategically aligned with institutional priorities.

The Executive Director collaborates across colleges, departments, and leadership levels to leverage data as a transformative asset that advances teaching, research, and operational effectiveness.

As a trusted advisor and thought leader, the Executive Director oversees all aspects of data governance, architecture, analytics, and data integrations while leading the transition toward a cloud‑first or hybrid data architecture. The Executive Director fosters a data‑driven culture and establishes a sustainable framework for the ethical, innovative, and compliant use of information resources.

• Develop and implement a comprehensive university‑wide data strategy that supports institutional goals in research, teaching, student success, and operational excellence.
• Partner with senior academic, administrative, and technology leaders to align data initiatives with the university’s mission and strategic plan; serve as a strategic partner and advisor to deans, vice presidents, and department heads on data strategy, analytics, and governance.
• Establish and articulate the vision for the next‑generation enterprise data platform, ensuring it supports advanced analytics, AI/ML, and real‑time insights.
• Drive innovation through the integration of ML and generative AI within the university’s data ecosystem.
• Design and oversee a robust data governance framework that ensures quality, consistency, and compliance across all university data assets; implement clear policies for data access, lineage, metadata management, and security in alignment with regulatory and ethical standards.
• Create and manage a multi‑year roadmap for implementing the university’s data strategy, including measurable milestones and key performance indicators.
• Promote data stewardship practices that balance accessibility with privacy, fostering trust across the academic and administrative community.
• Lead the modernization and migration of legacy systems to cloud‑native or hybrid data architectures, enabling scalability and performance.
• Oversee the design and management of enterprise data warehouses and data lakes, supporting both structured and unstructured data.

This list is not intended to be an exhaustive list. The University may assign additional related duties as necessary.

Provides strategic leadership and supervises others who supervise. Responsible for hiring, training, developing, managing performance, administering corrective action, making compensation decisions, and managing strategic views at a high level.

• Collaborate with Information Security, IT Infrastructure, and Research Computing teams to ensure seamless integration of cloud and on‑premises solutions.
• Foster a collaborative culture that emphasizes transparency, shared…