Director - Geospatial Data Governance

About the Role
The Director, Geospatial Governance is accountable for the strategic leadership, governance, management, and continual improvement of the enterprise geospatial capability. This role leads the GIS team and serves as the business owner for the Esri Enterprise platform, including the Enterprise Geodatabase (SDE), ArcGIS Enterprise environment, geospatial services, standards, and governance frameworks. The position ensures that geospatial information is managed as a trusted enterprise asset, supporting planning, design, development, construction, operations, asset management, and digital twin initiatives. The Director establishes and maintains geospatial governance, data stewardship, quality assurance, platform performance, security, and compliance while driving innovation and business value through geospatial technologies.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Develop and execute the enterprise geospatial strategy and roadmap.
• Align GIS initiatives with corporate objectives, digital transformation programs, and business priorities.
• Promote geospatial information as a strategic enterprise asset.
• Lead the adoption of emerging geospatial technologies, automation, analytics, and digital twin capabilities.
• Provide executive-level advice on geospatial data, systems, and governance.

Geospatial Governance

• Establish and maintain enterprise GIS governance frameworks, policies, standards, and procedures.
• Define authoritative geospatial datasets and manage their lifecycle.
• Lead enterprise data stewardship and accountability frameworks.
• Establish decision rights for geospatial information management.
• Chair GIS governance and technical review forums.
• Ensure compliance with enterprise data management and information governance policies.
• Oversee schema governance and change control processes.

Enterprise GIS Platform Ownership

• Serve as the business owner for the Esri Enterprise environment.
• Lead governance and oversight of ArcGIS Enterprise, Portal for ArcGIS, ArcGIS Server, and Enterprise Geodatabases (SDE).
• Establish standards for service publishing, deployment, security, and lifecycle management.
• Oversee platform availability, performance, scalability, resilience, and disaster recovery.
• Lead upgrade planning, release management, and platform modernization initiatives.
• Ensure alignment with enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, and infrastructure standards.

Enterprise Geodatabase (SDE) Governance

• Govern the design, structure, and management of enterprise geodatabases.
• Establish standards for branch versioning, data editing, reconciliation, and data publishing workflows.
• Oversee database architecture, performance optimization, and operational health.
• Approve enterprise schema modifications and geodatabase design changes.
• Ensure long-term integrity, consistency, and sustainability of enterprise geospatial data assets.

Data Quality and Assurance

• Define enterprise GIS quality management frameworks.
• Establish validation rules, quality controls, and acceptance criteria.
• Oversee geospatial QA/QC activities across projects and business units.
• Implement auditing, monitoring, and reporting mechanisms.
• Drive continual improvement in data quality, completeness, and accuracy.
• Ensure all submissions into the enterprise environment meet approved standards.

Digital Delivery and Project Assurance

• Define digital geospatial deliverable requirements for projects and programs.
• Support project stage-gate reviews and technical assurance processes.
• Review and approve geospatial submissions from consultants, contractors, and project teams.
• Ensure compliance with GIS standards, contracts, and information management requirements.
• Act as the escalation point for geospatial compliance and delivery issues.

Enterprise Integration and Interoperability

• Lead integration of GIS with BIM, CAD, Civil 3D, asset management systems, digital twins, and enterprise platforms.
• Establish interoperability standards and data exchange processes.
• Govern geospatial APIs, web services, and integration patterns.
• Support enterprise-wide information management initiatives.

Team Leadership and Capability Development

• Lead and develop a high-performing GIS team.
• Establish workforce plans and capability development programs.
• Provide mentoring, coaching, and professional development opportunities.
• Manage recruitment, succession planning, and performance management activities.
• Foster a culture of innovation, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Manage specialist consultants, vendors, and service providers.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Build strong relationships across business units, projects, and executive leadership teams.
• Represent geospatial interests in enterprise governance forums.
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to define information requirements.
• Communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences and executive stakeholders.

Requirements

Essential

• Bachelor's degree in Geographic Information Systems, Geomatics, Surveying, Geography, Information Management, Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline.
• Minimum 10-15 years' experience in GIS, geospatial information management, or enterprise spatial systems.
• Minimum 5-10 years' experience in leadership and people management roles.
• Demonstrated experience managing enterprise GIS environments and large-scale geospatial programs.

Desirable

• Master's degree in GIS, Geomatics, Information Management, Data Management, Engineering, or Business Administration.
• Esri Technical Certification.
• Project Management certification (PMP, PRINCE2, or equivalent).
• Data Governance or Information Management certifications.