About the Role
We are seeking an experienced Principal Consultant — Data Governance to take ownership of the data-and-AI-vertical governance relationship within a multi-vertical Strategy Execution & Value Realization Office. This role will ensure that strategic initiatives are delivered with stringent governance, measurable benefits, and sustained architectural compliance. The Principal Consultant will act as a senior escalation point for cross-vertical dependencies and serve as the primary governance counterpart to executive stakeholders.
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Employment Type
Full-time employment
Key Responsibilities
- Design and own the operating model, governance structure, methodologies, templates, and tools for strategy execution governance for the data-and-AI vertical, as part of a broader multi-vertical governance office.
- Own cross-vertical coordination for the data-and-AI vertical — ensuring portfolio visibility, dependency mapping against other verticals, and escalation of issues that exceed a single vertical's authority.
- Lead the governance framework for strategic-initiative delivery, including managing stage gates, milestones, risk, issue and dependency management, budget oversight, quality, and change-request governance across the vertical's strategic objectives and initiatives.
- Lead the governance relationship with the Enterprise Architecture function — coordinating Architecture Review Board participation, maintaining architecture decision records, and ensuring solution designs remain compliant with enterprise standards.
- Own the executive reporting relationship for the vertical: prepare executive dashboards, portfolio reports, scorecards, and decision-support insights to be reported on an agreed cadence to senior stakeholders.
- Set the benefit-realization methodology for the vertical by defining success measures, validating business cases, and confirming that initiatives deliver expected value before closure.
- Develop and own governance frameworks, methodologies, standards, templates, and playbooks used across the vertical's portfolio, including oversight of the KPI cascade tooling that translates strategic themes into operational KPIs.
- Lead periodic maturity assessments of governance, portfolio management, and value-realization capability, benchmarking against industry practices and directing improvement initiatives.
- Own transition and continuity planning for the vertical's governance function at the end of the current strategy horizon, considering options for continuation, re-tender, or in-house transition.
- Provide senior mentorship and quality oversight to the Senior Consultant supporting the vertical.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (e.g., Data Management, Information Systems, Business, Engineering) with a minimum of 8 years' relevant experience in data governance, enterprise/programme governance, or strategy execution advisory, including at least 3-5 years operating at a principal/senior-advisory level with direct executive stakeholder engagement.
- Demonstrable experience designing and running governance operating models for large, multi-workstream strategic portfolios.
- Demonstrable experience engaging with Enterprise Architecture functions, Architecture Review Boards, and senior executive stakeholders in complex organizations.
- Familiarity with portfolio and programme governance frameworks (e.g., MoP, MSP, P3O) and data governance frameworks (e.g., DAMA-DMBOK).
- Knowledge of benefits realization methodology, KPI architecture design, and executive reporting.
- Proven experience in executive stakeholder engagement, escalation management, and cross-functional facilitation.
- CDMP (DAMA) certification preferred; PMP/PgMP or MoP qualification preferred; TOGAF certification is a plus.
