Data & AI Governance Lead

Southern Water group; Worthing; Hybrid; GBP 52,000 - 58,000; Full time

Job summary

Southern Water is seeking a Data & AI Governance Partner to help shape how we manage, share and reuse data and AI across the organisation. You will work with business and technical teams to ensure data is well managed, protected and used responsibly, translating governance policies into practical actions.

You’ll collaborate across Data Owners, Stewards and Platform Engineers to embed governance and improve data quality, with reporting to senior stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Experience supporting or implementing a data governance framework.
• Understanding of data ownership, stewardship, metadata, quality, cataloguing and lifecycle management.
• Ability to translate complex requirements into clear, practical guidance.
• Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills.

Responsibilities

• Embed data and AI governance policies, standards and processes into everyday work.
• Support Microsoft Purview and Databricks Unity Catalogue for discovery, ownership, classification and lineage.
• Collaborate with Data Owners, Data Stewards, Platform Engineers, BI Engineers and business teams to make governance practical.
• Improve data quality, data model governance and lifecycle management.
• Support responsible data sharing, open data governance and controlled reuse of trusted data products.
• Ensure AI-related data and assets are used responsibly with transparency and safeguards.
• Produce clear reporting and insights for senior stakeholders and governance committees.
• Identify opportunities to simplify and strengthen governance processes and tools.

Skills

Data governance

Stakeholder engagement

Policy development

Communication

Collaboration

Data governance principles

Open data mindset

Tools

Microsoft Purview

Databricks Unity Catalogue

Job description

Southern Water is seeking a Data & AI Governance Partner to help shape how we manage, share and reuse data and AI across the organisation. You will work with business and technical teams to ensure data is well managed, protected and used responsibly, translating governance policies into practical actions.

You’ll collaborate across Data Owners, Stewards and Platform Engineers to embed governance and improve data quality, with reporting to senior stakeholders.