Data & AI Governance Partner

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

Closing Date: 2026-10-30

Job Title: Data & AI Governance Partner

Location: Durrington, Worthing with hybrid working (2 days in the office a week)

Hours: 37 hours per week

Salary: around £55,000 depending on experience

Are you passionate about helping people use data and AI safely, confidently and responsibly? Do you enjoy bringing people together, making complex topics easier to understand, and turning good governance into practical ways of working? We’re looking for a Data & AI Governance Partner to join our growing Data & AI Governance team at Southern Water. This is an exciting opportunity to make a real difference. You’ll help shape how we manage, share and reuse data and AI across the organisation — supporting better decisions, stronger trust in data and responsible innovation for the benefit of our customers, communities and the environment. You don’t need to be an expert in every platform from day one. What matters most is that you understand good data governance, can work well with others, and can help turn policies and standards into clear, practical actions.

What you’ll be doing

In this role, you’ll help bring data and AI governance to life across Southern Water. You’ll work with business and technical teams to make sure our data is well managed, easy to understand, appropriately protected and used responsibly. This includes helping teams find and reuse trusted data, improve data quality, understand ownership responsibilities and apply the right controls around privacy, security, licensing, open data and responsible AI. You’ll also support governance across our Data Analytics Platform, including Databricks Unity Catalogue and Microsoft Purview, helping ensure data, data models and AI‑related assets are properly catalogued, classified, owned, discoverable and governed by design.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Helping embed data and AI governance policies, standards and processes into everyday ways of working.
• Supporting the use of Microsoft Purview and Databricks Unity Catalogue to improve data discovery, ownership, classification and lineage.
• Working with Data Owners, Data Stewards, Platform Engineers, BI Engineers and business teams to make governance practical and useful.
• Helping improve data quality, data model governance and lifecycle management.
• Supporting responsible data sharing, open data governance and controlled reuse of trusted data products.
• Helping ensure AI‑related data and assets are used responsibly, with appropriate transparency, accountability, safeguards and oversight.
• Producing clear reporting and insight for senior stakeholders and governance committees.
• Identifying opportunities to simplify, improve and strengthen governance processes and tools.

What we’re looking for:

We’re looking for someone who can bring people with them. You’ll be comfortable working with a mix of technical and non‑technical colleagues, listening to different perspectives and helping teams understand what good governance looks like in practice. You’ll bring:

• Experience supporting or implementing a data governance framework, operating model or set of governance processes.
• A good understanding of data governance principles, such as data ownership, stewardship, metadata, data quality, cataloguing, lineage and lifecycle management.
• The ability to translate complex requirements into clear, practical guidance.
• Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
• A collaborative approach and confidence working across business, data and technology teams.
• An interest in responsible data sharing, open data, data reuse and AI governance.
• A continuous improvement mindset, with the ability to spot opportunities and suggest practical solutions.
• The ability to produce clear documentation, reports, standards or governance materials.

Skills also helpful (but not essential from day one):

• Experience with Microsoft Purview, Databricks Unity Catalogue or similar data catalogue/governance tools.
• Knowledge of DAMA‑DMBOK or other data management frameworks.
• Understanding of UK GDPR, data protection or information security principles.
• Experience reviewing data models, schemas, pipelines or data platform designs.
• Awareness of Azure data services or Databricks Lakehouse architecture.
• A relevant qualification or certification, such as Microsoft Purview, CDMP or a related information/data management qualification.

Why join us?

This is a role with purpose, variety and impact. You’ll be joining a team that is helping Southern Water become more data‑driven, more transparent and more confident in the way we use data and AI. Your work will help colleagues across the organisation make better decisions using trusted information, while making sure data and AI are used safely, ethically and responsibly. You’ll have the chance to work on a growing and important area of focus, build relationships across the business, shape practical governance approaches and contribute to meaningful change. We know that some candidates may hesitate to apply unless they meet every requirement. Our purpose is big. Our impact is huge. We believe in Water for Life. If you do too, Dive Right In. Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, because delivering water for life is our core purpose.

We want to offer you huge opportunities for personal growth, professional development and constant innovation. Forever evolving. Forever focused on doing the right thing, we empower and encourage everyone to play to their strengths and to help us shape a fair and positive future for all.

To achieve this, we need 24/7 support in place to resolve incidents quickly and efficiently. All our employees understand the importance of out‑of‑hours incident support – because when problems appear, fixing them is our top priority. That’s why our people join together and support when and however needed to make sure our customers get the service they deserve. Joining the Southern Water family means you’ll become part of our incident support team. During your interview, your manager will speak to you about any incident support rotas that apply to your position.