Director of Privacy & Data Governance

FS Vector; Utah; Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

FS Vector is seeking a Privacy & Data Governance Lead (Manager or Director) in Salt Lake City, UT, with hybrid work options. The role oversees policy, classification, retention, and AI governance to ensure production systems meet privacy and compliance requirements.

The candidate will partner with Engineering, IT/Security, Legal, Risk, and Operations to implement governance across data flows, vendors, and data products, while supporting audits and regulatory exams.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in privacy, data governance, security compliance, or adjacent work, with 3+ years in regulated sectors.
• Direct experience building or upgrading a privacy or data governance program.
• Working knowledge of U.S. privacy and recordkeeping obligations relevant to lending.
• Understanding of de-identification, pseudonymization, and deletion.
• Experience testing controls or supporting SOC 2, internal audit, or regulatory examinations.
• Ability to read configurations, write precise requirements, and track remediation.

Responsibilities

• Own data classification policy and governance of confidential and restricted data across systems, vendors, and data flows.
• Keep privacy policies, procedures, and standards aligned with law, partner requirements, and risk appetite.
• Run privacy impact assessments for new products, systems, vendors, and material changes.
• Lead the records program: retention schedules, legal holds, secure destruction, media sanitization.
• Define retention and deletion requirements for production environments and verify implementation.
• Write standards for generative AI use and review processes for vendors.
• Help define requirements for DLP and data discovery platforms.
• Test privacy and data controls in core systems, support SOC 2 audits and regulatory reviews.
• Report gaps and remediation, and build data-handling training for employees.

Skills

Privacy governance

Data governance

Security compliance

Policy writing

Auditing readiness

Job description

Privacy & Data Governance Lead (Manager or Director)

Salt Lake City, UT | Full-Time

FS Vector’s Executive Search practice is supporting a technology-led lender to SMBs on a privacy and data governance leadership hire.

The Opportunity:

The company’s data footprint, systems, and partnerships have grown faster than the governance around them. Policies exist, however the next step is making them operate inside production systems, with classification, retention, de-identification, and deletion rules that engineers can build against and auditors can test.

This individual will set the guardrails for emerging data risk, generative AI chief among them. The role reports to the Chief Compliance Officer and works closely with Engineering, IT/Security, Legal, Risk, and Operations. Title (Manager or Director) will reflect experience.

The Mandate:

• Classification and inventory: Own the data classification policy and the governance of confidential and restricted data across systems, vendors, and data flows.
• Policy framework: Keep privacy policies, procedures, and standards aligned with applicable law, partner requirements, and internal risk appetite.
• Privacy impact assessments: Run assessments for new products, systems, vendors, and material changes.
• Retention and disposal: Lead the records program, including schedules, legal holds, secure destruction, and media sanitization.
• Engineering partnership: Define retention and deletion requirements for production environments, then verify they behave as intended.
• AI governance: Write the standards for generative AI use, including permitted use cases, what data can go into prompts, and how AI vendors get reviewed.
• Tooling: Help define requirements for DLP and data discovery platforms.
• Testing and audit: Test privacy and data controls in core systems, support SOC 2 audits, contribute to third-party reviews, and serve as the privacy lead for partner reviews and regulatory exams.
• Reporting and training: Track gaps and remediation, report trends to senior leadership, and help build data-handling training for employees.

Requirements:

• 7+ years in privacy, data governance, security compliance, or adjacent work, with at least 3 in financial services, fintech, or another regulated sector.
• Direct experience building or substantially upgrading a privacy or data governance program, including classification, data inventories, and retention schedules.
• Working knowledge of U.S. privacy and recordkeeping obligations relevant to lending, such as GLBA, CCPA/CPRA, Reg B retention, BSA recordkeeping, and state breach notification laws.
• A practical understanding of de-identification, pseudonymization, and deletion, including the legal and technical tradeoffs between them.
• Experience testing controls or supporting SOC 2, internal audit, or regulatory examinations.
• Comfort in technical conversations: reading configurations, writing precise requirements, and tracking remediation through ticketing workflows.
• Clear, disciplined writing.

Location:

Salt Lake City, UT (Hybrid)

Work Authorization:

Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. without current or future sponsorship.