Director, R&D Data Governance

Smith Hanley; Waltham (MA); Hybrid; USD 189,000 - 231,000; Full time

Job summary

Smith Hanley is seeking a Director, R&D Data Governance for a major pharma client in the Greater Boston area. The role blends strategy, policy, and hands-on leadership to shape how R&D data is governed, connected, and used to accelerate scientific discovery.

You will build the governance framework across discovery through clinical data, establish standards and stewardship, and partner with IT, Data & AI, and R&D teams to enable data self-service while ensuring compliance and data

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading R&D data governance in pharma or life sciences.
• Strong understanding of data quality, metadata, lineage, and access control.
• Ability to drive strategy across discovery to clinical data.
• Excellent stakeholder management with executives.
• Experience implementing FAIR principles and AI-ready data.

Responsibilities

• Build the R&D Data Governance strategy and multi-year roadmap across Discovery, Preclinical, Translational, Biomarker, and Clinical data.
• Establish the governance operating model, including stewardship, decision rights, standards, processes, metrics, and accountability.
• Drive data quality and standards across metadata, ontologies, controlled vocabularies, lineage, validation, and data management.
• Champion FAIR and AI-ready data principles, ensuring R&D data can support advanced analytics, AI/ML, and emerging technologies.
• Enable data self-service by developing practical policies, workflows, and access models that allow scientists and analysts to find and confidently use trusted data.
• Partner with R&D, IT, Data & AI, and Engineering to identify critical data needs and implement scalable governance and data-management capabilities.
• Influence without authority, serving as the key connector between scientific stakeholders and enterprise data/technology teams.
• Drive adoption and change through data literacy, training, communication, and embedding governance into everyday R&D workflows.

Skills

Data governance

Data management

Stakeholder management

Executive communication

Strategic planning

Tools

Data catalogs

Data lakes

Data platforms

Access-control solutions

Job description

Title - Director, R&D Data Governance - PHARMA

Location: Greater Boston (hybrid 3x week in office)

Salary: $210k + bonus + LTI (some wiggle room for a SUPERSTAR!)

Consultants: Eda Zullo [e-mail]

Our client, a Mid-Size Pharma Manufacturer, is seeking a 'Director, R&D Data Governance' Professional! This is a unique opportunity to build something from the ground up. As the1st R&D-focused leader within a newly established Enterprise Data Management organization, you will help define how R&D data is governed, connected, accessed, and ultimately used to accelerate scientific innovation.

What You’ll Own

• Build the R&D Data Governance strategy and multi-year roadmap across Discovery, Preclinical, Translational, Biomarker, and Clinical data.
• Establish the governance operating model, including stewardship, decision rights, standards, processes, metrics, and accountability.
• Drive data quality and standards across metadata, ontologies, controlled vocabularies, lineage, validation, and data management.
• Champion FAIR and AI-ready data principles, ensuring R&D data can support advanced analytics, AI/ML, and emerging technologies.
• Enable data self-service by developing practical policies, workflows, and access models that allow scientists and analysts to find and confidently use trusted data.
• Partner with R&D, IT, Data & AI, and Engineering to identify critical data needs and implement scalable governance and data-management capabilities.
• Influence without authority, serving as the key connector between scientific stakeholders and enterprise data/technology teams.
• Drive adoption and change through data literacy, training, communication, and embedding governance into everyday R&D workflows.

What You Bring

• Proven experience in R&D Data Governance, Data Management, Data Strategy, or a related data leadership role within Pharma, Biotech, or Life Sciences.
• Strong understanding of data governance, quality, metadata, stewardship, lineage, standards, and access management.
• Experience working with complex R&D data environments across areas such as Discovery, Translational, Preclinical, Clinical, Omics, Biomarkers, or Imaging.
• Ability to partner effectively with scientists, IT, data engineers, analytics teams, and senior business leaders.
• Experience with enterprise data-management technologies such as data catalogs, data lakes, data platforms, and access-control solutions.
• Understanding of FAIR data principles and the requirements for AI/ML-ready data.
• Strong executive presence, communication, influencing, and stakeholder-management skills.
• A builder's mindset—someone who enjoys creating structure, solving complex problems, and turning strategy into action.

Why This Opportunity?

You won’t be inheriting an established governance program—you’ll have the opportunity to help build it. This is a highly visible Director-level role where your work will directly influence how R&D discovers, manages, shares, and leverages data to drive better scientific decisions. If you’re passionate about data, energized by innovation, and excited by the opportunity to build an R&D data governance function from the ground up, this could be the role you’ve been waiting for.