Sr. Dir - Data Governance

MFS International Australia Pty Ltd; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work environment

Job summary

MFS is seeking a Senior Director, Data Governance to establish and sustain the enterprise data governance framework, policies, and tooling. You will lead standards, metadata, quality, and governance processes across data lifecycles while partnering with data, business, risk, and compliance teams.

You will shape data governance tooling, ensure privacy and risk mitigation, and drive alignment with AI and cloud initiatives, influencing regulators, vendors, and internal stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent; 15–20 years of industry experience with 5+ years in asset management data governance.
• Experience developing and leading effective data governance programs.
• Significant knowledge of privacy laws, regulatory compliance, risk management.
• Proven ability to lead, develop and grow a data governance team.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement an adaptive data governance strategy and framework.
• Establish data quality standards and governance tooling.
• Lead a data governance team and define tooling adoption and integration patterns.
• Collaborate with technology teams to implement data policy and ensure accountability.

Skills

Data governance

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Regulatory compliance

Communication

AI governance

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Data cataloging

Data lineage

Data quality tooling

AI governance tooling

Job description

At MFS, you will find a culture that supports you in doing what you do best. Our employees work together to reach better outcomes, favoring the strongest idea over the strongest individual. We put people first and demonstrate care and compassion for our community and each other. Because what we do matters – to us as valued professionals and to the millions of people and institutions who rely on us to help them build more secure and prosperous futures.

THE ROLE

As part of the Enterprise Data Management Leadership Team, the Senior Director, Data Governance establishes and sustains the enterprise framework and tooling that ensures data is trusted, well-defined, secure, transparent and fit for purpose throughout the data lifecycle. This role partners across data teams, as well as business teams, operations, technology, risk and compliance to set and own standards, policies, metadata, quality expectations and governance processes that enable consistent, compliance and high-quality data. This includes owning and developing data governance tools and related integration into critical software, data and AI pathways at MFS, including for data cataloging, lineage, access rights, data protection and data quality.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

Develop, implement and manage an adaptive data governance strategy and framework to support business needs, regulatory and AI governance requirements. Establish policies and procedures for effective data management, ensuring adherence to standard governance, data ethics and risk mitigation protocols, data privacy and other regulations, as well as alignment to AI and other governance frameworks at MFS. Establish data quality standards, and ensure each data function and process has appropriate controls and compensating controls. Lead a data governance team to define and implement data governance tooling, adoption requirements and integration patterns, and to maintain the required metadata to support effective data management. Establish and evolve appropriate and progressive governance tooling that fosters human trust in and AI enablement of data. Collaborate with the Enterprise Data Management Leadership Team to evolve strategy, data management and governance, and related tools as AI, cloud and business requirements shape needs over time. Collaborate closely with technology teams to implement tooling and ensure invisible execution of data policy, and with data owners on ensuring robust workflows and accountability structures are in place. Build and maintain strategic relationships across the enterprise and externally, leveraging deep data governance expertise to influence decision‑making, support regulatory and client engagements, and represent MFS with regulators, vendors, industry peers, and other third‑party partners. Collaborate with market data team to govern third‑party data and data licensing compliance. Assume additional responsibilities as required.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent 15-20 years of industry experience, with 5 or more years of asset management data governance or related experience.
• Experience developing and leading effective data governance programs.
• Significant knowledge of privacy laws, regulatory compliance, risk management.
• Significant knowledge of data governance tools, related AI considerations and experience in implementing data governance tools.
• Proven ability to lead, develop, and grow the talent of a data governance team, providing direction, coaching, and performance management to ensure the team success.
• Extremely strong communication, negotiation and strategic influence skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills.
• Excellent leadership and project management skills.
• Strong understanding of data governance frameworks, tools, and best practices.
• Expertise with investment data governance.
• Demonstrated ability to perform job responsibilities collaboratively as well as independently, and effectively in a demanding environment.
• Strict attention to detail and accuracy.

Base Salary Range: $159,500.00 - $240,000.00 This position is eligible for competitive incentive bonus.

At MFS, we believe in fair and transparent compensation. For that reason, we’re including the salary range for this position. This range reflects our good‑faith expectation for what we’ll pay depending on the candidate’s experience, training and education.

In addition to the salary, we also offer significant and competitive incentive compensation based on both individual and company performance.

Other components of our Total Rewards Package include:

• MFS contributes an amount equal to 15% of your base salary to your retirement account that is separate from the company -sponsored 401(k)
• Education Assistance: MFS contributes $100 monthly up to $10,000 lifetime maximum directly to loan provider
• Education Assistance: Tuition reimbursement up to $8,000 annually
• Education Assistance: Access to discounted tutors and college coaches
• Generous time off and fully paid leaves including 20-weeks for maternity, 12-weeks for parental and caregiver leaves
• Choice of medical and dental plans and an and an employer contribution into the Health Savings Account
• Tax deferred commuter benefits & flexible spending accounts (medical & dependent care)
• Wellness Programs: Robust wellness webinars, employee assistance program with a focus on mental health, subsidized fitness benefit via Wellhub (formerly Gympass), where you can workout at gyms, studios and boutique fitness locations near you, join virtual personal training sessions and access a wide variety of well‑being apps

MFS is a hybrid work environment (remote/onsite) unless otherwise stated in the job posting.

If any applicant is unable to complete an application or respond to a job opening because of a disability, please contact MFS at 617-954-5000 or email [e-mail] for assistance.

MFS is an Equal Opportunity Employer and it is our policy to not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, disability, veteran status or any other status protected by federal, state or local laws. Employees and applicants of MFS will not be subject to harassment on the basis of their status. Additionally, retaliation, including intimidation, threats, or coercion, because an employee or applicant has objected to discrimination, engaged or may engage in filing a complaint, assisted in a review, investigation, or hearing or have otherwise sought to obtain their legal rights under any Federal, State or local EEO law is prohibited. Please see the Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal document, linked for your reference.

For almost a century, investors around the world have trusted MFS to achieve their investment goals. Since 1924, when our founders invented the mutual fund, collaboration, a long-term focus and skilled active research have fueled our success. As a leading global investment manager, we hire employees who share our values, align with investors who share our long‑term philosophy, and always act in the best interest of our clients.