Data Governance Controls Manager

About the role

The Data Governance Manager manages a team of data governance professionals and oversees the implementation of BT's data governance strategy, driving adherence to related policy and standards, whilst ensuring data remains accurate, consistent, secure, and aligned with strategic objectives.

What you’ll be doing

• Lead the roadmap and operating model for data quality, catalogue, lineage, business glossary and taxonomy controls.
• Manage, coach and set priorities for a team of four, creating clear ownership and measurable outcomes.
• Define and maintain control requirements, data quality dimensions, rules, thresholds, scorecards and escalation routes for critical data.
• Drive the cataloguing of data assets and critical data elements, including ownership, definitions, classification and lineage.
• Establish and govern enterprise business glossary and taxonomy standards so that data is described consistently across BT.
• Work with Data Owners, Data Stewards, engineering and platform teams to embed controls into data products, pipelines and delivery processes.
• Oversee data quality issue management, root-cause analysis, remediation tracking, validation and closure based on business and risk impact.
• Develop dashboards and management information that show control effectiveness, exceptions, trends and areas requiring intervention.
• Maintain clear control evidence and support internal assurance, audit and regulatory reviews.
• Identify opportunities to automate controls and integrate governance requirements into cloud and enterprise data platforms.
• Build adoption through practical guidance, training and engagement with business and technology teams.
• Monitor market, regulatory and technology developments and continuously improve the control framework.

Essential Skills / Experience

• 7+ years of experience in data governance, data quality, metadata management, data controls or a related data-management discipline in a large or complex organisation.
• Experience leading people or multidisciplinary delivery teams, with the ability to set direction, manage priorities and develop capability.
• Practical experience designing or operating data quality controls, including profiling, rules, thresholds, monitoring, issue management and remediation.
• Strong knowledge of data catalogues, metadata, lineage, business glossaries, taxonomies, critical data elements and data ownership or stewardship models.
• Experience translating policy and risk requirements into operational processes, controls, evidence and measurable outcomes.
• Working knowledge of recognised data-management or control frameworks such as DAMA-DMBOK, DCAM, COBIT or equivalent.
• Experience with governance and data-quality platforms such as Microsoft Purview, Collibra, Alation, Informatica, Ataccama, Dataplex, Databricks, Ab Initio or equivalent.
• Ability to use dashboards and management information to explain control performance, risks and priorities to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong stakeholder management, communication and influencing skills across business, engineering, platform, risk, compliance and assurance teams.
• Understanding of privacy, security, records and regulatory expectations relevant to enterprise data, including GDPR.

Desirable Skills / Experience

• Experience embedding or automating governance controls in cloud data platforms, particularly GCP, or through policy-as-code approaches.
• Experience supporting data or AI governance, audit readiness and control assurance in a regulated organisation.
• Hands-on experience with Power BI, Tableau, Qlik or equivalent reporting tools.
• A relevant degree or professional certification such as DAMA CDMP, DCAM, Microsoft Purview or a recognised cloud data certification.