Data Governance Technology Portfolio & Programme Associate Director

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Position Summary:

The Technology Enablement Portfolio and Program Manager is an Associate Director role within the Global Data Stewardship Office (DSO). The role turns DSO strategy into a coherent, prioritised and executable portfolio of technology initiatives. It provides an integrated view of business and user needs, investment, roadmaps, dependencies, delivery health, resources and benefits so leaders can make informed decisions about priorities, sequencing and funding. The role combines portfolio and program leadership, product management practices and practical understanding of data governance technology across cloud, data platforms, analytics and AI environments. Working with business stakeholders and product and technology teams, it connects discovery and requirements to delivery plans, adoption and measurable business value and control effectiveness. The role directly manages the portfolio framework, planning and reporting, and coordinates delivery readiness; initiative, product and technology leads retain delivery accountability, while business sponsors retain accountability for outcomes and benefits.

Essential Functions of the Job:

• Own the integrated portfolio and program management framework for DSO technology enablement.
• Establish consistent standards for demand intake, triage, business cases and mobilisation. Facilitate discovery with business and user representatives to identify needs, intended data use, Data Owners, governance requirements, technology dependencies and accountable decision makers.
• Maintain the portfolio pipeline, integrated roadmap, investment view, resource plan and dependencies. Partner with product and delivery teams to translate needs into business, functional and non-functional requirements, prioritised backlogs, user stories and measurable acceptance criteria, linking these to releases, integration milestones and adoption plans.
• Assess strategic alignment, value, urgency, risk, readiness, affordability, capacity and delivery constraints.
• Facilitate prioritisation and sequencing decisions, negotiate trade-offs and build agreement on delivery and adoption commitments. Recommend when to start, pause, stop, consolidate or reshape initiatives, documenting the rationale and escalating unresolved priorities to accountable decision makers.
• Establish proportionate portfolio governance, stage gates, reporting standards and delivery controls within approved decision rights. Coordinate design and delivery checkpoints, testing and acceptance evidence, control evidence, operational readiness and confirmation of required approvals before release by authorised teams.
• Oversee plans, milestones, budgets, resources, vendors, risks, issues, assumptions, dependencies, changes and decisions across initiatives.
• Resolve delivery dependencies with DSO workstream owners, business sponsors, Service Lines, Service Line Quality and the data ecosystem, including the Global Data Office (GDO), Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Regional Data Stewards. Engage Enterprise Architecture, Finance and Procurement as needed, and provide concise portfolio insight and escalations to sponsors and governance forums.
• Agree benefits, baselines, measures, accountable owners and realisation plans with business sponsors and designated control owners. Monitor business value, user adoption and control effectiveness using their evidence, including trusted data use, control coverage, reduced manual effort and effective sharing and reuse where relevant.
• Coordinate adoption and operational handover with business, product and platform owners, confirming agreed support arrangements and outstanding actions. Use user feedback, delivery lessons and outcome measures to improve portfolio practices and consistent use of tools.

Analytical/Decision Making Responsibilities:

• Exercises the judgement expected of an Associate Director when demand exceeds funding or capacity, priorities compete and delivery information is incomplete.
• Builds a reliable fact base, tests strategic fit and expected value, assesses readiness and risk, models options and makes clear recommendations.
• Balances investment, resource, financial, technical and risk constraints across the portfolio rather than optimising individual initiatives in isolation.
• Challenges weak business cases, optimistic assumptions, unclear benefits ownership and unreliable reporting.
• Recommends reallocation, revised baselines, recovery action, pause or closure where continued investment is not justified.
• Escalates unresolved trade-offs, material risks and decisions outside approved portfolio parameters to the appropriate sponsor, governance forum or accountable specialist.

Knowledge and Skills Requirements:

• Strong portfolio and program management expertise, including demand, investment, roadmap, financial, resource, dependency and benefits management.]
• Ability to apply product management practices, including business and user discovery, outcome-led roadmaps, backlog prioritisation, user stories and measurable acceptance criteria. Adapt Agile and traditional delivery approaches to EY investment, risk, finance and governance requirements without assuming formal Product Owner accountability.
• Practical understanding of data governance capabilities, including catalogues, metadata and lineage, data quality, stewardship workflows, classification, access and lifecycle controls, and responsible data and AI use. Understand how ownership, permitted use, sharing obligations, data contracts, certification and retirement requirements affect initiative scope, sequencing and readiness; specialist depth in every domain is not required.
• Ability to translate governance priorities and business needs into implementable business, functional and non-functional requirements, investment cases and technology roadmaps with governance specialists, product teams, architects and engineers. Understand how machine-readable controls express approved requirements as executable rules, and maintain traceability to delivery milestones, acceptance evidence and benefits.
• Ability to establish proportionate portfolio quality checks, assess reporting reliability and use delivery evidence to support corrective action and continuous improvement.
• Essential: practical proficiency with enterprise portfolio and program management platforms, intake and workflow tools, dashboards, data analysis, scenario planning and reporting automation. Working understanding of cloud and governance-platform delivery dependencies, including APIs, metadata models, lineage and data-quality integrations, is required. Experience with Microsoft Purview or Fabric, Databricks Unity Catalog, Collibra, Informatica, Alation or comparable platforms is advantageous; expertise in each platform or hands-on platform engineering is not required.
• Ability to define and maintain portfolio data definitions, information models, intake workflows, reporting controls and dashboards, and coordinate configuration, automation and testing with tool administrators. Produce practical evidence of reliable portfolio information and reduced manual reporting, rather than relying solely on advisory recommendations.
• Strong commercial judgement, digital fluency, critical thinking, creative reasoning and problem solving.
• Strong executive communication, facilitation and negotiation skills. Explain technical concepts in practical business language, present evidence-based options and help business, Service Line Quality, data and technology stakeholders agree priorities and resolve dependencies.
• Ability to influence stakeholders outside the reporting line and build agreement on delivery, adoption and outcomes across a global, federated organisation.
• Applied familiarity with recognised data management frameworks, such as DAMA-DMBOK and EDM Council DCAM, to inform capability roadmaps, accountability, maturity priorities and evidence; use CDMC where cloud data controls are relevant. Working awareness of relevant standards and practices, such as ISO/IEC 38505, ISO 8000, ISO/IEC 27001, NIST guidance and ISO 15489, sufficient to recognise portfolio implications and engage accountable specialists. These are reference frameworks, not a requirement for formal compliance, certification or expertise in every standard.

Supervision Responsibilities:

• Operates with a high degree of independence within approved strategy, investment and governance parameters, with direction on major priorities and material accountability decisions.
• Provides portfolio leadership across initiative, product and delivery teams; people management accountability remains with the relevant team leaders.

Other Requirements:

• Works globally across the Global Data Stewardship Office and partners with the Global Data Office, Client Technology, Enterprise Technology, Information Security, Global Data Protection, General Counsel’s Office, relevant Risk and Business Administration teams, Service Lines, Service Line Quality, Regions and EY member firms.
• Supports the All In Data governance structure: the Executive Steering Committee sets strategic direction, investment and priorities; the Design Authority maintains design integrity; and the Program Management Office maintains the integrated plan, risks, dependencies, measures and reporting.
• Aligns the technology portfolio to DSO strategy, the Global Data Stewardship Policy and priorities approved through relevant EY governance forums.
• Delivers portfolio planning, management information and decision recommendations, and coordinates requirements, delivery readiness and adoption. DSO retains governance intent, business requirements and adoption responsibilities; business sponsors and Data Owners retain their outcome, data-use decision and benefits accountabilities; product teams and platform owners retain their respective delivery and service responsibilities; designated control owners retain control accountability.
• The role does not assume policy ownership, enterprise architecture authority, security approval, infrastructure engineering, production change authority or production operations. These remain with the authorised policy, architecture, security and technology owners. Portfolio coordination does not replace the decision rights of governance bodies or the accountabilities of workstream leads, project managers and delivery leads.

Job Requirements:

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent tertiary qualification in business, information systems, technology, data management, finance, program management or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience.

Experience:

• 10 or more years of relevant portfolio or program experience, including significant responsibility for data, governance, risk or technology transformation.
• Demonstrated experience enabling data governance technology in partnership with data, governance, stewardship, risk, privacy, records or comparable business functions and technology teams. Experience translating business needs into implementable governance requirements within funded initiatives across cloud, data platforms, analytics or AI environments; this may have been gained in a business, technology or cross-functional role.
• Demonstrated experience applying product management practices and Agile and traditional delivery approaches across a mixed portfolio. Evidence of business and user discovery, requirements development, roadmap and backlog prioritisation, user stories, measurable acceptance criteria, iterative planning, dependency management and approved release coordination in partnership with product and delivery teams.
• Experience with investment prioritisation, integrated roadmaps, executive governance, dependencies across programs, financial and capacity planning and benefits realisation. Track record of sequencing governance capability and platform changes, including cataloguing, classification, lineage, quality, access, lifecycle or data-product governance, against business value, risk, integration dependencies and organisational readiness.
• Experience developing business cases, assessing options, balancing portfolios and supporting decisions to start, pause, stop or reshape work.
• Experience overseeing delivery health, budgets, resources, vendors, risks, issues and decisions across multiple initiatives, including governance-platform implementation or integration. Evidence of coordinating requirements traceability, design and testing checkpoints, risk-based stage gates, control evidence, approved release readiness and operational handover with accountable delivery and control owners.
• Strong practical experience using enterprise portfolio and program management tools to manage demand, investment, roadmaps, capacity, dependencies, delivery health, risks, decisions and benefits.
• Experience replacing fragmented spreadsheets and manual reporting with governed workflows, reliable portfolio data, automated dashboards and consistent management information.
• Experience engaging business, Service Line Quality, data and technology stakeholders across a global, federated organisation, influencing without direct authority and negotiating delivery and adoption commitments. Evidence of using business value, user feedback, adoption measures and control-owner evidence to assess outcomes and improve priorities.

Certification Requirements:

• Relevant credentials such as MoP, MSP, PgMP, PMP, PRINCE2, SAFe, product or portfolio qualifications, together with data management learning such as DAMA CDMP, are advantageous but not mandatory. Complementary cloud, data-platform or governance-platform credentials and continuous professional learning that demonstrate combined technology and data governance fluency are also advantageous; these complement rather than replace portfolio and program management expertise.

What we offer you

The compensation ranges below are provided in order to comply with United States pay transparency laws. Other geographies will follow their local salary guidelines, which may not be a direct conversion of published US salary ranges. At EY, we harness our collective strength to empower you to shape your future with confidence through professional growth, personal fulfillment and an inclusive culture. Learn more at ey.com/us/careers.

• We offer a comprehensive compensation and benefits package where you’ll be rewarded based on your performance and recognized for the value you bring to the business. The base salary range for this job is:
  • New York City, Boston, and Washington DC Metro Areas, Washington State, and Southern California offices - $180,000 to $324,000
  • Bay Area California offices - $187,500 to $337,500
  • All other offices locations in the US, including Sacramento - $150,000 to $297,000
• Individual salaries within these ranges are determined through a wide variety of factors including but not limited to education, experience, knowledge, skills and geography. In addition, our Total Rewards package includes medical and dental coverage, pension and 401(k) plans, and a wide range of paid time off options.
• Under our flexible vacation policy, you’ll decide how much vacation time you need based on your own personal circumstances. You’ll also be granted time off for designated EY Paid Holidays, Winter/Summer breaks, Personal/Family Care, and other leaves of absence when needed to support your physical, financial, and emotional well-being.

Are you ready to shape your future with confidence? Apply today.

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