Head of Data Governance

Location: London, Salford, Glasgow, Cardiff, Newcastle - hybrid working

Contract Type: Permanent / Full Time

Proposed Salary Range: £105,000 - £120,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience.

The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights. We are happy to discuss flexible working. If you would like to, please indicate your preference in the application – there is no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

Purpose of the Role

The BBC has been serving audiences online for more than 20 years. Across key products including BBC iPlayer, BBC News, BBC Sport, BBC Weather, BBC Sounds, and bbc.co.uk, we entertain, educate, and inform millions every day. We are making a fundamental shift from being a broadcaster that speaks to audiences, to becoming a service shaped by them, designed around their needs, expectations, and trust. Personalisation, data-driven decision-making, and responsible use of technology are central to this ambition.

As Head of Data Governance and Responsible AI, you will lead the vision, strategy, and operating model that ensures the BBC's data and AI are trusted, well-governed, ethical, and product-focused. You will enable innovation across enterprise data platforms while safeguarding audience trust, editorial integrity, and regulatory compliance. This role is critical to ensuring data and AI are treated as products with clear ownership, quality standards, lifecycle management, and accountability and that Responsible AI principles are embedded into the platforms and services that power the BBC.

Your Key Responsibilities and Impact

• Strategic Leadership
  • Define and deliver the BBC's enterprise Data Governance and Responsible AI strategy, aligned with the ambition to build a more personalised and trusted BBC.
  • Set clear governance expectations for how data and AI are created, managed, and consumed across enterprise data platforms.
  • Act as a senior advisor to executives on data platform risk, ethics, opportunity, and readiness.
  • Represent data governance and Responsible AI at senior leadership forums and externally where appropriate.
• Data Governance, Platforms & Data-as-a-Product
  • Establish and maintain enterprise data governance frameworks covering data ownership, quality, metadata, lineage, classification, lifecycle management, and access controls.
  • Embed data-as-a-product thinking across enterprise data platforms, ensuring data products have clear owners, defined contracts, quality metrics, and are designed for reuse and self-service.
  • Work closely with data platform and engineering teams to ensure governance is built into platform design, tooling, and operating models rather than applied retrospectively.
  • Enable scalable, secure, and trusted use of data across analytics, AI, and operational use cases.
  • Ensure data quality, consistency, and transparency across the BBC's digital and enterprise data ecosystem.
• Responsible AI Leadership
  • Lead the BBC's Responsible AI principles, policies, and operating model, ensuring ethical, transparent, and accountable use of AI across platforms and products.
  • Establish governance for AI systems operating on enterprise data platforms, including risk assessment, bias mitigation, explainability, human oversight, and auditability.
• Risk, Regulation & Trust
  • Ensure compliance with UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act, Ofcom regulation, and BBC policies, working closely with Legal, Information Security, and Data Protection teams.
  • Balance innovation on enterprise data platforms with robust controls that protect audience trust and editorial independence.
  • Support audit, assurance, and regulatory readiness across data platforms and AI systems.
• Team Leadership & Capability Building
  • Lead and develop a multidisciplinary Data Governance and Responsible AI team, fostering strong ethical judgement, collaboration, and delivery focus.
  • Build governance and Responsible AI capability across product, engineering, and data teams through guidance, training, and communities of practice.
  • Partner closely with Heads of Data, Platform, Product, Technology, Editorial Policy, and Compliance to ensure shared standards and alignment.

Your Skills and Experience

You are a senior data leader with experience governing data at scale and shaping responsible approaches to AI within modern, platform-based organisations.

Essential

• Significant experience in a senior data governance, data management, or data leadership role within a large or complex organisation.
• Proven experience defining and implementing enterprise data governance frameworks across multiple teams and platforms.
• Demonstrable experience working with enterprise data platforms (e.g. cloud data platforms, data lakes, warehouses, or streaming platforms) and shaping governance approaches that enable scale and self-service.
• Strong experience applying data-as-a-product practices, including ownership models, lifecycle management, quality metrics, and consumer-focused design.
• Strong understanding of data protection, privacy, and regulatory requirements in the UK and EU.
• Experience shaping, governing, or advising on the responsible and ethical use of AI.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence at senior levels.
• Ability to translate complex technical, legal, and ethical issues into clear, practical guidance.

Desirable

• Media or digital product domain experience.
• Familiarity with emerging AI regulation and standards (e.g. UK AI regulation, EU AI Act).
• Understanding of modern data architecture, analytics, and AI delivery models.
• Experience working alongside platform engineering teams and influencing platform roadmaps.
• Experience engaging with regulators, auditors, or industry bodies.

Interviews

Please note that interviews will take place from 9th February 2026 onwards (subject to change) and will be a 2-stage interview process. Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Contracts of Employment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.

Disclaimer

This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

Life at BBC

Here you will benefit from:

• Fair pay and flexible benefits including a competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week, 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care and gym.
• Excellent career and professional development.
• Support in your working life, including flexible working which you can discuss with us at any point during the application, selection or offer.
• A values-based organisation where the way we do things is important as what we do.

Benefits may vary if you are joining on an FTC basis or on an orchestra conditions contract.

You Belong

We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, so all our employees feel that they can belong, thrive and achieve their full potential. We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to join us. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity. We welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief.

Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Strategy

Find out more about diversity, inclusion and belonging in our strategy below.

Disability Confident

We are a disability confident employer. If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the interview process, or to carry out this role, please contact us via email and we would be happy to discuss: reasonable.adjustments@bbc.co.uk