Data Governance Lead/Director

This is more than a traditional governance role. As our Data Governance Lead/Director, you will act as a strategic leader and change agent, embedding a modern data culture across the organisation while enabling the next generation of intelligent products and AI capabilities. You will shape and drive how data is understood, managed, and used, ensuring it becomes a trusted, high‑value asset that powers innovation and responsible decision‑making. This role combines strategic leadership, operational execution, stakeholder influence, and technology transformation.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• Define and lead Chambers’ enterprise-wide data governance vision, strategy, roadmap and operating model.
• Establish governance frameworks, standards, policies, and controls aligned to business priorities and regulatory obligations.
• Partner with executive leadership to position data governance as a strategic business capability rather than a compliance exercise.
• Establish governance KPIs, adoption metrics, and value measurement frameworks and governance principles and controls that support responsible and scalable AI adoption.
• Ensure data used for analytics, machine learning, and generative AI is accurate, secure, traceable, and ethically governed.
• Help define standards for AI transparency, explainability, lineage, model accountability, and responsible use of enterprise data.
• Lead enterprise-wide data quality initiatives focused on accuracy, consistency, completeness, timeliness, and reliability.
• Build scalable data ownership models with clear accountability, and issue resolution processes.
• Champion standardisation of business definitions, rules, and critical data assets across the organisation.
• Accountable for managing data compliance at Chambers, in line with data protection legislation and regulatory requirements.
• Liaise with Chambers DPO as necessary.
• Identify and mitigate enterprise data risks, including data quality, compliance, ethical AI, and operational risks.
• Play a leadership role in Chambers’ modern data platform transformation programme.
• Partner with engineering and architecture teams to embed governance into cloud-native data platforms and data products.
• Support the evolution of the organisation’s Azure Databricks ecosystem, medallion architecture, and enterprise data capabilities.
• Lead governance input into Master Data Management (MDM) strategy, vendor selection, and implementation.
• Drive organisation-wide awareness, education, and adoption of governance best practices to drive the data culture.

Why you should apply:

This is a chance to shape the future of data and AI governance within one of the world’s most respected legal intelligence organisations. You will work at the intersection of data, AI, technology, and business transformation, helping define how trusted information powers the next generation of legal insight products.

At Chambers, you will have the opportunity to:

• Influence enterprise strategy at senior leadership level.
• Lead a high-impact transformation agenda.
• Build modern governance capabilities from the ground up.
• Work with cutting-edge cloud and AI technologies.
• Shape responsible AI adoption in a globally recognised organisation.
• Drive meaningful commercial and operational impact through data.

Skills, Experience, and Person Attributes:

• Significant leadership experience in enterprise data governance, data management, or data strategy roles and influencing other senior members.
• Proven experience designing and implementing governance frameworks at scale.
• Strong understanding of modern data governance practices, operating models, and governance tooling.
• Demonstrable experience leading enterprise data quality and metadata initiatives.
• Experience supporting cloud data platforms, modern data architectures, and large-scale transformation programmes.
• Strong understanding of regulatory, privacy, security, and risk management principles relating to data.
• Track record of driving organisational change and embedding data-driven cultures.
• Experience managing a data governance team, providing ongoing leadership, coaching, mentoring and other development opportunities for team members.
• Experience leading cross-functional programmes spanning business and technology teams.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate complex concepts into clear business value.
• Strong commercial mindset with the ability to align governance initiatives to strategic outcomes.
• Experience with Microsoft Azure, Databricks and Purview, or modern cloud data ecosystems.
• Understanding of data lineage, cataloguing, semantic layers, and knowledge management.

Highly Desirable:

• Experience enabling or governing AI, machine learning, or generative AI initiatives.
• Knowledge of responsible AI frameworks and AI governance principles.
• Experience implementing Master Data Management solutions.
• Familiarity with legal, professional services, research, publishing, or highly regulated industries.
• Experience with data products, analytics platforms, or digital transformation programmes.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and experiences. If you’re not sure you meet every requirement, we’d still like to hear from you — we value potential as much as experience. Depending on the role, we may be able to offer flexible working options such as hybrid working, part‑time or job‑share arrangements, or flexible hours.

About us:

Chambers is the leading legal data and intelligence partner for lawyer, firms, and in‑house teams. We conduct over 350,000 research interviews and surveys with in‑house counsel every year, and receive 62,000 submissions from 9,000 firms worldwide, giving us unrivalled insight into the legal sector. This research powers Chambers Rankings - the definitive guide to the best legal talent - and our Intelligence, which delivers the insights helping firms and in‑house teams to succeed. Our independent, rigorous research identifies the exceptional and charts the path to success, enabling legal professionals to see with clarity, decide with confidence, and plan with ambition.

Equal Opportunity Statement:

We are committed to fostering and promoting an inclusive professional environment for all of our employees, and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Diversity and inclusion are integral values of Chambers and Partners and are key in our culture. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all qualified individuals regardless of age, disability, race, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity. This commitment applies across all of our employment policies and practices, from recruiting and hiring to training and career development. We support our employees through our internal INSPIRE committee with Executive Sponsors, Chairs and Ambassadors throughout the business promoting knowledge and effecting change. Applicants who identify as Disabled and/or Neurodiverse will be entitled to an interview if they meet the minimum criteria as specified in the Job Description, additionally we will offer reasonable adjustments to those who require them. Some examples of reasonable adjustments are extra time in assessments, video interviews to combat travel‑based issues and advice on expected interview topics/questions.