Data Governance & Master Data Lead - OUTSIDE IR35 in Slough

Contract - £650 / Day - Outside IR35 - 12 months

Role: Data Governance & Master Data Lead — standing up an enterprise data governance function from scratch.

Where you'll work: Embedded on-site with a global renewable energy developer and operator.

Location: London — on-site, five days a week.

Type: Permanent, full-time.

Domain: Utilities, energy or another asset-heavy industry — essential, not a nice-to-have.

Platforms: SAP MDG, Informatica MDM, Collibra or Microsoft Purview; SAP S/4HANA environment.

Line Management: Lead a Master Data team of internal staff, outsourced specialists and consultants.

Visa Sponsorship: Not available — you must already have the right to work in the UK.

Flexibility: This one is genuinely full-time and on-site. If that does not work for you, we have other roles that will.

Diversity & Inclusion: We want a broad mix of people and perspectives.

Role Purpose: The client's growth has outrun its data foundations. Asset data, financial data, supply chain data and corporate data live in different systems, carry different definitions, and answer to different people. Nobody owns the turbine hierarchy. The plant list in the ERP does not match the one in the EAM. Finance cannot close on numbers it trusts without someone reconciling by hand. You are being hired to fix that permanently, as the custodian of enterprise data trust. This is a build role, not a maintenance role. There is no framework to inherit and no committee to join. You define the operating model, win the mandate, appoint the owners and stewards, select the platform, and prove the value — while the business keeps commissioning assets around you. It suits someone who has done this before at scale in an asset-heavy industry, who can hold a room of senior stakeholders without formal authority over a single one of them, and who is as comfortable chairing a Data Governance Committee as working out why the component hierarchy broke.

Key Responsibilities:

• Governance Framework: Define and implement a Data Governance Framework aligned to DAMA-DMBOK, Gartner and leading utility practice. Build a federated operating model that scales globally while keeping accountability local.
• Ownership Model: Establish Data Owners, Stewards and Custodians across business and IT — named people, real accountability, not a RACI nobody reads.
• Committee & Mandate: Chair the enterprise Data Governance Committee. Drive alignment across functions and hold them to the numbers on coverage, completeness and accuracy.
• Policy & Compliance: Develop and enforce policies and controls across data classification, privacy and lifecycle management. Cover ESG and energy regulatory reporting obligations, and align to ISO, NIST and sector standards.
• Master Data: Own enterprise MDM strategy across asset master data (plants, turbines, components), customer and offtaker data, and supplier and vendor data. Establish the golden source across ERP, EAM and SCADA interfaces, starting with financial use cases.
• Platform: Run MDM platform selection, then own implementation and adoption — SAP MDG, Informatica MDM or equivalent.
• Data Quality: Define and track KPIs across accuracy, completeness, consistency and timeliness. Put automated monitoring and remediation in place. Lead root-cause analysis on the systemic issues.
• Business Integration: Partner with Generation, O&M, Finance and Supply Chain to push accountability into the business. Translate between technical teams and leadership so governance gets adopted rather than published.
• Team & Vendors: Lead the Master Data team, internal and outsourced. Manage external specialists and advisory partners — scope, KPIs, deliverables, cost.
• Benchmarking: Benchmark against NextEra, RWE, DEWA and TAQA. Assess AI-enabled governance, metadata management and catalogue platforms, and get data ready for advanced analytics and AI.

Skills & Experience (core): We understand this is a long list — please apply if you cover most of it. We want to speak to a broad range to assess the best fit.

• Track record: 10–15+ years in data governance and/or MDM within utilities, energy or another asset-heavy industry.
• Delivery at scale: Enterprise data governance and MDM frameworks taken through to adoption, not just design.
• Tooling: Hands-on with Informatica, Collibra, SAP MDG or Microsoft Purview.
• Enterprise systems: Strong ERP and data platform environments, SAP S/4HANA preferred.
• Architecture: Deep understanding of data architecture across both IT and OT environments.
• Influence: A proven record of influencing without authority across global stakeholders.
• Team leadership: Managing hybrid teams of internal staff and outsourced experts.
• Education: Bachelor's or Master's in Information Management, Data Science, Engineering or a related field.

Nice-to-Have Extras:

• DAMA, CDMP or equivalent data governance certification.
• Renewable energy, utilities or infrastructure sector background.
• Asset lifecycle systems: EAM, SCADA integration, digital twins.
• Experience standing a governance function up from zero rather than inheriting one.
• Exposure to AI-enabled governance and metadata management tooling.

Other Desirable Experience:

• Chairing or running senior governance forums with genuine decision rights.
• Change management and enablement at organisational scale.
• Commercial acumen — building and defending the ROI case for governance investment.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication across mixed technical and business audiences.

What's in It for You?

• A blank sheet. No inherited framework, no legacy committee. You decide how this works and the answer sticks.
• Global scope. Governance across a portfolio spanning dozens of countries and every major renewable technology.
• Executive visibility. You chair the enterprise committee and report into IT Strategic Planning.
• Real assets. Master data here means turbines, plants and components, not abstractions.
• Career development. A permanent seat at Hypercube with structured progression, mentorship and a training budget behind you.
• Personal branding. Support developing your public profile — speaking, writing, and representing Hypercube in the energy data conversation.
• The energy transition. Better decisions at this scale move real megawatts.

Benefits:

• Performance-Related Bonus.
• Enhanced Pension.
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity.
• Private Health Insurance.
• Health Cash Plan.
• Peer Cash Award Scheme.
• Cycle-to-Work Scheme.
• Events & Community involvement.
• EV Leasing Scheme.
• Training & Events Budget (£2,000/yr).
• Mentorship Programmes.

Diversity & Inclusion: Hypercube aims to mirror the diversity of wider society. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and guarantee that hiring decisions are based on merit and potential alone. If you need adjustments — interview tweaks, or anything else — just tell us.

Ready to Apply? Even if you tick only some of the boxes, we would still love to hear from you. Apply via our careers page or reach out to the team on LinkedIn. Let's accelerate the energy transition together — one trusted data asset at a time.

N.B. Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.