Head of Data & AI Governance

Quilter plc is a leading wealth management business, helping to enable brighter financial futures for every generation. Quilter oversees £126.3 billion in customer investments (as of August 2025). It has an adviser and customer offering spanning financial advice, investment platforms, multi-asset investment solutions, and discretionary fund management. The business is comprised of two segments: Affluent and High Net Worth.

Affluent encompasses the financial planning business, Quilter Financial Planning, the Quilter Investment Platform and Quilter Investors, the multi-asset investment solutions business. High Net Worth includes the discretionary fund management business, Quilter Cheviot, together with Quilter Cheviot Financial Planning – offering a highly personalised service to private clients, charities, trustees, and professional partners. Quilter Cheviot has presence throughout the UK, Ireland and Channel Islands.

At Quilter we never stand still. Our foundations are rooted in our extraordinary expertise, which is trusted by hundreds of thousands of customers, but we have great ambitions to stay one step ahead and make an even greater difference to the people and communities we serve, including our colleagues. Our business is transforming, continually modernising, and becoming even more customer centric. So, if you want to be bold in the pursuit of your ambitions, bring new ideas, and challenge and evolve what we do, it’s the perfect time to join us!

About The Role

Department: COO

Location: London/Southampton

Contract type: Permanent

The new role sits within COO and reports directly to the Chief Data Officer (CDO). The key accountabilities for the role are as follows:

• Governance Framework Development – Design and implement an enterprise‑wide data and AI governance framework including policies, standards and controls. Define roles, responsibilities, and accountability for data and AI governance across business units.
• Compliance & Risk Management - Ensure adherence to data protection laws (e.g. GDPR, AI Act), AI regulations, and ethical guidelines. Monitor and mitigate risks related to data quality, privacy, bias, and algorithmic transparency.
• Data Quality & Stewardship - Establish data quality metrics and controls to maintain accuracy, completeness, and consistency. Oversee data stewardship programmes and ensure proper metadata management.
• AI Governance - Develop guidelines for responsible AI use, including fairness, explainability, and auditability. Implement processes for AI model validation, monitoring, and lifecycle management.
• Stakeholder Engagement - Establish highly effective and collaborative relationships with key stakeholders and business partners across Quilter to embed governance practices and act as a trusted advisor on data ethics and AI governance for senior leadership.
• Education & Culture - Promote a culture of data responsibility and ethical AI through training and awareness programmes. Stay ahead of emerging regulations and industry best practices.
• People – Lead, engage, motivate and develop all employees within the role’s remit to maximise their full potential. This also means ensuring high levels of engagement, professionalism and contribution to the business and ensuring that policies and procedures are followed in an appropriate and consistent manner.

Consumer Duty

Whilst this isn’t a directly customer facing role, the duties you will perform will contribute to the overall positive outcomes for our customers by ensuring that the customer is at the heart of the Data Science and AI strategy, roadmap and plans created.

About You

Degree in an analytical discipline (e.g. statistics, computer science, maths) or evidence of equivalent practical experience. Professional certifications (e.g., CDMP, CIPP/E, AI Ethics certifications) preferred.

Knowledge

• Deep understanding of data governance frameworks (e.g. DAMA‑DMBOK) and AI ethics principles.
• Strong understanding of data management concepts (e.g. data lineage, data architecture).
• Strong knowledge of regulatory requirements (GDPR, AI Act, FCA Guidelines UK Reg Framework etc.).
• Expertise in data management policies, metadata, and data quality practices.
• Expertise in AI/ML lifecycle (MLOps, LLMOps), model risk management, and bias mitigation techniques.
• Knowledge of traditional and LLM based model evaluation, prompt governance (secure prompt design, versioning and control) and explainable AI techniques (e.g., SHAP, LIME).

Experience

• Extensive experience in data governance leadership roles.
• Experience of defining and implementing data governance framework and associated policies, standards and controls.
• Background in data management, analytics, or technology risk.
• Expertise in model evaluation framework and performance analysis (Confusion Matrix, Recall, Precision, MAP, NDCG, LLM‑as‑a‑Judge, ROUGE, BLEU, faithfulness, hallucination detection).
• Experience in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare, etc.).

Skills

• Strategic thinking, problem solving with the ability to balance compliance and innovation.
• Excellent leadership, communication and relationship building skills with an ability to influence as well as exert authority.
• Collaborative, inclusive and engaging style with an ability to communicate technical and non‑technical information to all levels in the organisation.
• Ability to translate complex AI governance concepts (bias, fairness, explainability) into actionable policies and clear guidance for stakeholders.
• Strong capability to design and operationalise governance frameworks for data and AI models across their lifecycle, ensuring ethical and compliant deployment.

Inclusion & Diversity

We value diversity and strive to promote inclusivity in all aspects of our culture. We believe in equal opportunities for all, ensuring that no applicant encounters less favourable treatment based on anything but their skills, qualifications, experience, and potential. We celebrate the unique contributions of a diverse workforce and create a respectful, nurturing environment where every colleague can thrive.

Values

• Do the right thing: We act with integrity and are proudly committed to going above and beyond in service of our clients and the support we provide our communities.
• Always curious: We continuously seek new ideas and knowledge so we’re one step ahead of our clients’ needs. We look for inspiration everywhere and encourage experimentation, recognising that this is how we create brilliant solutions for brighter futures.
• Embrace challenge: We aim high to transform our potential into meaningful outcomes. With ambition as our driving force and a steadfast commitment to growth, we succeed for the good of every generation.
• Stronger together: Combining our diverse talents, we accomplish more collectively than we ever could do alone. We speak openly, actively listen, and support each other, and constructively challenge and embrace new ideas. We seek empowerment and demonstrate ownership and trust, with the confidence to make impactful decisions.

Core Benefits

• Holiday: 182 hours (26 days)
• Quilter Incentive Scheme: All employees are eligible to participate in incentive scheme, to incentivise business performance and their contribution.
• Pension Scheme: A non‑contributory company pension scheme that can be boosted through personal contributions.
• Private Medical Insurance: Single as standard with options to increase cover to include your partner or children.
• Income Protection: 75% of salary, less state benefits, payable after 26 weeks of absence.
• Healthcare Cash Plan: Jersey employees only.

In addition to our core benefits, we offer a range of flexible benefits to UK employees that you can choose from and pay for conveniently via a salary deduction.