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 an