Guidance, Training & Capability

• Develop and maintain clear, consistent data ownership guidance, training and supporting materials.
• Contribute to a practical Data Owner playbook covering roles, responsibilities, accountabilities and expected behaviours.
• Develop data governance content in collaboration with capability leads and other data governance specialists.
• Support organisational change and behavioural adoption of new data ownership arrangements.
• Help build sustainable data governance capability across the organisation.

Stakeholder Leadership

• Work closely with senior stakeholders across business, policy, digital, technology and transformation functions.
• Build consensus across stakeholders with differing priorities and perspectives.
• Provide constructive challenge where data ownership, accountability or governance arrangements are unclear.
• Lead governance discussions and workshops, ensuring decisions are clearly documented and progressed.
• Provide leadership within multi-disciplinary teams, ensuring work remains aligned, visible and progressing effectively.
• Communicate complex data governance concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Delivery & Continuous Improvement

• Support resolution of cross-cutting issues, dependencies, risks and delivery challenges across workstreams.
• Develop clear recommendations and next steps for emerging data governance requirements.
• Ensure governance activities remain pragmatic and proportionate to organisational needs.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of the Data Ownership Model and associated services.
• Identify lessons learned and incorporate them into future governance approaches and guidance.

Key Deliverables

The successful candidate will contribute to or lead delivery of:

• Data Ownership Model documentation and supporting artefacts.
• Clear documentation of Data Owner, Data Steward and Digital Custodian roles and responsibilities.
• A practical Data Owner Playbook.
• Data governance input into Service Blueprints.
• Conceptual Data Model workshop outputs and associated governance decisions.
• Data governance training and guidance materials.
• Recommendations and implementation plans for the rollout of data stewardship and digital custodian roles.
• Governance requirements, standards and operating procedures.
• Resolution of cross-cutting governance issues and dependencies.
• Continuous improvement of the Data Ownership service layer.

Essential Experience & Skills

Public Sector / Central Government Experience — Essential

• Proven experience working within UK Public Sector and/or Central Government environments.
• Demonstrable understanding of the complexities of government departments, agencies or public bodies, including the interaction between policy, operational delivery, digital, technology and corporate functions.
• Experience navigating complex governance, accountability and stakeholder structures within a public-sector environment.
• Experience delivering data governance, data ownership or data stewardship initiatives within Central Government or a comparable public-sector organisation.

Data Governance & Data Management

• Proven experience delivering data governance, data ownership and/or data stewardship models at scale.
• Strong understanding of data management principles, governance frameworks and operating models.
• Experience defining and implementing data ownership and accountability structures.
• Strong understanding of the relationship between data owners, data stewards, custodians and wider data management functions.
• Experience developing governance processes, standards, guidance and supporting documentation.
• Experience embedding data governance into digital, transformation or business change programmes.

Strategic & Operational Delivery

• Demonstrable ability to translate strategic data objectives into practical delivery approaches.
• Experience operating across both strategic and operational levels.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to work through ambiguity and complexity.
• Experience managing dependencies, risks and cross-cutting issues across multiple workstreams.
• Ability to develop pragmatic solutions within evolving organisational structures and priorities.

Stakeholder & Leadership Skills

• Strong experience influencing and engaging senior stakeholders, including senior business, policy, digital and technology leaders.
• Excellent facilitation and workshop leadership skills.
• Ability to build trust and consensus across complex stakeholder landscapes.
• Experience providing leadership within multi-disciplinary teams.
• Ability to challenge constructively and influence outcomes without necessarily having direct line-management authority.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Organisational Change

• Experience supporting organisational change and behavioural adoption of new data governance arrangements.
• Experience developing training, guidance, playbooks or other capability-building materials.
• Ability to embed sustainable governance practices rather than simply designing governance frameworks.
• Strong understanding of the cultural and organisational challenges associated with introducing data ownership and accountability.

Desirable Experience

• Experience working within a UK Government Department or major public-sector organisation.
• Experience of Government Digital Service / digital transformation environments.
• Familiarity with Service Design, Service Blueprints and multidisciplinary delivery teams.
• Experience facilitating conceptual data modelling workshops.
• Experience implementing enterprise data ownership or stewardship frameworks.
• Experience working across policy, operational, digital and technology teams.
• Knowledge of recognised data management and governance frameworks and standards.
• Experience supporting large-scale transformation or organisational change programmes.

Summary

This is an opportunity for an experienced Data Governance professional with strong Central Government/Public Sector experience to play a leading role in establishing and embedding an enterprise-wide Data Ownership Model.