Head of Data Strategy & Governance

Location: Dublin, Ireland
Working pattern: Hybrid
Salary: Up to €140,000 base, depending on experience

The opportunity

You’ll be joining a specialist data and technology business operating in the health and care sector, supporting organisations through complex data transformation, governance, migration and modernisation programmes.

This is a senior leadership role for someone who can shape how data governance is designed, deployed and embedded across large, regulated environments. You’ll be joining at an important stage of growth, with a clear mandate to build out the governance and change capability across UK and Ireland.

The business already has deep technical expertise in healthcare data, systems transformation and complex delivery. What they’re looking for in you is a senior governance leader who can turn that technical capability into repeatable advisory frameworks, stronger client methodology and scalable consulting delivery.

This is not a role for someone who wants to sit behind policy documents. It is for someone who can work with executive sponsors, data protection leads, CIOs, clinical and operational stakeholders, quality leaders and boards, then turn complex governance challenges into practical operating models that clients can adopt.

The role

As Head of Data Strategy & Governance, you’ll take ownership of the organisation’s data governance and change practice.

You’ll define the frameworks, artefacts, engagement models and client-facing methodology used across major programmes. This will include areas such as data ownership, stewardship, quality, lineage, classification, access, retention and the governance structures needed to make those things work within organisations.

You’ll also lead the change and adoption side of client delivery. This means stakeholder engagement, data literacy, governance forums, operating model design, and helping clients move from theory into practical, embedded ways of working.

You’ll work closely with senior technical leaders who own the engineering, data science and platform side of the business. Your focus will be governance, advisory, deployment and client outcomes.

What you’ll be doing

• Lead the development of a repeatable data governance practice across Ireland and the UK.
• Shape how client engagements are run, from discovery and workshops through to strategy, implementation and adoption.
• Advise senior stakeholders on how to structure governance across complex health and care data environments.
• Build practical frameworks covering ownership, stewardship, data quality, lineage, classification, retention and access.
• Lead the change elements of client programmes, including stakeholder engagement, adoption planning, data literacy and governance committee design.
• Hire, develop and lead a team made up of consultants and analysts as the practice grows.
• Act as a senior client-facing advisor, building trusted relationships with executive, technical, regulatory and operational stakeholders.
• Help establish a clear market point of view on what good data governance looks like across regulated health and care settings.

What success looks like

In the first year, you’ll have:

• Taken the existing governance capability and turned it into a more scalable, repeatable consulting practice.
• Led or co-led several significant client engagements as the senior governance and change lead.
• Started to build the team needed to support delivery across both the UK and I markets.
• Helped the business strengthen its external voice around data governance, particularly in complex, regulated healthcare environments.

What we’re looking for

• Strong experience designing or leading data governance programmes end to end. This should include operating models, governance committees, roles and responsibilities, tooling decisions, change management and adoption.
• Experience in either the UK or Irish health and care data environment, with enough regulatory awareness to be credible with senior stakeholders. You don’t need to be equally deep in both markets from day one, but you do need the ability and appetite to build that credibility quickly.
• Built or led delivery teams before, either in consultancy, advisory, transformation or a senior internal change environment.
• Comfortable working at board and executive level, while still being credible with technical, data, information governance and regulatory specialists.
• Ability to be both strategic and practical. This is a role where the thinking matters, but the ability to get things adopted matters more.

Package

Salary up to €140,000 base, depending on experience.

Benefits include private medical insurance, death in service, income protection, holiday buy and sell, professional development opportunities and a collaborative working environment.

Relocation assistance may be provided, if you’re interested in moving to Ireland.

Want to Apply? Here’s how:

Applicants must have the right to live and work in the UK.

You can share your Linked-in profile (but please ensure there’s more than just job titles listed) or email me a CV.

Or, for a chat and more information please contact me on:

Colin Doree
Recruiter | Blue Pelican