Head of Enterprise Data Governance at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Description

• Define, maintain and drive the embedment of the Group Data Governance (DG) framework (decision rights, ownership model, federated operating model, enterprise data policies and standards).
• Integrate the relevant policies and standards into the Absa policy universe and report on both central and federated compliance to all aspects of the framework.
• Define requirements for ownership, stewardship, custodianship and accountability across business areas and data domains, oversee implementation through the work of central and federated DG teams, implement the data issue management process and track governance maturity, adherence and progress.
• Define and implement the enterprise standards for data governance and data retention and align these standards with the regulatory requirements to manage personal information appropriately. Define legal hold, exceptions, and defensible disposal standards and practices for these standards.
• Define governance requirements for metadata, lineage, data quality, reference data, master data, as well as issue management. Monitor the implementation of the required controls via independent challenge and assurance, and report on agreed KPIs for the Data Management and Governance (DMG) function within the CDAIO.
• Act as the entry point for all internal and external risk, audit and regulatory compliance requests, providing compliance evidence on behalf of the CDAIO or the Group for aspects under central data governance management.
• Translate regulatory requirements into actionable data governance controls and ensure consistent implementation across the enterprise, with traceability and monitoring from policy through to control execution.
• Accountable for coordinating risks and audit investigations and ensuring control design and testing as part of remediation and providing audit-ready evidence to internal and external stakeholders in response to any findings or recommendations.
• Manage and report on enterprise-level data risk mitigation actions assigned to the CDAIO.
• Oversee the end-to-end data issue management lifecycle and drive the issue remediation process, facilitating the alignment between impacted stakeholders and escalation to the Group Data Council as needed.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in information systems/computer science/data, or Risk/Compliance/Law/Finance (required)
• Postgraduate degree (MBA/MSc Data/Risk/Governance) (preferred)
• Preferred Certifications
• DAMA CDMP (Data Management and Governance)
• General risk and data certifications

Experience

• 10 years in data governance, risk, compliance, and information management
• 5 years of large enterprise and banking experience
• Engagement with regulators, Group Risk, Internal Audit, and executive governance forums
• Deep understanding of privacy and data retention regulatory requirements in financial services
• Experienced at translating regulatory and risk requirements into operational controls and mitigation processes.