The Senior Manager, Data Governance is a strategic leadership role responsible for advancing, maturing, and optimising the Firm’s Data Governance Framework and broader data strategy. The role focuses on embedding data governance practices into business-as-usual operations, improving data quality, reducing risk, and enabling the effective use of data to support analytics, reporting, integrations, and emerging AI capabilities.

The Data Governance Framework provides the structure and operating model to drive effective data management and influence data-related behaviours across the Firm. It has established the mechanisms for oversight, control (planning, monitoring, and enforcement), and leadership of data governance activities.

The Framework comprises a C-Suite Steering Committee, a Director-level Data Governors Board, and a Data Stewardship Council, supported by Technology, Information Governance, Data Governance, and Data Privacy Office (DPO) teams. Its objective is to improve the quality, consistency, and accessibility of data assets, enabling their use to drive competitive advantage.

Operating within the Practice Solutions Function, this role is global and highly cross-functional, working closely with senior stakeholders across Technology, Business Intelligence, Data Architecture, Information Governance, and the Data Privacy Office, as well as technical and functional Data Stewards throughout the Firm. The Senior Manager plays a critical role in ensuring the Firm’s data is trusted, well-managed, and positioned to deliver measurable business value.

The role provides leadership to the Data Governance team and the wider governance community, including the Data Governors Board and Data Stewardship Council, ensuring consistent adoption, clear accountability, and alignment with business priorities and regulatory expectations. This requires a balance of both a bottom-up and top-down approach to embedding and supporting effective Data Governance.

In addition, the Senior Manager partners closely with Business Intelligence, Knowledge Solutions and Innovation teams to ensure strong data governance foundations underpin the data and analytics, knowledge management, enterprise search, automation, and AI-driven initiatives across the Firm.

Duties and Accountabilities

Evolve and drive the strategic direction and continued maturity of the Firm’s Data Governance Framework, transitioning it towards a scalable, embedded, and value-driven operating model.Lead, mentor, and develop the Data Governance team, providing clear direction, prioritisation, and oversight across all governance activities.Chair the Data Governors Board and provide leadership oversight to the Data Stewardship Council, driving engagement, accountability, and cross-functional collaboration across teams and regions.
Embed data governance into business-as-usual processes, ensuring data ownership, stewardship, and accountability are consistently applied across the Firm.
Enhance and optimise data governance policies, standards, operating models, and controls to ensure consistency, scalability, and regulatory alignment.
Define, standardise, and govern the Firm’s data domain model, ensuring clear ownership, accountability, and alignment to business capabilities across our regions, business functions and practices.
Drive measurable improvements in data quality, governance adoption, and data-related business outcomes across key domains.
Define, monitor, and continuously improve data quality frameworks, metrics, and remediation processes to enhance data accuracy, completeness, and integrity.
Own and drive the Firm’s central reference data strategy, establishing, driving adoption, and continuously improving a controlled, scalable, and authoritative approach to managing reference data across systems and processes.
Define and support the adoption of external and industry data standards (e.g. SALI, NosLegal), ensuring alignment with internal data models and maximising consistency, interoperability, and business value.
Oversee and optimise the Firm’s Data Management Technology (DMT), ensuring effective use of metadata, lineage, reference data, and workflow capabilities to support data governance objectives.
Partner with senior stakeholders (including leadership-suite) to align data governance with Firm and Functional strategic priorities: including analytics, automation, and AI initiatives.
Support and enable Knowledge Solutions initiatives by ensuring high-quality, well-governed data foundations for knowledge management, enterprise search, and content intelligence capabilities.
Oversee the identification, prioritisation, and resolution of critical data issues, ensuring robust governance, escalation, and tracking mechanisms are in place.
Collaborate with Business Intelligence, Data Architecture, and Technology teams to support enterprise data platform initiatives and ensure governance is embedded by design.
Oversee the maintenance and effective use of key data governance artefacts, including business glossaries, data dictionaries, lineage, and reference data repositories.
Drive initiatives to improve data literacy and promote a strong data-driven culture across the Firm.
Provide data governance oversight and strategic input into major transformation programmes, ensuring alignment with data governance principles and long-term data strategy.
Manage relationships with third-party vendors and consultants supporting data management tooling and initiatives.

Qualifications & Skills

Bachelors or Masters degree
Significant experience in data governance, data management, or related disciplines, with clear progression into leadership roles.
Proven experience advancing and maturing data governance frameworks within complex, global organisations.
Strong understanding of data governance, data quality, metadata management, data domains, and reference data management best practices.
Experience with data management technologies (e.g. Collibra, Informatica, Data360).
Experience defining and implementing data domain models and/or reference data strategies at scale is highly desirable.
Familiarity with external or industry data standards (e.g. SALI, NosLegal) and their practical application is advantageous.
Demonstrated ability to influence and partner with senior stakeholders across business and technology functions.
Experience leading and developing high-performing teams and fostering engaged, cross-functional data communities.
Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving skills, with the ability to translate business priorities into practical governance outcomes.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to operate effectively at both strategic and operational levels.
Experience enabling analytics, reporting, or AI initiatives through strong data governance and data management practices.
Familiarity with Knowledge Solutions or Knowledge Management capabilities (e.g. enterprise search, content management, or legal knowledge systems) is advantageous.
Experience with Agile and/or Waterfall delivery methodologies.

What We Offer

When you join us, you’ll be working directly with partners, business leaders and many other inspiring colleagues across our global network of offices. We live by our values—to be pioneering, united and human—and we believe that you’ll experience them from your first day. We will give you the support and development opportunities that will help you achieve your potential.

We believe that consistent high performance merits reward and support. Our compensation package reflects your calibre as a business development professional, and our benefits are designed to support your changing needs and priorities across different life stages.

Other

Our standard office hours are 09:30-18:00, with a current requirement for 4 days in the office per week.

Firm Benefits

We offer a flexible range of benefits, services and programmes designed to help support your lifestyle requirements. Some of the benefits currently available include:

Private medical insurance
Pension plan with matched employer contribution up to 7.5%
Yearly wellbeing fund
Income protection
Holiday purchase
Life insurance
Critical Illness insurance
Private GP services
Travel insurance
Dental coverage
Cycle to work
Holiday purchase (available during annual enrolment)

This role reports to

Senior Manager, Data Governance

Equal Opportunities

White & Case is committed to creating a fair workplace. It is our Firm’s policy to recruit, employ, train, compensate, and promote without regard to race, religion, creed, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, military or veteran status, disability, genetic information, or any other category protected by applicable law.

If you require assistance and/or adjustment to participate in our application and/or interview process, please email us. We will be happy to work with you.

The Firm may modify and amend any job description at any time in its sole discretion. Nothing herein creates a contract of employment or otherwise modifies the at-will nature of employment.

The above is only a general description of the essential duties associated with this position and does not represent an exhaustive or comprehensive list of all duties.

Note to Recruitment Agencies

Our internal Recruitment team manages all aspects of lateral hiring. All agencies must have signed terms of business—specific to the relevant office—before submitting any candidates. CVs or applications sent directly to White & Case partners or employees will also not be considered formal introductions. If you have questions, please contact the relevant Recruitment team. We work with our preferred suppliers when engaging agencies.

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