Head of Governance Jobs
Head of Governance jobs are open across financial services, healthcare, higher education, government, and nonprofit sectors, at every level from governance analyst to chief governance officer, with specializations in corporate governance, risk and compliance oversight, and board administration. See the openings below and apply to the ones that match your experience.
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About Northern Trust
As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.
Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.
With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.
The Head of Cyber Data Governance & Strategy will establish and lead the cybersecurity data, governance, analytics, metrics, and reporting function within the Office of the CISO. This leader will define the strategy, operating model, governance framework, and technology roadmap needed to deliver trusted, decision-ready cyber risk insights.
The role will lead a multi-year Cybersecurity Lakehouse & Metrics Project, building a governed cyber data platform and reusable data products. Initial priorities include executive metrics, identity intelligence, and AI-enabled security workflows. Following implementation, the leader will own ongoing operations, program maturation, and a multidisciplinary team of data, governance, reporting, and automation professionals.
Key Responsibilities
Cyber Data Strategy and Leadership
- Define and execute the cybersecurity data, analytics, governance, metrics, and reporting strategy and multi-year roadmap.
- Advise the CISO and Head of the Office of the CISO on data, reporting, automation, and platform strategy.
- Establish clear services, standards, controls, accountabilities, and performance measures for the function.
- Partner across Cybersecurity, Enterprise Data, Architecture, Technology, Risk, Finance, and Procurement to align priorities and represent cybersecurity in enterprise planning forums.
Cybersecurity Lakehouse & Metrics Program
- Lead the design, implementation, and operationalization of the multi-year Cybersecurity Lakehouse & Metrics Program.
- Manage the approximately $4 million investment, including roadmap, budget, resources, vendors, risks, dependencies, and benefits realization.
- Coordinate delivery across cybersecurity, technology, data, architecture, and third-party partners.
- Deliver scalable, secure, reusable capabilities and transition the program to a sustainable operating model.
Data Platform, Architecture, and Engineering
- Oversee the architecture and operation of cloud-based cybersecurity lakehouse, warehouse, storage, and analytics capabilities.
- Guide the use of platforms such as Databricks, Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric, Azure Data Lake, or comparable technologies.
- Establish reusable standards for ingestion, transformation, data modeling, data products, analytics, and AI-enabled workflows.
- Ensure platforms and pipelines are secure, resilient, scalable, observable, cost-effective, and supportable.
- Implement structured intake, prioritization, documentation, testing, reconciliation, monitoring, and production support for new data sources and use cases.
Cyber Data Governance
- Establish the cybersecurity data governance framework covering ownership, stewardship, quality, lineage, metadata, classification, access, retention, and lifecycle management.
- Define accountability for cyber data and data products across the Office of the CISO.
- Maintain an approved data and metrics catalog with definitions, calculations, sources, owners, thresholds, frequency, and lineage.
- Establish certification, quality monitoring, issue remediation, and exception-management processes for trusted data products and executive metrics.
- Lead governance forums and ensure executive and regulatory reporting is traceable to authoritative sources and approved calculations.
Executive Metrics and Reporting
- Lead centralized cyber metrics and reporting for the CISO, executives, board and management committees, risk forums, and regulators.
- Deliver Power BI and other intelligence products that translate cyber risk, control, operational, financial, workforce, vendor, and portfolio data into decision-ready insights.
- Automate data collection, validation, calculation, visualization, and commentary while maintaining review, approval, evidence, and change controls.
- Partner with Finance, Workforce Management, Procurement, Vendor Management, and Portfolio Management to align definitions and authoritative data.
Identity Intelligence, AI, and Automation
- Develop identity intelligence capabilities that combine identity, entitlement, access, asset, organizational, risk, and security data.
- Enable reusable analytics that correlate identity, vulnerability, control, finding, incident, threat, application, and business context.
- Define and prioritize AI and automation use cases across data, reporting, architecture, engineering, governance, and control workflows.
- Establish appropriate security, testing, human oversight, explainability, data quality, auditability, and change controls for AI-enabled capabilities.
Team and Operating Model Leadership
- Build and lead a multidisciplinary team spanning data architecture, engineering, governance, analytics, reporting, and automation.
- Define roles, skills, performance expectations, career paths, capacity plans, and a balanced workforce model.
- Establish a federated network of cyber data owners, subject matter experts, and liaisons accountable for requirements, quality, validation, and issue resolution.
- Manage strategic technology, consulting, and implementation partners with clear deliverables, controls, performance measures, and knowledge-transfer expectations.
- Build strong cross-functional relationships and communicate progress, risks, decisions, and outcomes to executive stakeholders.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Management, Analytics, Engineering, Cybersecurity, Business, Finance, or a related field.
- Progressive leadership experience across data strategy, governance, architecture, engineering, analytics, executive reporting, cybersecurity, or technology transformation.
- Demonstrated success leading complex, multi-year, enterprise-scale data or technology programs with significant capital investment.
- Strong program management experience, including roadmaps, budgets, resources, risks, dependencies, vendors, and executive communications.
- Experience building or operating cloud-based lakehouse, warehouse, data engineering, and analytics platforms using technologies such as Databricks, Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric, or Azure Data Lake.
- Strong knowledge of ingestion, ETL/ELT, APIs, pipelines, orchestration, modeling, metadata, lineage, data quality, monitoring, and production support.
- Experience delivering executive metrics, KPIs, KRIs, dashboards, and reporting using Power BI or comparable tools.
- Experience applying AI or automation to data, analytics, reporting, or operational workflows and leading multidisciplinary data teams.
- Strong executive presence and ability to translate complex technical, risk, operational, and financial information into clear insights and influence across organizational boundaries.
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced degree in a related discipline.
- Experience in financial services or another highly regulated industry.
- Experience establishing a data, analytics, governance, reporting, or automation Center of Excellence.
- Knowledge of cybersecurity metrics, identity intelligence, security analytics, and frameworks such as NIST, ISO/IEC 27001, COBIT, or FAIR.
- Relevant program management, data, cloud, architecture, analytics, cybersecurity, or governance certifications.
Salary Range:
$137,400 - 240,400 USDSalary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.
Work Authorization
Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa).
Working with Us
As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.
Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust’s history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.
Reasonable Accommodation
Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at MyHRHelp@ntrs.com, or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.
About Northern Trust
As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.
Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.
With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.
The Head of Cyber Data Governance & Strategy will establish and lead the cybersecurity data, governance, analytics, metrics, and reporting function within the Office of the CISO. This leader will define the strategy, operating model, governance framework, and technology roadmap needed to deliver trusted, decision-ready cyber risk insights.
The role will lead a multi-year Cybersecurity Lakehouse & Metrics Project, building a governed cyber data platform and reusable data products. Initial priorities include executive metrics, identity intelligence, and AI-enabled security workflows. Following implementation, the leader will own ongoing operations, program maturation, and a multidisciplinary team of data, governance, reporting, and automation professionals.
Key Responsibilities
Cyber Data Strategy and Leadership
- Define and execute the cybersecurity data, analytics, governance, metrics, and reporting strategy and multi-year roadmap.
- Advise the CISO and Head of the Office of the CISO on data, reporting, automation, and platform strategy.
- Establish clear services, standards, controls, accountabilities, and performance measures for the function.
- Partner across Cybersecurity, Enterprise Data, Architecture, Technology, Risk, Finance, and Procurement to align priorities and represent cybersecurity in enterprise planning forums.
Cybersecurity Lakehouse & Metrics Program
- Lead the design, implementation, and operationalization of the multi-year Cybersecurity Lakehouse & Metrics Program.
- Manage the approximately $4 million investment, including roadmap, budget, resources, vendors, risks, dependencies, and benefits realization.
- Coordinate delivery across cybersecurity, technology, data, architecture, and third-party partners.
- Deliver scalable, secure, reusable capabilities and transition the program to a sustainable operating model.
Data Platform, Architecture, and Engineering
- Oversee the architecture and operation of cloud-based cybersecurity lakehouse, warehouse, storage, and analytics capabilities.
- Guide the use of platforms such as Databricks, Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric, Azure Data Lake, or comparable technologies.
- Establish reusable standards for ingestion, transformation, data modeling, data products, analytics, and AI-enabled workflows.
- Ensure platforms and pipelines are secure, resilient, scalable, observable, cost-effective, and supportable.
- Implement structured intake, prioritization, documentation, testing, reconciliation, monitoring, and production support for new data sources and use cases.
Cyber Data Governance
- Establish the cybersecurity data governance framework covering ownership, stewardship, quality, lineage, metadata, classification, access, retention, and lifecycle management.
- Define accountability for cyber data and data products across the Office of the CISO.
- Maintain an approved data and metrics catalog with definitions, calculations, sources, owners, thresholds, frequency, and lineage.
- Establish certification, quality monitoring, issue remediation, and exception-management processes for trusted data products and executive metrics.
- Lead governance forums and ensure executive and regulatory reporting is traceable to authoritative sources and approved calculations.
Executive Metrics and Reporting
- Lead centralized cyber metrics and reporting for the CISO, executives, board and management committees, risk forums, and regulators.
- Deliver Power BI and other intelligence products that translate cyber risk, control, operational, financial, workforce, vendor, and portfolio data into decision-ready insights.
- Automate data collection, validation, calculation, visualization, and commentary while maintaining review, approval, evidence, and change controls.
- Partner with Finance, Workforce Management, Procurement, Vendor Management, and Portfolio Management to align definitions and authoritative data.
Identity Intelligence, AI, and Automation
- Develop identity intelligence capabilities that combine identity, entitlement, access, asset, organizational, risk, and security data.
- Enable reusable analytics that correlate identity, vulnerability, control, finding, incident, threat, application, and business context.
- Define and prioritize AI and automation use cases across data, reporting, architecture, engineering, governance, and control workflows.
- Establish appropriate security, testing, human oversight, explainability, data quality, auditability, and change controls for AI-enabled capabilities.
Team and Operating Model Leadership
- Build and lead a multidisciplinary team spanning data architecture, engineering, governance, analytics, reporting, and automation.
- Define roles, skills, performance expectations, career paths, capacity plans, and a balanced workforce model.
- Establish a federated network of cyber data owners, subject matter experts, and liaisons accountable for requirements, quality, validation, and issue resolution.
- Manage strategic technology, consulting, and implementation partners with clear deliverables, controls, performance measures, and knowledge-transfer expectations.
- Build strong cross-functional relationships and communicate progress, risks, decisions, and outcomes to executive stakeholders.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Management, Analytics, Engineering, Cybersecurity, Business, Finance, or a related field.
- Progressive leadership experience across data strategy, governance, architecture, engineering, analytics, executive reporting, cybersecurity, or technology transformation.
- Demonstrated success leading complex, multi-year, enterprise-scale data or technology programs with significant capital investment.
- Strong program management experience, including roadmaps, budgets, resources, risks, dependencies, vendors, and executive communications.
- Experience building or operating cloud-based lakehouse, warehouse, data engineering, and analytics platforms using technologies such as Databricks, Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric, or Azure Data Lake.
- Strong knowledge of ingestion, ETL/ELT, APIs, pipelines, orchestration, modeling, metadata, lineage, data quality, monitoring, and production support.
- Experience delivering executive metrics, KPIs, KRIs, dashboards, and reporting using Power BI or comparable tools.
- Experience applying AI or automation to data, analytics, reporting, or operational workflows and leading multidisciplinary data teams.
- Strong executive presence and ability to translate complex technical, risk, operational, and financial information into clear insights and influence across organizational boundaries.
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced degree in a related discipline.
- Experience in financial services or another highly regulated industry.
- Experience establishing a data, analytics, governance, reporting, or automation Center of Excellence.
- Knowledge of cybersecurity metrics, identity intelligence, security analytics, and frameworks such as NIST, ISO/IEC 27001, COBIT, or FAIR.
- Relevant program management, data, cloud, architecture, analytics, cybersecurity, or governance certifications.
Salary Range:
$137,400 - 240,400 USDSalary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.
Work Authorization
Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa).
Working with Us
As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.
Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust’s history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.
Reasonable Accommodation
Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at MyHRHelp@ntrs.com, or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.
See All 15 Head of Governance Jobs
Find roles that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Head of Governance JobsHead of Governance Job Market
Who's Hiring
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software
- Banking & Financial Services
- Investment & Asset Management
What Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in head of governance jobs.
- Bachelor's degree in law, business administration, public administration, or a related field
- Demonstrated experience supporting boards, executive committees, or governance bodies
- Knowledge of corporate governance frameworks such as SOX, King IV, or COSO
- Experience drafting board charters, policies, resolutions, and governance documentation
- Strong stakeholder management skills across board members, executives, and regulators
- Relevant certification such as Certified Governance Professional or Chartered Secretary credential
Tips for Your Head of Governance Job Search
Align your resume to governance frameworks
Head of governance roles expect familiarity with frameworks like SOX, King IV, or COSO. Call out the specific frameworks you've worked within and the committees or boards you've supported, so hiring managers can immediately see your governance scope.
Highlight board and committee management experience
Many candidates bury board secretariat or committee coordination experience in generic administrative bullet points. Reframe those entries around governance outcomes: agendas drafted, resolutions documented, compliance calendars maintained, and board effectiveness reviews supported.
Apply early to roles that fit
Migrate Mate lists head of governance openings from across the United States in one place, so you can find roles that match and apply directly to each listing.
Target postings that name your sector
Governance expectations differ sharply between publicly traded companies, nonprofits, and regulated industries like banking or healthcare. Filter openings by sector so your application materials speak precisely to the compliance environment and stakeholder expectations that employer actually faces.
Prepare a governance portfolio before interviews
Bring documented examples of policy frameworks you authored, board reporting cycles you managed, or governance audits you led. Interviewers for senior governance roles test for concrete process ownership, not just general knowledge of best practices.
Negotiate scope and reporting line, not just title
Head of governance roles vary enormously in authority. During offer discussions, clarify whether you report to the board directly or through a C-suite intermediary, and confirm whether policy enforcement authority is part of the role or stays with legal and compliance teams.
Head of Governance Jobs: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies are hiring the most head of governances?
The companies hiring the most head of governances right now include JBS INTERNATIONAL, TikTok, and State Street, with the largest share of openings in California, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Financial services firms, hospital systems, and large nonprofits consistently account for a substantial portion of active postings.
How many head of governance jobs are remote?
About 44% of head of governance openings are fully remote or hybrid as of November 2026, reflecting the document-heavy and meeting-coordination nature of much of the work. Sub-areas like policy drafting, compliance reporting, and governance training tend to be the most remote-friendly, while roles requiring direct board liaison or in-person committee facilitation are more likely to require on-site presence.
How do you become a head of governance?
Start by building experience in a governance-adjacent role such as board secretary, compliance analyst, legal counsel, or corporate secretary. Work toward a recognized governance credential, deepen your knowledge of relevant regulatory frameworks for your sector, and take on increasing responsibility for policy drafting and board reporting. Senior governance leadership typically follows years of progressively broader committee and board support experience.
Can you get a head of governance role with limited governance experience?
Moving directly into a head of governance role with no governance background is uncommon, but candidates from legal, audit, risk, or executive administration backgrounds make strong transitions. Emphasize transferable skills like policy interpretation, regulatory reporting, board communication, and cross-functional stakeholder management. Entry-level governance coordinator or governance analyst roles are the more realistic starting points for building toward a head-level position.
What does the head of governance interview process look like?
Most head of governance interviews run across multiple rounds. An initial screening focuses on your governance background and sector familiarity. A second round typically involves competency-based questions on specific situations you've managed, such as handling a governance audit or restructuring a board committee. Final rounds often include a presentation or case study and meetings with board members or senior leadership whose buy-in you'll need in the role.
Where can I find and apply to head of governance jobs?
You can find and apply to head of governance jobs on Migrate Mate, which lists current openings from across the United States. Search the roles available, find the ones that match your background and sector experience, and apply directly to each listing that fits.
See All 15 Head of Governance Jobs
Find roles that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Head of Governance Jobs