IT Associate Director Jobs
IT Associate Director jobs are open across healthcare, financial services, government, and technology, covering specializations in infrastructure, cybersecurity, and enterprise applications, at levels from senior manager to director. Scan the live roles below and apply to whichever ones fit.
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Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 122,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.
WORKING AT ABBOTT:
At Abbott, you can do work that matters, grow, and learn, care for yourself and family, be your true self and live a full life. You’ll also have access to:
- Career development with an international company where you can grow the career you dream of
- Free medical coverage for employees* via the Health Investment Plan (HIP) PPO
- An excellent retirement savings plan with high employer contribution
- Tuition reimbursement, the Freedom 2 Save student debt program and FreeU education benefit - an affordable and convenient path to getting a bachelor’s degree
- A company recognized as a great place to work in dozens of countries around the world and named one of the most admired companies in the world by Fortune
- A company that is recognized as one of the best big companies to work for as well as a best place to work for diversity, working mothers, female executives, and scientists
The Opportunity
The IT Director, Data Product Management & Governance is a senior technology leader responsible for building and sustaining Abbott's enterprise data product capabilities and governance framework. This role serves as the operational and strategic linchpin between data producers and data consumers across Abbott's global business units — ensuring that data is governed with rigor, managed as a product, and delivered as a trusted enterprise asset. This leader will drive the design and execution of a data product operating model while simultaneously advancing governance capabilities — from metadata management and data quality to policy enforcement, regulatory compliance, and data stewardship. A successful candidate brings deep technical fluency, demonstrated program delivery experience, and the organizational influence required to embed accountability for data quality and lifecycle management across a matrixed global enterprise.
Key Responsibilities
Data Product Strategy & Management
- Design and operationalize Abbott's data product operating model — defining standards for product ownership, lifecycle management, discoverability, and consumption across all business domains.
- Lead the development and curation of a data product catalog and marketplace infrastructure, enabling self-service access to high-quality, well-documented data assets.
- Collaborate with domain data product owners to define SLAs, ownership accountability, usage metrics, and continuous improvement roadmaps for enterprise data products.
- Champion a product mindset across the data organization — embedding practices for user research, iterative development, and outcome measurement into data product delivery.
- Drive cross-functional initiatives to accelerate time-to-insight by reducing friction in data access, improving data usability, and expanding reuse of canonical data assets.
- Partner with the Head of Data and Analytics and senior IT leadership to align data product investments with Abbott's strategic and digital transformation priorities.
Data Governance Operations & Compliance
- Own and continuously evolve Abbott's enterprise data governance framework — including metadata standards, data lineage, data quality thresholds, access governance, and master data management.
- Lead the enterprise Data Risk Assessment program, identifying and managing data security risks across platforms, applications, and business initiatives.
- Ensure Abbott's data practices comply with applicable regulations including HIPAA, CCPA/CPRA, GDPR, and evolving global data privacy legislation — collaborating closely with Legal and Compliance to stay ahead of regulatory changes.
- Build and sustain data stewardship programs and domain ownership models that distribute and reinforce accountability for data quality across the enterprise.
Technology & Platform Enablement
- Lead evaluation, selection, and implementation of data governance and data product platforms — including data catalogs, lineage tools, data quality frameworks, and metadata management systems.
- Partner with Security Architecture and Enterprise Architecture to design and deploy integrated data governance and data security controls across on-premises and cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP).
- Modernize automated data scanning, tagging, and classification capabilities to improve governance efficiency and strengthen data loss prevention (DLP) outcomes.
- Assess and invest in ML/AI-based governance approaches — including automated lineage discovery, anomaly detection, synthetic data generation, and privacy-enhancing techniques.
- Maintain strategic awareness of the evolving data technology landscape; drive buy/build/partner decisions that balance innovation with cost discipline.
Team Building & Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Build, mentor, and continuously develop a high-performing team spanning data governance specialists, data product managers, data stewards, and program managers.
- Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, and data literacy, upskilling the broader organization and democratizing access to trusted, well-governed data.
- Define team operating models, OKRs, and performance metrics that demonstrate the strategic and operational value of the data governance and product functions.
Required Qualifications
Experience
- 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in data governance, data management, data product management, or data strategy roles within large, complex, matrixed environments.
- Demonstrated experience designing and operationalizing data governance frameworks or data product programs from concept through enterprise adoption, with measurable business outcomes.
- Proven track record managing cross-functional technology programs including platform implementations, organizational change initiatives, and regulatory compliance efforts on time and within budget.
- Hands-on experience with enterprise data governance tools including data catalogs, lineage platforms, data quality frameworks, and metadata management systems.
- Prior experience in healthcare, consumer goods, financial services, or similarly regulated large industries preferred.
Technical & Domain Knowledge
- Deep expertise in data governance principles, data architecture, data quality management, master data management, and enterprise data modeling.
- Strong understanding of cloud data platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and hybrid governance architectures spanning on-premises and cloud-native environments.
- Working knowledge of data protection strategies including encryption, tokenization, data masking, data loss prevention, and role-based access control design.
- Familiarity with ML/AI-based governance approaches: automated metadata tagging, anomaly detection, synthetic data, and differential privacy techniques.
- Solid command of global data privacy regulations including HIPAA, CCPA/CPRA, GDPR, and related legislative frameworks.
- Experience with data product management practices product lifecycle management, data SLA definition, data consumption patterns, and developer experience design.
Leadership & Influence
- Proven ability to lead, inspire, and develop high-performing technical and cross-functional teams; creates clear career pathways and builds organizational bench strength.
- Strong executive presence and communication skills — able to translate complex data and governance concepts into clear narratives for senior business and IT stakeholders.
- Demonstrated ability to drive enterprise-wide change in matrixed organizations through influence, coalition-building, and stakeholder management without direct authority.
- Analytical, data-driven decision-maker with a track record of translating strategy into executable roadmaps and delivering measurable results.
- Bachelor's degree required in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science, Engineering, or related field.
Leadership Competencies
- Results Driver: Sets ambitious goals and holds self and team accountable. Translates governance strategy and product roadmaps into executable plans — tracking progress with rigor and delivering measurable operational and financial impact.
- Strategic and Systems Thinker: Brings intellectual curiosity and market awareness. Proactively identify emerging governance technologies and data product practices, translating external trends into competitive organizational advantage. Understands interconnections across data, technology, processes, and people. Designs holistic governance frameworks and product architectures that scale and anticipate second-order enterprise effects.
- Influential Collaborator: Builds trust across business and technology functions. Uses data to persuade, aligns diverse stakeholders around shared priorities, and navigates complex organizational dynamics with integrity
- Talent Builder and Culture Shaper: Recruits, develops, and retains diverse, high-performing talent. Creates clear career pathways, coaches emerging leaders, and builds bench strength across the data product and governance organization.
Preferred Qualifications
- Prior experience in healthcare, consumer goods, financial services, or similarly regulated large industries preferred.
- Master's degree (MBA, MS in Data Science, Information Management, or related discipline) is strongly preferred.
The base pay for this position is $149,300.00 – $298,700.00. In specific locations, the pay range may vary from the range posted.
Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 122,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.
WORKING AT ABBOTT:
At Abbott, you can do work that matters, grow, and learn, care for yourself and family, be your true self and live a full life. You’ll also have access to:
- Career development with an international company where you can grow the career you dream of
- Free medical coverage for employees* via the Health Investment Plan (HIP) PPO
- An excellent retirement savings plan with high employer contribution
- Tuition reimbursement, the Freedom 2 Save student debt program and FreeU education benefit - an affordable and convenient path to getting a bachelor’s degree
- A company recognized as a great place to work in dozens of countries around the world and named one of the most admired companies in the world by Fortune
- A company that is recognized as one of the best big companies to work for as well as a best place to work for diversity, working mothers, female executives, and scientists
The Opportunity
The IT Director, Data Product Management & Governance is a senior technology leader responsible for building and sustaining Abbott's enterprise data product capabilities and governance framework. This role serves as the operational and strategic linchpin between data producers and data consumers across Abbott's global business units — ensuring that data is governed with rigor, managed as a product, and delivered as a trusted enterprise asset. This leader will drive the design and execution of a data product operating model while simultaneously advancing governance capabilities — from metadata management and data quality to policy enforcement, regulatory compliance, and data stewardship. A successful candidate brings deep technical fluency, demonstrated program delivery experience, and the organizational influence required to embed accountability for data quality and lifecycle management across a matrixed global enterprise.
Key Responsibilities
Data Product Strategy & Management
- Design and operationalize Abbott's data product operating model — defining standards for product ownership, lifecycle management, discoverability, and consumption across all business domains.
- Lead the development and curation of a data product catalog and marketplace infrastructure, enabling self-service access to high-quality, well-documented data assets.
- Collaborate with domain data product owners to define SLAs, ownership accountability, usage metrics, and continuous improvement roadmaps for enterprise data products.
- Champion a product mindset across the data organization — embedding practices for user research, iterative development, and outcome measurement into data product delivery.
- Drive cross-functional initiatives to accelerate time-to-insight by reducing friction in data access, improving data usability, and expanding reuse of canonical data assets.
- Partner with the Head of Data and Analytics and senior IT leadership to align data product investments with Abbott's strategic and digital transformation priorities.
Data Governance Operations & Compliance
- Own and continuously evolve Abbott's enterprise data governance framework — including metadata standards, data lineage, data quality thresholds, access governance, and master data management.
- Lead the enterprise Data Risk Assessment program, identifying and managing data security risks across platforms, applications, and business initiatives.
- Ensure Abbott's data practices comply with applicable regulations including HIPAA, CCPA/CPRA, GDPR, and evolving global data privacy legislation — collaborating closely with Legal and Compliance to stay ahead of regulatory changes.
- Build and sustain data stewardship programs and domain ownership models that distribute and reinforce accountability for data quality across the enterprise.
Technology & Platform Enablement
- Lead evaluation, selection, and implementation of data governance and data product platforms — including data catalogs, lineage tools, data quality frameworks, and metadata management systems.
- Partner with Security Architecture and Enterprise Architecture to design and deploy integrated data governance and data security controls across on-premises and cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP).
- Modernize automated data scanning, tagging, and classification capabilities to improve governance efficiency and strengthen data loss prevention (DLP) outcomes.
- Assess and invest in ML/AI-based governance approaches — including automated lineage discovery, anomaly detection, synthetic data generation, and privacy-enhancing techniques.
- Maintain strategic awareness of the evolving data technology landscape; drive buy/build/partner decisions that balance innovation with cost discipline.
Team Building & Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Build, mentor, and continuously develop a high-performing team spanning data governance specialists, data product managers, data stewards, and program managers.
- Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, and data literacy, upskilling the broader organization and democratizing access to trusted, well-governed data.
- Define team operating models, OKRs, and performance metrics that demonstrate the strategic and operational value of the data governance and product functions.
Required Qualifications
Experience
- 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in data governance, data management, data product management, or data strategy roles within large, complex, matrixed environments.
- Demonstrated experience designing and operationalizing data governance frameworks or data product programs from concept through enterprise adoption, with measurable business outcomes.
- Proven track record managing cross-functional technology programs including platform implementations, organizational change initiatives, and regulatory compliance efforts on time and within budget.
- Hands-on experience with enterprise data governance tools including data catalogs, lineage platforms, data quality frameworks, and metadata management systems.
- Prior experience in healthcare, consumer goods, financial services, or similarly regulated large industries preferred.
Technical & Domain Knowledge
- Deep expertise in data governance principles, data architecture, data quality management, master data management, and enterprise data modeling.
- Strong understanding of cloud data platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and hybrid governance architectures spanning on-premises and cloud-native environments.
- Working knowledge of data protection strategies including encryption, tokenization, data masking, data loss prevention, and role-based access control design.
- Familiarity with ML/AI-based governance approaches: automated metadata tagging, anomaly detection, synthetic data, and differential privacy techniques.
- Solid command of global data privacy regulations including HIPAA, CCPA/CPRA, GDPR, and related legislative frameworks.
- Experience with data product management practices product lifecycle management, data SLA definition, data consumption patterns, and developer experience design.
Leadership & Influence
- Proven ability to lead, inspire, and develop high-performing technical and cross-functional teams; creates clear career pathways and builds organizational bench strength.
- Strong executive presence and communication skills — able to translate complex data and governance concepts into clear narratives for senior business and IT stakeholders.
- Demonstrated ability to drive enterprise-wide change in matrixed organizations through influence, coalition-building, and stakeholder management without direct authority.
- Analytical, data-driven decision-maker with a track record of translating strategy into executable roadmaps and delivering measurable results.
- Bachelor's degree required in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science, Engineering, or related field.
Leadership Competencies
- Results Driver: Sets ambitious goals and holds self and team accountable. Translates governance strategy and product roadmaps into executable plans — tracking progress with rigor and delivering measurable operational and financial impact.
- Strategic and Systems Thinker: Brings intellectual curiosity and market awareness. Proactively identify emerging governance technologies and data product practices, translating external trends into competitive organizational advantage. Understands interconnections across data, technology, processes, and people. Designs holistic governance frameworks and product architectures that scale and anticipate second-order enterprise effects.
- Influential Collaborator: Builds trust across business and technology functions. Uses data to persuade, aligns diverse stakeholders around shared priorities, and navigates complex organizational dynamics with integrity
- Talent Builder and Culture Shaper: Recruits, develops, and retains diverse, high-performing talent. Creates clear career pathways, coaches emerging leaders, and builds bench strength across the data product and governance organization.
Preferred Qualifications
- Prior experience in healthcare, consumer goods, financial services, or similarly regulated large industries preferred.
- Master's degree (MBA, MS in Data Science, Information Management, or related discipline) is strongly preferred.
The base pay for this position is $149,300.00 – $298,700.00. In specific locations, the pay range may vary from the range posted.
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Find IT Associate Director JobsIT Associate Director Job Market
Who's Hiring
Top Industries Hiring
- Banking & Financial Services
- Technology & Software
- Staffing & Recruiting
- Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals
- Healthcare & Medical Services
What Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in IT associate director jobs.
- 7 to 10 years of progressive IT leadership and people management experience
- Proven ability to manage IT budgets, vendor contracts, and resource allocation
- Experience with ITIL, COBIT, or similar IT service management frameworks
- Strong background in cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud
- Bachelor's degree in information technology, computer science, or a related field
- Relevant certifications such as PMP, CISSP, CISM, or ITIL 4 Managing Professional
Tips for Your IT Associate Director Job Search
Align your resume to IT governance
IT associate director roles weight budget ownership, vendor management, and compliance frameworks heavily. Pull specific figures from your experience, like headcount managed or project budgets, and name the frameworks you governed under, such as ITIL or COBIT.
Distinguish director from manager on paper
Many resumes blur the line between managing a team and setting department strategy. Lead each bullet with decisions you owned at the organizational level, not tasks you completed, so hiring managers can quickly see you're operating at an associate director scope.
Filter openings by reporting structure
Some it associate director titles report to a CIO and own full P&L, while others are senior individual contributors. Check the job description for direct-report counts and budget authority before applying, so you're not targeting roles that are actually mid-management repackaged.
Apply early to roles that fit
Migrate Mate lists it associate director openings from across the United States in one place, so you can find roles that match and apply directly to each listing.
Prepare for a multi-panel technical interview
Expect separate conversations with IT leadership, finance or operations stakeholders, and sometimes a CISO or CTO. Practice articulating the same infrastructure or transformation decision in both technical and business-outcome terms, because each panel will probe from a different angle.
Negotiate scope before you negotiate salary
At the associate director level, the team size, budget authority, and technology roadmap ownership you're stepping into matter as much as base pay. Clarify these in the offer conversation, because misaligned scope is the most common reason new associate directors leave within two years.
IT Associate Director Jobs: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies are hiring the most it associate directors?
Gilead Sciences, Jobot, and AstraZeneca are hiring the most it associate directors right now, with openings concentrated in California, Illinois, and Texas, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Demand is strongest in healthcare systems, financial services firms, and large government contractors.
How many it associate director jobs are remote?
About 74% of it associate director openings are fully remote or hybrid as of November 2026, though fully on-site roles remain common in regulated industries like healthcare and defense. Sub-areas with the highest remote share include enterprise architecture, IT program management, and cybersecurity strategy, where in-person presence is less operationally critical.
How do you become a it associate director?
Start by building several years of hands-on IT management experience, moving from team lead to manager and taking on progressively larger budgets and headcount. Develop cross-functional credibility by leading enterprise projects that touch finance, operations, or compliance. Earning a recognized certification in IT service management or project management accelerates the transition into associate director consideration.
Can you get an it associate director role with limited senior leadership experience?
It is possible if you can demonstrate that you've operated at a strategic level, even informally. Candidates who successfully make this jump typically show a record of owning a technology domain end to end, having led cross-departmental initiatives, and having coached or developed junior managers. A strong portfolio of measurable outcomes matters more than years of title.
What does the it associate director interview process look like?
Most processes run three to five rounds, starting with an HR screen, then a technical conversation with IT leadership, followed by a strategic or case-based discussion with senior stakeholders like a CIO or CFO. Some employers add a presentation stage where you're asked to propose a 90-day plan or assess a mock infrastructure challenge. Reference checks typically come at the final stage.
Where can I find and apply to it associate director jobs?
You can find and apply to it associate director jobs on Migrate Mate, which lists current openings from across the United States. Search for roles that match your specialization and experience level, then apply directly to each listing that fits.
See All 456+ IT Associate Director Jobs
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