AI Risk & Governance Lead

Mizuho•New York, NY

1d•$200,000 - $310,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Mizuho is establishing a unified, enterprise-wide approach to Artificial Intelligence (AI) across all its businesses, functions, and operating jurisdictions. This central function, supported by a federated regional structure, will implement a single framework for AI development, procurement, integration, and sharing, with regional adaptations rather than separate local procedures. The framework, initially designed to meet U.S. supervisory expectations, is expanding globally to include the UK, EU, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico, and Brazil. This expansion necessitates addressing unique obligations in these jurisdictions and integrating them into the existing framework. The AI Risk & Governance Lead will report to the Head of the AI Center of Acceleration, serving as the senior accountable owner for Mizuho's global AI governance operating model and as the principal subject matter expert on the cross-jurisdictional regulatory landscape for AI. This is a First Line of Defense role, requiring the individual to act as a domain owner responsible for the framework and its underlying decisions, prepared to defend them against challenges from independent risk and internal audit functions. The role involves owning the operating model as an enterprise standard, designing regional overlays that comply with local obligations without compromising the unified framework, and understanding AI adoption across businesses, including vendor-provided solutions. The lead will drive the vision and roadmap for global AI governance, collaborating with business, Legal, Compliance, Risk, Privacy, and Technology stakeholders worldwide.

Requirements

15+ years experience in regulatory, legal, compliance, risk, or technology risk roles within global financial services, including 8+ years in a management role (Dir/ExecDir).
Substantial experience with AI, model, or technology governance, including accountability for a framework.
Experience establishing or leading a governance function across multiple international jurisdictions, including supervisory examination or entity board engagement.
Deep understanding of the EU AI Act, including the provider and deployer boundary, classification methodology, and deployer obligations.
Deep understanding of GDPR and DORA, including cross-border transfer, data residency, and ICT resilience requirements for AI.
Working knowledge of AI, data protection, outsourcing, and technology risk requirements across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Asia-Pacific, including Japanese FSA expectations applying to the group as home-country supervisor.
Ability to build defensible regulatory determinations in-house, with enough fluency in generative and agentic AI to challenge a risk assessment credibly.
Experience leading AI, technology, or model governance transformation at enterprise scale, including operating model design and organizational build.
Experience in a foreign-headquartered or dual-supervisory institution, working across home-country and host-country reporting lines.
Strong ability to influence senior stakeholders across Legal, Compliance, and Risk without formal authority over those functions.

Nice To Haves

Qualified lawyer or former regulator a plus.
Recognized AI governance or privacy credential (e.g., IAPP AIGP, CIPP/E) a plus.

Responsibilities

Own the design and build of the global AI governance operating model, Policy, Standard, and Procedure as a single enterprise standard, including for the U.S.
Build regulatory applicability and classification analysis across jurisdictions, including EU AI Act provider/deployer determination, for Legal and Compliance sign-off.
Maintain a documented applicability position per jurisdiction across AI legislation, data protection, resilience, and outsourcing.
Reconcile conflicting requirements across entities and jurisdictions, and establish standing positions for routine matters to avoid reliance on outside counsel.
Define and execute the multi-year roadmap to ensure governance scales with AI adoption.
Translate the framework into a regional operating model, defining role charters, decision rights, escalation triggers, and intake processes for correctly classified use cases.
Act as a change agent across the international footprint to drive consistent AI governance practices.
Define AI-specific requirements for cross-border transfer, data residency, and model hosting, partnering with Data Privacy and Information Security on implementation.
Collaborate with the Data Management Office to align AI governance with enterprise data standards, data ownership, quality, lineage, and approved data usage requirements.
Define jurisdictional AI vendor governance requirements, contract protections, notice of material capability change, and end-user terms for Legal and Procurement to execute.
Serve as the global AI governance authority to the firm's senior leadership and regional governance committees, holding a standing seat in forums for AI use case approval, escalation, or termination.
Deliver consolidated global AI governance reporting on control status and key risk indicators to management and entity boards.
Act as the principal AI governance subject matter expert for supervisory examinations and audits.
Lead the Regional AI Governance Liaisons and the regional Legal, Risk & Compliance subject matter expert network, ensuring jurisdictional coverage and clear accountability.
Partner with Legal, Compliance, Risk, and regional business leadership to secure staffing and local ownership for the model.
Build and develop a team of AI governance professionals supporting the international regions.