Data & AI Governance Lead

CECO Environmental•Addison, TX

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Data & AI Governance Lead is a critical, enterprise-wide role responsible for activating and operating CECO’s Data & AI Governance framework day-to-day. The role chairs the L3 Governance Working Group, manages domain stewards across Finance, Sales, Operations, Procurement, Project Management, Product Engineering, and HR, and serves as the single point of operational accountability for KPI standardization, master data governance, and compliance reporting across all four SBGs. The ideal candidate brings direct prior experience in a Data Governance Lead or equivalent role, ideally within a manufacturing, industrial, or multi-entity environment comparable to CECO’s SBG structure. They combine governance practitioner depth with strong program management discipline, change management capability, and hands-on experience with enterprise data governance platforms. They are business-facing by nature comfortable with discussing project margin with an SBG President as well as defining a KPI standard in a working group session. Above all, this person is persistent, persuasive, and capable of handling sustained pushbacks without losing momentum or relationships. They understand that governance activation is a long-term change program and not a framework deployment and they bring the structured methodology to manage it as such. Reporting to the Head of Data & Analytics, this is a foundational hire for CECO’s data transformation.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Systems, Finance, Operations Management, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
8+ years of experience in data governance, data management, enterprise analytics, or a related function — with at least 3 years in a dedicated Data Governance Lead, Data Stewardship Lead, or equivalent operational governance role.
Prior experience in a manufacturing, industrial, engineered solutions, or multi-entity business comparable to CECO strongly preferred. Must demonstrate fluency with operational metrics (OTD, project margin, procurement spend variance, SQDC) as well as financial KPIs (revenue recognition, gross margin, EBITDA).
Demonstrated program management experience: structured delivery of multi-workstream, multi-stakeholder programs with formal milestone tracking, risk management, and executive-level reporting. PMP or equivalent certification preferred.
Demonstrated change management experience. Experience designing and executing change plans in organizations with strong business unit autonomy and uneven stakeholder readiness.
Hands-on experience with one or more enterprise data governance platforms: Microsoft Purview (preferred given CECO’s Microsoft stack), Collibra, or Alation. Experience with data catalog, business glossary, stewardship workflow, and policy management capabilities.
Demonstrated experience operating in complex, multi-stakeholder organizations where influence without positional authority was the primary lever for driving change across business units or divisions.
Experience designing or implementing enterprise KPI registries, data governance operating models, or master data management programs at scale.
Familiarity with D365 F&O, TM1, or equivalent ERP and financial planning system particularly in the context of migration governance and data quality management.
Experience working alongside data platform or data engineering teams to translate governance standards into technical implementation within a medallion or layered data architecture.
Familiarity with Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, and modern data platform concepts preferred.
Experience facilitating structured governance bodies, cross-functional alignment sessions, or COE operating models preferred.
Experience authoring, publishing, and maintaining enterprise data governance or AI governance policies preferred. Familiarity with policy lifecycle management, regulatory alignment (data privacy, AI regulation), and enforcement monitoring through compliance scorecards.

Nice To Haves

PMP (Project Management Professional) or equivalent program management certification — strongly preferred
Prosci Change Management Certification or equivalent — preferred
DAMA Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP) — preferred
Data Governance & Stewardship Professional (DGSP) — preferred
Microsoft Purview certification or Microsoft Data Management & AI fundamentals — a plus
Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Associate — a plus
Microsoft Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate — a plus

Responsibilities

Chair and facilitate the L3 Data & AI Governance Working Group, including bi-weekly full-group sessions and coordination of seven independent domain governance meetings across Finance, Sales, Operations, Procurement, Project Management, Product Engineering, and HR.
Own and maintain the enterprise KPI registry — ensuring every metric has a single definition, data source, owner, and target applied consistently across all SBGs. Eliminate the current state where the same KPI is calculated differently.
Collaborate with domain stewards, providing direction, accountability, documentation standards, and escalation support. Ensure domain-level consensus before any recommendation reaches the L2 Governance Committee.
Own and produce the monthly governance compliance scorecard and present it to the L2 Governance Committee as the operational voice of the Working Group.
Serve as the primary triage point for all governance escalations, resolving disputes at the lowest possible level before they reach the L2 Committee.
Maintain master data standards across Customer, Vendor, Product / Item, Project, and Employee / Workforce domains, coordinating with domain stewards and the Data Platform team on golden record workflows and CRM–ERP alignment.
Manage governance activation as a structured program: define milestones, track progress, identify risks and dependencies, and report status to L2 monthly and L1 quarterly.
Develop and maintain the governance calendar, meeting cadences, agenda templates, escalation protocols, RACI documentation, and decision logs for the Working Group.
Manage interdependencies between governance activation and Data Platform Modernization program, ensuring KPI standards and master data rules are sequenced correctly against Fabric platform delivery milestones.
Track and manage the D365 migration wave governance schedule, ensuring data quality gates are reviewed before each go-live and that migration decisions are evaluated against master data standards.
Build and maintain a governance maturity roadmap, with measurable milestones from framework activation through to embedded enterprise practice.
Design and execute a structured change management plan for governance activation, applying recognized methodology (Prosci or equivalent) to address the specific adoption challenges identified in CECO’s current state assessment — entrenched SBG autonomy, uneven data literacy, and previous governance efforts.
Identify and map resistance patterns by domain and SBG, developing tailored engagement strategies for stakeholders with differing levels of governance maturity and data literacy.
Design and execute a stakeholder communication plan that keeps domain owners, SBG Presidents, and the L2/L1 governance bodies informed, engaged, and accountable throughout the activation journey.
Build domain steward capability through structured onboarding, coaching, and training by ensuring stewards understand not just their responsibilities but the business rationale behind each governance decision.
Measure adoption and behavioral change alongside compliance by tracking leading indicators (steward engagement, definition adoption rates, escalation volumes) as well as lagging indicators (scorecard compliance, KPI consistency).
Operate as a business-facing partner engaging Finance, Operations, Sales, PMO, and HR leads at a level of domain fluency that earns credibility. Governance decisions must be grounded in business reality, not theoretical best practice.
Drive KPI standardization across SBGs through structured facilitation by identifying root causes of definitional disagreements, brokering durable resolutions, and ensuring alignment is documented and ratified before implementation.
Handle pushback from domain stakeholders and SBG representatives constructively and with composure. Maintain governance standards without creating adversarial relationships by sustaining momentum even when progress is resisted.
Build the case for governance adoption through demonstrated business outcomes: fewer reconciliation cycles, more reliable reporting, faster decision-making. Win adoption through value, not enforcement.
Partner with the Data Platform and Data Engineering teams to ensure KPI standards and master data rules are correctly implemented in the Microsoft Fabric medallion architecture.
Support financial data integrity monitoring in coordination with the Finance domain steward.
Monitor Power BI dataset certification and reporting standards in partnership with the PBI COE Lead, preventing data model fragmentation from re-emerging at the consumption layer.
Leverage Microsoft Purview to enforce data classification, lineage, and policy management standards across the enterprise data estate.
Author, maintain, and own the enterprise Data and AI Policy Library — covering data classification standards, data quality requirements, AI use case governance, data access and security policies, data retention and lineage requirements, master data management standards, and acceptable use of AI tools across CECO.
Manage the full policy lifecycle end-to-end: draft policy with domain steward input → stakeholder review → Legal and Security sign-off → L2 Governance Committee approval → publication → enterprise communication → enforcement monitoring → scheduled review and update.
Define and enforce the AI use case intake, classification, and approval process — establishing a structured mechanism that prevents ungoverned AI tools from entering production without documented risk assessment and L2 approval. Maintain the approved AI tools registry.
Establish AI risk levels and guardrails in collaboration with Legal and Security, ensuring CECO’s AI adoption is governed, traceable, and compliant with evolving regulatory and contractual standards across all SBGs and international entities.
Publish all Data and AI policies in an accessible enterprise format (SharePoint or Microsoft Purview policy store) with version control, effective dates, owner tracking, and review schedules. Ensure every policy is discoverable by the employees it governs.
Monitor policy compliance as part of the monthly governance scorecard. Identify and escalate violations through the established governance framework. Track policy adoption rates by domain and SBG as a leading indicator of governance maturity.
Proactively update the policy library in response to regulatory changes (data privacy laws, emerging AI regulation), technology changes (new tools, platform migrations, D365 expansion), and business changes (acquisitions, new SBGs, new commercial models).
Ensure all Data and AI policies align with CECO’s legal, contractual, and regulatory obligations, coordinating with Legal and Security representatives on the L2 Governance Committee before any policy is finalized or published.