Principal, Data Governance

Fifth Third Bank • Cincinnati, OH

3d

About The Position

The Principal, Data Governance is a senior leader responsible for leading a team and shaping Commercial data governance, data quality, and data-management capabilities across complex business, risk, data, and technology environments. The role establishes team priorities and expectations, coaches and develops Data Governance professionals, provides technical direction, and remains directly involved in the organization’s most complex and consequential data-management challenges.

The Principal provides strategic leadership through subject-matter expertise, influence, and cross-functional coordination. The role partners with business process owners, technology and data product teams, data consumers, risk partners, and Enterprise Data Governance to improve the quality, reliability, transparency, and effective management of Commercial data. It translates complex business and data challenges into scalable governance approaches, stronger controls, measurable data health, and sustainable solutions; identifies systemic risks and opportunities; and establishes practices that can be reused across Commercial. Governance provides standards, oversight, orchestration, and accountability, while business and technology owners remain responsible for their underlying processes, data, and technology assets.

The position leads and manages a team of Data Governance professionals, providing direction, coaching, development, and performance management. It also provides broader organizational leadership through expertise, influence, standards, and direct leadership of complex cross-functional efforts. The role is based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Compensation includes base salary and eligibility for an incentive compensation plan; the posting does not specify a salary range.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
• Significant experience in data governance, data quality, data management, analytics, risk, controls, technology, commercial banking, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex, cross-functional work in environments with substantial ambiguity.
• Strong analytical capability, including profiling data, identifying patterns and root causes, evaluating business and technical dependencies, and translating findings into actionable recommendations.
• Strong understanding of data governance concepts, including data ownership, business and technical lineage, data quality controls, monitoring, metadata, authoritative sourcing, remediation, and data-risk management.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior business, risk, data, and technology stakeholders without direct authority.
• Ability to communicate complex technical and data-management concepts clearly in business terms.
• Strong judgment and ability to balance risk, control effectiveness, business value, implementation feasibility, and strategic direction.
• Demonstrated ability to create scalable frameworks and operating practices rather than relying on case-by-case execution.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, coach, and develop high-performing teams while building subject-matter expertise, judgment, accountability, and independent problem-solving capability.

Responsibilities

• Advise business, data, and technology leaders on complex Commercial data-management needs and future-state solutions.
• Evaluate business processes, data flows, architecture, controls, and downstream uses to identify systemic risks and opportunities for improvement.
• Influence solution design so data quality, traceability, control, monitoring, and governance requirements are addressed early.
• Identify opportunities to improve data health, risk management, operational effectiveness, and business value through analytics, automation, and approved AI capabilities.
• Lead development, interpretation, and operationalization of Commercial data policies, standards, procedures, and governance expectations.
• Establish repeatable approaches for data ownership, lineage, business requirements, data quality, controls, monitoring, and accountability.
• Evaluate significant governance gaps, exceptions, and control weaknesses and recommend resolution or escalation.
• Partner with Enterprise Data Governance and other control functions to align enterprise requirements with Commercial needs while preserving clear accountability for Commercial data production and use.
• Lead complex assessments of data quality and management risk across business processes, source systems, authoritative data sources, transformations, data products, and downstream consumption.
• Profile and analyze data to identify root causes, patterns, dependencies, and systemic weaknesses.
• Connect data findings to business-process, control, technology, reporting, and risk impacts through actionable recommendations.
• Define and evolve methods for measuring data health, control effectiveness, coverage, and confidence.
• Identify emerging or systemic risks across Commercial domains and translate them into prioritized actions.
• Lead highly complex, cross-functional data issues from ambiguity through assessment, recommendation, implementation coordination, and measurable resolution.
• Bring together business, data, technology, reporting, and risk stakeholders and establish decisions, ownership, dependencies, and next actions.
• Distinguish immediate stabilization needs from systemic root-cause remediation and longer-term capability improvements.
• Provide governance leadership for material, recurring, regulatory, or otherwise high-risk data issues and escalate unresolved risks appropriately.
• Validate that implemented solutions address underlying risks and establish suitable ongoing controls or monitoring.
• Set team priorities, allocate work based on business need and risk, and provide direction and oversight for high-quality, timely outcomes.
• Design reusable methods, frameworks, standards, templates, and analytical approaches for managing data across teams and domains.
• Lead, coach, and develop Lead, Senior, and other Data Governance professionals, building individual and team capability.
• Model and strengthen problem structuring, data investigation, root-cause analysis, stakeholder management, and executive communication across the team.
• Lead or influence major Commercial data initiatives involving substantial ambiguity, cross-functional dependencies, or data risk.
• Represent Commercial Data Governance in senior cross-functional forums and communicate complex data risks and recommendations in clear business terms.
• Provide ongoing direction, development, and performance management; build subject-matter expertise and accountability; and ensure execution against Commercial data governance and data-management objectives.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits programs supporting employees’ and families’ physical, financial, emotional, and social well-being.
• Eligibility to participate in an incentive compensation plan, with payment based on company, line-of-business, and/or individual performance.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior