Vice President, Data Governance & Strategy

Universal Music Group•Rockford, IL

About The Position

We are UMG, the Universal Music Group. We are the world’s leading music company. In everything we do, we are committed to artistry, innovation and entrepreneurship. We own and operate a broad array of businesses engaged in recorded music, music publishing, merchandising, and audiovisual content in more than 60 countries. We identify and develop recording artists and songwriters, and we produce, distribute and promote the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful music to delight and entertain fans around the world. How You’ll Lead: The Vice President, Data Governance & Strategy is a senior executive leader responsible for defining and operationalizing a comprehensive enterprise data governance and data strategy across UMG. This role ensures that critical data assets—spanning music rights, royalties, digital consumption, fan engagement, e-commerce and merchandise (online and on-tour), physical products, and artist development—are accurate, trusted, compliant, and strategically leveraged. Operating at the intersection of business strategy, technology, privacy, and partnerships, the VP champions a data-driven culture and enables scalable, compliant data usage that fuels monetization, fan growth, and innovation in a rapidly evolving global music ecosystem. How You’ll Create: Strategic Leadership Define and drive the enterprise data strategy to support business growth, monetization of music assets, and fan engagement. Identify and assess new fan data sources and partnership opportunities aligned with the enterprise data strategy, accounting for label and regional differences. Align data initiatives with music industry trends, business priorities, and evolving digital platforms, including streaming, social platforms, AI-enabled services, and emerging distribution models. Partner with C-level executives and senior leaders across Legal, Finance, Marketing, Commercial, HR, and Technology to integrate data insights into strategic and operational decision-making. Serve as a trusted executive advisor on data value, risk, and opportunity across the organization. Data Governance Develop and implement a robust, scalable data governance framework covering: Fan, CRM, and e-commerce data Digital consumption and DSP reporting Artist, repertoire, and product metadata Financial, royalty, and rights data Establish clear data ownership, stewardship, quality standards, and accountability models across business units and regions. Standardize data definitions and identifiers (e.g., ISRC, ISWC, IPI) to ensure consistency, transparency, and auditability across systems and partners. Ensure compliance with global music rights regulations, licensing requirements, and data privacy laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA), in close partnership with Legal, Privacy, and Security teams. Collaboration & Enablement Work cross-functionally with legal, operations, analytics, product, and technology teams to operationalize governance standards through platforms, processes, and workflows. Promote data literacy, stewardship, and accountability across departments and business units. Lead organizational change to position data as a managed enterprise asset, enabling trusted insights and scalable innovation. Technology, Innovation & Future-Readiness Evaluate, select, and deploy enterprise data governance and cataloging technologies supporting discovery, classification, lineage, quality monitoring, and access controls. Drive automation and scalability in data ingestion, normalization, and reconciliation from digital platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, TikTok, and emerging channels. AI Readiness, Responsible AI & Privacy by Design Facilitate in establishing AI-ready data foundations, ensuring data used for advanced analytics, machine learning, and generative AI is accurate, well-governed, traceable, and ethically sourced. Partner with Legal, Privacy, Security, and Technology teams to define and operationalize AI governance frameworks, including controls for data usage, consent, provenance, bias mitigation, explainability, and auditability. Embed privacy-by-design and privacy-by-default principles into AI-enabled initiatives involving fan, artist, and partner data, ensuring compliance with global privacy regulations and contractual obligations. Play an active role in defining policies and guardrails for the responsible use of generative AI across the music lifecycle, including metadata enrichment, rights identification, royalty processing, fan engagement, marketing optimization, and internal productivity tools. Assess and mitigate risks related to AI-driven data sharing, automated decision-making, synthetic data, and data leakage, while enabling innovation that supports monetization, efficiency, and trust. Stay informed on emerging technologies such as AI/ML, blockchain, smart contracts, NFTs, and next-generation rights management, and evaluate their implications for music data governance, licensing, and revenue models.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Data Science, Music Business, or a related field; Master’s degree or MBA preferred.
10+ years of progressive experience in data governance, data strategy, information management, or digital rights management—preferably within music, media, or entertainment.
Deep understanding of music rights, publishing, royalties, and global distribution models.
Strong familiarity with industry standards and ecosystems, including DDEX, ISRC, ISWC, IPI, and global licensing organizations.
Hands-on experience with data governance, catalog, and rights/royalty platforms (e.g., Collibra, Informatica, SynchTank, Vistex, Revelator or similar).
Proven ability to operate at the executive level, influencing across technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Track record of driving enterprise-wide data transformation and cultural change.
Exceptional communication, storytelling, and stakeholder-management skills.
Visionary leadership at the intersection of data, music, and innovation
Strong grasp of digital music consumption, fan data, and data monetization models
Compliance-minded, detail-oriented, with a pragmatic business lens
Ability to align diverse teams and priorities in a complex, global organization

Responsibilities

Define and drive the enterprise data strategy to support business growth, monetization of music assets, and fan engagement.
Identify and assess new fan data sources and partnership opportunities aligned with the enterprise data strategy, accounting for label and regional differences.
Align data initiatives with music industry trends, business priorities, and evolving digital platforms, including streaming, social platforms, AI-enabled services, and emerging distribution models.
Partner with C-level executives and senior leaders across Legal, Finance, Marketing, Commercial, HR, and Technology to integrate data insights into strategic and operational decision-making.
Serve as a trusted executive advisor on data value, risk, and opportunity across the organization.
Develop and implement a robust, scalable data governance framework covering: Fan, CRM, and e-commerce data Digital consumption and DSP reporting Artist, repertoire, and product metadata Financial, royalty, and rights data
Establish clear data ownership, stewardship, quality standards, and accountability models across business units and regions.
Standardize data definitions and identifiers (e.g., ISRC, ISWC, IPI) to ensure consistency, transparency, and auditability across systems and partners.
Ensure compliance with global music rights regulations, licensing requirements, and data privacy laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA), in close partnership with Legal, Privacy, and Security teams.
Work cross-functionally with legal, operations, analytics, product, and technology teams to operationalize governance standards through platforms, processes, and workflows.
Promote data literacy, stewardship, and accountability across departments and business units.
Lead organizational change to position data as a managed enterprise asset, enabling trusted insights and scalable innovation.
Evaluate, select, and deploy enterprise data governance and cataloging technologies supporting discovery, classification, lineage, quality monitoring, and access controls.
Drive automation and scalability in data ingestion, normalization, and reconciliation from digital platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, TikTok, and emerging channels.
Facilitate in establishing AI-ready data foundations, ensuring data used for advanced analytics, machine learning, and generative AI is accurate, well-governed, traceable, and ethically sourced.
Partner with Legal, Privacy, Security, and Technology teams to define and operationalize AI governance frameworks, including controls for data usage, consent, provenance, bias mitigation, explainability, and auditability.
Embed privacy-by-design and privacy-by-default principles into AI-enabled initiatives involving fan, artist, and partner data, ensuring compliance with global privacy regulations and contractual obligations.
Play an active role in defining policies and guardrails for the responsible use of generative AI across the music lifecycle, including metadata enrichment, rights identification, royalty processing, fan engagement, marketing optimization, and internal productivity tools.
Assess and mitigate risks related to AI-driven data sharing, automated decision-making, synthetic data, and data leakage, while enabling innovation that supports monetization, efficiency, and trust.
Stay informed on emerging technologies such as AI/ML, blockchain, smart contracts, NFTs, and next-generation rights management, and evaluate their implications for music data governance, licensing, and revenue models.

Benefits

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
Including 100% coverage for out-patient in-network mental health services
Fertility coverage for eligible medical plan participants
Wellbeing reimbursements for fitness classes, spa treatments, meal services, travel, and so much more (up to $720/year)
Student Loan Repayment Assistance and Tuition Reimbursement
401(k) with 100% immediate vesting on the first 5% of your contributions, plus an additional UMG contribution
A variety of ways to prioritize much-needed time away from work including:
Flexible Paid Time Off (PTO) for exempt employees
3-weeks PTO for non-exempt employees
2-weeks paid Winter Break
10 Company Holidays (including Juneteenth and Wellbeing Day)
Summer Fridays (between Memorial Day and Labor Day)
Generous paid parental leave for every type of parent