Data and AI Governance Lead

At Fidelity Life, we take pride in our role in New Zealand's Growth Story, safeguarding the way of life for New Zealanders for over 50 years. Our success contributes directly to the growth of New Zealand, through our shareholders, customers, and people, making us a unique player in the market. As a trusted and dedicated contributor to protecting New Zealanders, we invite you to join our team and make a meaningful impact. Role Overview The Data and AI Governance Lead is responsible for establishing, embedding, and continuously improving the Fidelity Life’s enterprise-wide data and AI governance frameworks to ensure data and AI assets are managed ethically, securely, compliantly, and effectively. This role provides key leadership across data quality, data ownership, metadata, privacy, risk, policy, controls, responsible AI, model governance, and regulatory compliance, enabling the organisation to maximise the value of data and AI solutions while managing risk. The role acts as the bridge between business, technology, risk, legal, privacy, security, and senior leadership to ensure governance is practical, measurable, and aligned to Fidelity Life’s winning aspiration and strategy. Key Responsibilities Lead and execute comprehensive data and AI governance strategy, framework, policies, standards, and operating model that align with organizational objectives and regulatory requirements. Establish and embed data and AI ownership, Self-service enablement, data stewardship and custodianship across critical data and AI solutions. Manage data quality and integrity: Ensure data accuracy, consistency, timeliness, uniqueness and completeness across various systems and platforms. Implement data security measures and enforce compliance with relevant regulations such as GDPR, and New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020 and internal policies Implement processes and controls to measure, track, and improve data quality for critical data elements. Establish and run governance forums such as Data and AI governance council, AI governance committee and Data quality review forums. Lead the implementation and adoption of business glossaries, metadata standards, data dictionaries, and data lineage practices. Define policies and controls for responsible AI, including fairness, accountability, transparency, explainability, safety, security, human oversight, and monitoring. Ensure AI use cases are reviewed for ethical, legal, privacy, security and operational risks. Work closely with data and AI engineering, data analytics, digital and IT teams to ensure seamless integration and governance of data and AI solutions across the organization. Oversee data and AI management processes from acquisition to disposal, ensuring proper archiving, retention, and deletion policies are in place. Track and report on key data and AI governance metrics to senior management, ensuring continuous improvement and adherence to standards. Ensure data and AI governance practices align with retention, privacy impact, model risk, third‑party risk, and cyber security requirements, particularly relevant to the insurance sector in New Zealand. Ensure timely and effective communication with project management and key stakeholder communities for the completion of data and AI governance, planning and performance reporting activities. Establish and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders. Build data literacy and AI governance awareness across the organisation. Qualifications Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, information systems, data management, or a related field. 10+ years proven experience in data governance or related roles, with a strong emphasis on embedding data governance operating model designs in a large organisation. Demonstrated experience applying AI governance principles, frameworks and practices. Relevant certifications such as DAMA Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP) or Certified Information Management Professional (CIMP) or master’s degree in data and AI governance are a plus. Experience and Skills Significant experience in data governance, data management, risk, compliance, or enterprise information management. Exposure to, or experience applying AI governance principles, frameworks and practices in a complex enterprise environment. Knowledgeable on event‑driven architectures with strong emphasis on modern cloud data architecture and relevant data and AI governance tools. Experience developing and implementing data and AI governance frameworks at enterprise scale. Demonstrated ability to lead data quality, metadata management, stewardship, privacy and controls across business and technology functions in a complex organisation. Significant experience in master and reference data management for enterprise scale data solutions. Experience with AI governance frameworks, model lifecycle controls and responsible AI practices in a financial services organisation will be an advantage. Fidelity Life is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. #J-18808-Ljbffr