Principal Data & AI Governance Architect

Kapitus is seeking a high-impact execution-oriented leader for the Principal Data & AI Governance role serving as the enterprise governance architect and primary practitioner for its Enterprise Data Governance program. Reporting to the VP Data Governance & BI within the CDAO organization this senior individual-contributor role combines enterprise framework design functional leadership and direct operationalization.

The role will architect and operationalize Kapituss enterprise Data Governance framework while establishing the initial risk-based Model & AI Governance capability. The successful candidate will translate governance policy and standards into adoptable operating practices and increasingly automated controls across data analytics reporting machine learning generative AI AI-enabled workflows and applicable third-party AI services.

This is a Player-Architect role for a leader who balances strategic framework design with direct operational delivery. The role defines governance requirements control objectives evidence expectations and acceptance criteria; engineering and platform teams implement and operate associated technical controls. The Principal partners closely with those teams to ensure controls are practical appropriately designed and demonstrably operating as intended.

What You Will Do

• Architect and operationalize Kapituss enterprise Data Governance framework including policies standards decision rights escalation and exception processes evidence requirements governance reporting and operating cadences.
• Design and activate a federated governance model that enables Business Data Owners Business Data Stewards and Technical Data Custodians to apply enterprise standards within their domains.
• Build durable internal governance capability by codifying standards operating practices stewardship guidance workflows and decision records that reduce dependency on external consulting support over time.
• Establish governance practices for critical data assets including business glossary Critical Data Elements metadata lineage data contracts data classification retention lifecycle and certification.
• Define the enterprise Data Quality framework including quality dimensions business rules monitoring expectations issue and remediation practices risk reporting and risk-based release or promotion criteria.
• Partner with Data Engineering Analytics Engineering BI Product and Enterprise Architecture to embed governance requirements in data products dashboards reports semantic models and analytical delivery processes.
• Serve as the functional product owner for Atlan and related governance capabilities defining business priorities workflows adoption requirements and evidence needs in partnership with Governance Platform Engineering.
• Establish and operationalize a risk-based Model & AI Governance framework covering analytical models machine learning generative AI AI-enabled workflows agentic AI use cases and applicable third-party AI services.
• Define proportionate model and AI lifecycle requirements for intake and risk tiering inventory and ownership documentation review and approval controlled implementation monitoring material change issues and exceptions and retirement. Define governance expectations for model and AI evaluation evidence; performance drift and outcome monitoring where applicable; approved-data use; grounding and retrieval for generative-AI use cases; logging access controls traceability human oversight and incident response.
• Establish risk-based expectations for agentic AI including autonomy levels tool and action permissions human-in-the-loop or human-on-the-loop oversight evaluation evidence and audit trails.
• Partner with Risk Compliance Legal Information Security Procurement Product Operations and technical teams to align governance requirements with enterprise risk and third-party risk practices. This role does not replace independent model validation where such validation is required.

What You Bring

• 10 years of experience in Data Governance Data Management Data Quality or related data disciplines including demonstrated success building or materially maturing enterprise governance capabilities.
• Experience developing federated stewardship programs governance operating models policies standards workflows decision rights and governance forums.
• Strong practical knowledge of business glossary design metadata management data cataloging data lineage Critical Data Elements Data Quality data classification retention lifecycle management and certification; Atlan experience is preferred.
• Working knowledge of model and AI lifecycle governance including inventory risk tiering ownership documentation evaluation monitoring change management and evidence expectations.
• Direct experience in commercial or small-business lending banking fintech payments insurance or another similarly regulated financial-services environment is strongly preferred. Ability to engage credibly with business risk and control stakeholders on financial-services data reporting and governance requirements.
• Modern data-platform fluency including Snowflake dbt Tableau Power BI Sigma semantic layers metadata/catalog platforms data-quality monitoring and automated lineage.
• Working knowledge of machine-learning lifecycle concepts and modern AI patterns including generative AI retrieval-augmented generation evaluation monitoring AI-enabled workflows and proportionate human-oversight practices.
• Exceptional communication and influence skills with the ability to translate governance requirements into practical repeatable processes and implementable controls for executives business stakeholders engineers risk partners and auditors.
• A bachelors degree in a relevant field or equivalent relevant experience is preferred; a masters degree is a plus.
• Relevant certifications such as CDMP or IAPP AIGP and NIST AI RMF or ISO/IEC 42001 training are valued but are not required or substitutes for demonstrated implementation experience.

Kapitus Total Rewards Package Includes:

• Competitive Base Salary Rangeof $117800 to $189000. Kapitus is providing this as a good faith salary range to comply with applicable law. The applicants final salary will depend on a number of factors including the applicants geographic location skills and experience
• Annual Incentive Compensation Eligibility Up to 10% annually.