Data Governance Manager

Job Description

At Aberdeen, our ambition is to be the UK’s leading Wealth & Investments group.

Strengthening talent and culture is one of our strategic priorities. We strive to make Aberdeen a great place to work so that we can attract and retain the industry’s best talent.

Our people put our stakeholders at the heart of everything they do by helping us to make a positive difference to the lives of our clients, customers, colleagues, shareholders, and society.

We are focused on growing our direct and advised wealth platforms and repositioning our specialist asset management business to meet client demand. We are committed to providing excellent client service, supported by leading technology and talent.

Aberdeen comprises three businesses, interactive investor (ii), Investments, and Adviser, each of which focuses on meeting and adapting to our clients’ evolving needs:

• interactive investor, the UK’s second largest direct-to-consumer investment platform, enables individuals in the UK to plan, save, and invest in the way that works for them.

• Our Adviser business provides financial planning solutions and technology for UK financial advisers, enabling them to create value for their customers.

• Our Investments business is a specialist asset manager that focuses on areas where we have both strength and scale to capitalise on the key themes shaping the market, through either public markets or alternative asset classes.

About the Department

The Adviser business provides support, expertise and technology for financial advisers in the UK to bring value for their businesses and their clients.

The ambition of the Adviser business is to be the easiest partner that advisers will do business with, and our purpose is to help advisory businesses thrive, so they can help their customers prosper. We will achieve our ambition by focusing on three things: helping advisers do business their way, making it easy and putting our strength to work for them.

About the Team

We’re committed to a product operating model where teams are empowered, autonomous, and accountable, giving you the freedom to innovate and own solutions from concept to delivery.

Join a forward-thinking team at the heart of Aberdeen Adviser business, where we lead the end-to-end design, discovery, and delivery of cutting-edge digital products and services for Financial Advice firms.

If you’re passionate about delivering real impact, our focus on customer and business outcomes will give you the opportunity to make a tangible difference.

You’ll be part of a team that values collaboration, autonomy, and a growth mindset, helping us stay at the forefront of the market as we design digital experiences that supercharge advice firms to delight their clients.

About the Role

We are looking for a very talented and knowledgeable Data Governance Manager to ensure we adopt and deliver best practice data governance across the Adviser business, and with our clients. They will take a pragmatic approach to ensure we understand and appropriately adopt the latest data governance and wider financial services rules and regulations, whilst enabling us to embrace the latest technology. This role will play a critical part in shaping our evolving data strategy, building trust with our clients, driving data-driven decision-making and supporting innovation within the company to facilitate growth. 

The successful candidate will play a crucial role in ensuring the integrity, security, and effective management of an organisation's data assets. They will be responsible for developing and implementing data governance frameworks, policies, and procedures to ensure data quality and compliance with regulatory requirements. This role involves collaborating with various stakeholders, including IT, legal, and business units, to establish data standards and best practices. Additionally, they oversee data stewardship activities, conduct data audits, and provide guidance on data-related issues to support strategic decision-making and enhance the overall data management capability of Aberdeen Adviser.

This opportunity is perfect for an ambitious data governance expert who wants to make their mark on the way our business operates, is comfortable with senior stakeholder interaction across multiple teams, and can collaborate and mentor more junior data professionals.

Key Responsibilities:

• Work with Head of Change and Head of Data and Analytics to evolve and implement our data governance strategy.

• Continuously improve data governance practices by staying updated with industry trends and emerging technologies.

• Ensure key data policies (e.g. Quality, Privacy, Security, lifecycle, etc.) and documents are in place and understood by the business.

• Work to ensure the Enterprise Risk Management Framework (ERMF) is maintained with all controls and issues, delivering or tracking actions to completion providing ownerships across all data governance aspects

• Ensure compliance with internal and external data governance, regulatory and security policies (e.g. GDPR, ISO, etc.).

• Work closely with all stakeholders, managing them effectively and ensuring timely and informative communication.

• Support the business to become fully data literate.

• Mentor junior team members and the wider business community.

About the Candidate

The ideal candidate will possess the following:

• Knowledge of data governance regulations (e.g., GDPR, ISO) and application in Financial Services with wider regulations (e.g., COBS, Consumer Duty).

• Expertise in the Microsoft ecosystem, including Azure, Power BI, and Fabric.

• Proficiency in core coding techniques (e.g., SQL, Excel, DAX, Python).

• Exceptional data governance knowledge.

• Outstanding communication and organisation skills.

• Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving abilities.

• Advocate for continuous learning and development.

• Skilled in mentoring data professionals and key business stakeholders.

• Extensive experience in data governance roles, including data quality management, data privacy, and regulatory compliance.

• Significant experience in data and analysis roles, including C-suite and Senior leadership stakeholder management.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. If you have a disability and would like to apply to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire. One of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.

Our benefits

There's more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported.

When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around. This includes 40 days’ annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance-based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare and a range of flexible benefits – including gym discounts, season ticket loans and access to an employee discount portal. You can read more about our benefits here.

Our business

Enabling our clients to be better investors drives everything we do. Our business is structured around three distinct areas – our vectors of growth – focused on our clients’ changing needs. You can find out more about what we do here.

An inclusive way of working

Whatever way you like to work, if you have the talent and commitment to join our team, we’d like to hear from you.

At Aberdeen we’ve adopted a ‘blended working’ approach. This approach combines the benefits of face-to-face collaboration, coaching and connecting in our offices with the flexibility of working from home. It enables colleagues to find a balance that works for their roles, their teams, our clients and our business.

An inclusive culture, where diverse perspectives drive our actions, is at the core of who we are and what we do. If you need assistance with your application, or a reasonable adjustment to your interview arrangements – for example, because you are neurodivergent, or have a physical, sensory, cognitive, mental, visible or invisible disability – please let us know and we’ll be happy to help.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace where all forms of difference are valued and which is free from any form of unfair or unlawful treatment.  We define diversity in its broadest sense – this includes but is not limited to our diversity of educational and professional backgrounds, experience, cognitive and neurodiversity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and ethnicity and geographical provenance.  We support a culture that values meritocracy, fairness and transparency and welcomes enquiries from everyone.

If you need assistance or an adjustment due to a disability please let us know as part of your application and we will assist.