AI Governance Lead
The AI Governance Lead is the senior operational owner of the organisation's AI governance programme – building and maintaining the framework, owning the AI inventory, leading risk assessments, managing vendor due diligence, and coordinating the cross-functional AI Governance Committee. Where a Chief AI Officer exists, this role reports to them; where none exists, it is the primary accountability for AI governance, typically reporting into Legal, Compliance, Risk, or the CIO. The IAPP finds that AI governance professionals are most commonly embedded in ethics, compliance, privacy, or legal functions rather than in a standalone AI team. This is the most commonly recruited senior AI governance role in the market and the typical commissioning contact for AI knowledge governance and retrieval work.
Also known as
- Head of Responsible AI
- Director of AI Governance
- Head of AI Policy
- Responsible AI Lead
- Head of AI Risk and Ethics
- AI Governance and Compliance Lead
- Senior Manager of AI Governance
- AI Governance Programme Manager
Primary responsibilties
- Builds, implements, and maintains the organisation's AI governance framework, policies, and standards
- Owns the AI inventory cataloguing all AI systems in use, their risk classification, and compliance status
- Leads AI risk assessments for new and existing use cases under the EU AI Act and internal policy
- Oversees DPIA and FRIA processes for AI systems processing personal data or classified as high-risk
- Manages vendor due diligence for third-party AI tools ensuring procurement addresses AI accountability
- Coordinates the cross-functional AI Governance Committee across Legal, Compliance, IT, and business units
- Acts as the primary point of contact for regulatory engagement and board reporting on AI governance
Related teams
Skills profile
Apprentice
Practitioner
Master
Intranet and digital workplace
Social and collaboration management
User experience design
Content and communication
Technology and IT management
Outline job description
The AI Governance Lead is the senior operational owner of the organisation's AI governance programme: building and maintaining the framework, owning the AI inventory, leading risk assessments, managing vendor due diligence, and coordinating the cross-functional governance committee. It's the most commonly recruited senior AI governance role in the market right now.
About the role
Where a Chief AI Officer exists, you'll report to them. Where none exists, you're likely the primary accountability for AI governance in the organisation, typically sitting within Legal, Compliance, Risk, or a dedicated AI team. Either way, you'll be building something: most organisations recruiting this role are early in their governance maturity, and a significant part of the job is creating the infrastructure from scratch while managing immediate compliance obligations.
What you'll actually be doing
You'll be building and running the governance programme end-to-end: designing the framework, maintaining the AI inventory, leading risk assessments under the EU AI Act, overseeing DPIA and FRIA processes, and managing the vendor due diligence programme for third-party AI tools. You'll also be coordinating the cross-functional AI Governance Committee, which means getting Legal, Compliance, IT, and business units aligned and working together effectively.
When it comes to regulators and the board, you'll be the primary point of contact: preparing reporting, managing regulatory engagement, and making sure senior leadership has the information they need to exercise proper oversight.
What we're looking for
Senior experience in governance, risk, compliance, or legal roles, with direct exposure to AI or technology risk. The ability to design and implement a governance framework end-to-end and navigate the organisational politics of doing so across a complex institution. Strong working knowledge of the EU AI Act, GDPR, NIST AI RMF, and ISO/IEC 42001. Experience engaging with regulators or managing regulatory examination is an advantage.
Typical background
Most people in this role come from legal operations, risk management, data protection, or compliance leadership backgrounds. IAPP AI Governance Professional (AIGP) or equivalent qualification is increasingly expected. Experience in regulated sectors is common.
Errors? Disagreements? Omissions?
We have hopefully created these exemplars with thought and care. It is not the only way of looking at these roles and teams in the world, and relates specifically to the intranet and digital workplance profession. It therefore concentrates on some things and ignores others.
If you find an error, disagree wholeheartly or feel there is a glaring ommission we'd love to know.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.