Senior Director of Data

Job Description

ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN FINANCE BOARD

The Campaign Finance Board is a nonpartisan, independent city agency that empowers New Yorkers to have a greater impact on their elections. Our mission is to make local democracy more open, transparent, and equitable by removing barriers to participation.

We make it easier for New Yorkers to vote, meaningfully support candidates for city office, and run for office themselves. NYC Votes, our voter engagement initiative, meets people where they are to share trustworthy election information and help New Yorkers make a plan to vote. We publish the citywide Voter Guide, which delivers information about candidates directly to voters’ doors. Our public matching funds program ensures small contributions can make a big difference, allowing regular people to run for office by relying on the support of other regular people, not just wealthy donors and special interests. And we lift the veil on how candidates raise and spend money, increasing transparency and accountability in local government.

We believe that when every New Yorker is empowered to participate meaningfully in elections, candidates will better reflect the communities they serve, elected leaders will be more accountable to the public, and New Yorkers will have a democracy they can truly trust.

ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT

The Strategy, Products, and Innovation division leads the agency’s strategic planning and policy work, partnering across the agency to test and implement new ideas. The division also develops and delivers the agency’s product roadmap, maintaining and modernizing the systems that support our work in future elections.

The new Data department will ensure that the agency’s information is trustworthy, well governed, protected, and ready to use. As the agency moves to a modern cloud platform and data lakehouse and explores responsible uses of AI, the department will set the standards for how data is classified, managed, and maintained. It will bring together data governance, privacy, records management, open data, and AI assurance, and work closely with engineering teams, which build to these standards, and with staff across the agency who rely on data to do their work.

The department will be built in phases. In the near term, the Senior Director of Data will welcome the Records, Data & Information unit into the department, establish the data governance program alongside the agency’s cloud migration, and build strong workflows across these disciplines. Over the next few years, the department will grow to include a data science capability that supports the agency’s mission and strategic goals.

JOB DESCRIPTION

The NYC Campaign Finance Board is seeking an experienced and strategic Senior Director of Data (SDD) to lead the agency’s data governance, privacy, information management, records and public disclosure, and artificial intelligence (AI) assurance functions. The SDD will establish and oversee the frameworks, standards, policies, and controls necessary to ensure that agency data is trustworthy, secure, appropriately governed, legally compliant, and suitable for operational, analytical, research, and public-disclosure purposes.

This position will lead the agency’s data strategy across structured and unstructured data environments, oversee governance of the data lakehouse and cloud-migration initiatives, strengthen the agency’s privacy program, and ensure appropriate management of records and Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) production. The role will also establish an independent AI assurance function to evaluate data readiness, privacy, fairness, transparency, and accountability before AI use cases are authorized for production and while they remain operational.

The successful candidate will combine strategic leadership, sound governance judgment, technical fluency, and the ability to build new capabilities while strengthening established teams. The position works in partnership with senior leadership, data engineering, legal, records, product, and other cross-functional stakeholders.

Role Expectations

This is a strategic governance and organizational leadership position, not a hands-on data engineering role. The successful candidate must be able to establish governance standards, influence peer engineering leaders, exercise independent judgment on AI assurance, and build effective programs and teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and oversee enterprise data governance frameworks, including data classification, quality, metadata, lineage, and retention standards.

• Establish and lead the agency’s privacy and information-governance program, including sensitive-data protection, data loss prevention (DLP), and disclosure screening.

• Oversee records management, FOIL/public-records production, retention schedules, and proactive open-data disclosure.

• Lead independent AI assurance reviews covering data readiness, privacy, bias, fairness, transparency, and accountability.

• Govern data platforms, cloud migration, and data lakehouse initiatives by establishing standards and reviewing technical and vendor deliverables.

• Partner with engineering leadership to ensure data solutions meet governance requirements while maintaining appropriate separation between governance and technical implementation.

• Build and strengthen governance, privacy, and records functions; lead team integration, workforce planning, staff development, and performance management.

• Develop long-term data strategy and a roadmap for future in-house data science and predictive modeling capabilities.

• Advise executive leadership on data risks, compliance, governance priorities, and organizational strategy.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field; an advanced degree in data, information management, law, public policy, or a related discipline is preferred.

• 10+ years of experience in data governance, privacy, records management, or related information-governance functions, including 5+ years of team leadership.

• Demonstrated experience developing and implementing enterprise data governance frameworks and holding technical teams accountable to established standards.

• Experience building or improving privacy, information-governance, records-management, or compliance programs.

• Knowledge of AI/ML governance, data readiness, bias and fairness assessment, and responsible AI assurance.

• Familiarity with data lakehouses, cloud governance platforms, DLP, and relevant FedRAMP/NIST-aligned requirements.

• Strong understanding of records retention, public-records disclosure, and statutory or regulatory compliance.

• Excellent leadership, communication, stakeholder-management, documentation, and strategic planning skills.

• Public-sector, regulated-industry, or comparable governance experience is strongly preferred.

ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES & OTHER BEHAVIORS (KSAOs)

We're seeking individuals eager to make an impact, even if they don't tick every box on our job description. We believe in the power of diverse perspectives and the unique blend of lived experiences, non-traditional education pathways, practical know-how, and a variety of skills and abilities that each candidate brings to the table. If you're ready to learn and grow with us, we encourage you to apply and be part of our dynamic team.

Knowledge

• Comprehensive understanding of enterprise data governance frameworks, including data classification, data quality, metadata, lineage, and retention across structured and unstructured data environments.

• Knowledge of privacy and information governance, sensitive-information protection, data loss prevention, and regulatory compliance.

• Understanding of records management, retention schedules, public-records disclosure, and FOIL or comparable statutory disclosure requirements.

• Knowledge of AI/ML assurance principles, including data readiness, bias and fairness assessment, privacy, and accountability.

…