AI Governance Lead

Summary

The AI Governance Lead enables NYPA's responsible AI transformation by combining governance, risk management, and data governance disciplines to accelerate AI adoption safely and effectively. The role ensures that AI initiatives are supported by trusted and well-governed data, comply with enterprise standards and regulatory expectations, and deliver business value through a structured framework that promotes innovation, accountability, and operational excellence.

A critical focus of the role is AI data readiness through governance. The individual is responsible for ensuring that the data supporting AI initiatives is trusted, high-quality, well-governed, and fit for purpose. This includes establishing data quality standards and controls, performing data readiness assessments for AI use cases, identifying and remediating data quality issues, and partnering with business and technology teams to improve the accuracy, completeness, consistency, and integrity of critical data assets. By strengthening data governance and quality practices, the role enables scalable, reliable, and trustworthy AI outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Lead meetings and working groups to develop, maintain, and implement Authority wide AI governance policies, standards of practice, and risk management processes.
• Ensure integration and enforcement of AI governance principles throughout the AI use case lifecycle, from initial intake and assessment to deployment and ongoing monitoring.
• Evaluate departmental AI usage and requests, partnering with IT and business stakeholders to guide proposals through approval, development, and operationalization.
• Maintain a comprehensive inventory of AI systems, models, and use cases using designated AI governance tools and technologies.
• Manage AI governance and risk projects, including control assessments and data readiness evaluations, to ensure data quality and compliance for AI implementation.
• Work closely with business to understand their data needs and identify data opportunities to improve the quality, metadata, to drive improvement and demonstrate the execution of the broader strategy.
• Establish and ensure adherence to enterprise data governance and quality framework for data policies, standards, and practices.
• Collaborate with data owners, data stewards, data custodians and technical owners and perform the activities associated with managing data assets, business glossary and data catalog.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Advanced knowledge in enterprise data management, including data governance, quality, and lineage principles
• Ability to lead the evaluation, integration, and optimization of data management technologies across the organization
• Possess a holistic understanding of emerging trends and practices in data management
• Knowledge of best practices and influencing organizational strategy to senior leaders
• Familiarity with cloud data platforms and governance Tools and Technologies
• Strong communication skills with senior leaders and diverse audiences, ability to bridge business and technical teams to achieve organizational goals
• Ability to execute and lead complex, multi-project initiatives, demonstrated strong organizational skills and ability to deliver results under tight deadlines

Education, Experience and Certifications

• Bachelor's degree required; Master's degree preferred.
• Minimum of 6 years of data-related experience.
• Experience as a lead/senior team player, able to manage varying priorities, projects and deadlines preferred.

Physical Requirements

Approximately 5% travel primarily within NY State