About the Role
Enterprise Data Governance (EDG) is a high-growth function at the heart of CBRE's data transformation - and scaling it effectively requires more than great governance ideas. It requires a senior leader who owns the operational engine: the headcount strategy, the budgets, the programme portfolio, the communications, and the organizational rhythm that keeps a complex, multi-workstream function running at pace.
We're looking for a Director of EDG Operations & Programme Management to be the strategic right hand to the Head of Data Governance. This is a senior leadership role - part COO, part programme director, part communications lead - responsible for ensuring that EDG operates with the discipline, visibility, and momentum needed to deliver across a portfolio that spans the Data Catalog, Master Data, Data Quality, and client-facing governance programmes. You will hold the consolidated view of the CDO portfolio, own the financial plan, and be the person who ensures nothing important falls through the gaps.
Your First Mission (Months 1-6)
Conduct a rapid assessment of EDG's operating model - headcount strategy, programme portfolio health, budget position, and communications effectiveness. Establish a clear operating cadence and a single view of EDG function health that gives the VP and senior stakeholders real-time confidence. Identify the two or three structural gaps that most constrain EDG's ability to scale, and begin fixing them within the first quarter.
What you'll do
Team Operations
- Lead EDG's headcount strategy - own workforce planning, headcount approvals, and the full hiring lifecycle from business case through to onboarding, in partnership with HR and Talent Acquisition.
- Define and drive the EDG Learning & Development strategy - identifying capability gaps, sourcing programmes, and building a culture of continuous development across a multi-discipline team.
- Set and maintain the EDG team operating cadence - owning the bi-weekly Team Huddle, Annual Team Meeting, and senior leadership touchpoints, with clear agendas and accountable follow-through.
- Own EDG's internal knowledge infrastructure - the EDG Intranet, Team Hub, and Engage Community - ensuring they serve as genuinely useful resources, not just repositories.
Programme & Project Management
- Direct programme management across EDG's core service portfolio: Account/Client DG, SuperZoom DQ, SODA DQ, CBRE Data Catalog, and myData - maintaining a consolidated view of status, risk, and delivery across all workstreams.
- Lead business case development for new initiatives - structuring investment cases, defining success criteria, and navigating executive approval processes.
- Own EDG's resource and staffing model - making allocation decisions across concurrent programmes and proactively resolving capacity constraints.
- Govern time reporting and cost attribution across the function, ensuring accurate alignment of effort to programmes and cost centres.
- Build and maintain EDG's operational process library - standard operating procedures, governance documentation, and training materials that enable a growing team to operate consistently.
Finance & Budget Management
- Own the CDO budget end-to-end - setting the annual plan across all CDO sub-functions, managing in-year spend, producing accurate forecasts, and presenting budget performance to the CDO and D&T Finance.
- Govern cost recovery and chargeback mechanisms across CDO programmes - ensuring that internal clients, business units, and shared-service arrangements are accurately tracked and reported.
- Lead strategic tool and vendor evaluation processes - defining capability requirements across the CDO portfolio, directing commercial negotiations, and owning procurement outcomes.
- Serve as the primary financial interlock between the CDO function and EA, Cloud & Data finance - translating programme activity into budget-line accuracy and providing the CDO with decision-ready financial intelligence.
- Drive annual planning and mid-year reforecast cycles - coordinating inputs from all CDO team leads, consolidating into a coherent submission, and defending the plan in senior financial forums.
Communications & Engagement
- Lead EDG's communications strategy - designing the narrative for internal and external audiences, and ensuring programme and function messaging lands with clarity and impact.
- Represent EDG in senior forums - speaking engagements, publication authoring, and cross-divisional governance bodies - acting as a credible voice for the function.
- Own the EDG Communications & Engagement calendar, orchestrating touchpoints across Data & Analytics, EA, Cloud & Data, and Enterprise Technology to ensure alignment and reduce noise.
- Direct EDG's digital presence - Intranet, Confluence, and Engage - ensuring they reflect the function's maturity and serve as genuine enablement tools.
- Design and lead cross-team L&D initiatives - training workshops, reverse mentoring, and centralised learning resources - in strategic partnership with D&A and EA, Cloud & Data.
- Drive QBR preparation for D&A and EA, Cloud & Data leadership, ensuring EDG's contribution to the broader data narrative is well-evidenced and well-told.
What you'll need
- 8+ years in operations, programme management, or chief-of-staff roles within technology or data organisations, with at least 3 years at Director level or equivalent.
- Proven track record owning multi-million dollar budgets - comfortable setting annual plans, managing variance, and presenting financial performance to executive stakeholders.
- Strong programme director capability - able to govern a portfolio of concurrent workstreams, make resource allocation decisions, and maintain stakeholder confidence across complex delivery.
- Executive-level communication skills - able to craft and deliver compelling narratives for C-suite, business, and technical audiences, and to write with clarity across formats (exec updates, comms strategies, publications).
- Organisational design instinct - you spot structural gaps before they become delivery problems and build process that scales with the function, not just for today.
- Comfortable operating at the intersection of strategy and execution - able to engage at VP level on direction and roll up your sleeves on operational detail when it matters.
Nice-to-Haves:
- Experience in a data governance, data management, or analytics function - understanding the domain accelerates your impact.
- Familiarity with commercial real estate - knowledge of CBRE's business lines, deal lifecycle, or CRE data domains is a plus.
- Experience managing intranet or knowledge-management platforms (SharePoint, Confluence, or equivalent).
- Background coordinating L&D programmes or employee engagement initiatives at scale.
- Exposure to vendor management and technology procurement processes.
Tools & Platforms
- Data GovernanceCollibra
- DQ PlatformSODA
- Data WarehouseSnowflake
- CollaborationMicrosoft 365, Teams, SharePoint
- Programme MgmtSmartsheet / Azure DevOps
- Comms & IntranetSharePoint, Confluence, Engage
- AI PlatformEllis AI (Claude, OpenAI, Gemini)
Why CBRE? Why Now?
- Scale: Fortune 500 company managing one of the largest and most complex commercial real estate data estates in the world - the operational and programme challenge here is genuinely consequential at enterprise scale.
- Mandate: This is a Director-level seat with real authority - you will own the operating model, not just support it, with direct accountability to CDO leadership.
- Breadth: The role spans people strategy, financial governance, programme delivery, and communications - giving you rare cross-functional scope and senior visibility across D&T.
- Impact: EDG is in active build mode. You will shape how a high-profile, CDO led function operates, communicates, and scales - leaving a structural mark that outlasts any individual programme.
- Growth trajectory: Director of Operations & Programme Management today, with a clear path to leading the Enterprise Data Governance team
