Director Research Data Governance

In collaboration with institutional leadership and key stakeholders, the Director of Research Data Governance will develop, implement, and enhance a comprehensive data governance program spanning foundational science, translational research, clinical research, clinical care, and enterprise analytics. The successful candidate will own the research data governance vertical (foundational and translational research) and collaborate with other institutional functions to support data governance across the remaining verticals. The candidate will align the research governance operating model with existing enterprise governance bodies and decision-rights structures to ensure consistent escalation paths and reporting across domains.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is where those with a passion for making a difference come to break new ground. Located in Memphis, Tennessee, St. Jude leads the way the world understands, treats, and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases through groundbreaking research and compassionate care.
We are seeking a highly motivated Director of Research Data Governance to lead the institution’s research data governance strategy and its efforts in responsible data stewardship, governance, and enablement across foundational and translational research, positioning trusted research data as an accelerator of scientific discovery and AI readiness.
Vision and Impact
The Director of Research Data Governance will champion a culture in which data is recognized as a trusted institutional asset, driving innovation, compliance, and translational impact. This role will:
Unify foundational and translational research data governance under a single vision.
Articulate and champion the institutional business case for research data governance, demonstrating how trusted data assets increase the quantity and quality of multidisciplinary research, accelerate scientific discovery, reduce duplicative effort and expenditure, and unlock scalable AI/ML capabilities.
Recognize that effective research data sharing depends on trust, clear expectations, stewardship, and collaboration, and on pairing data with the expertise of those who generated it.
Empower scientists, analysts, and administrators to become active stewards of data.
Collaborate with clinical research, clinical, administrative and operations counterparts to establish unified methodologies and vertical accountability.
Enable AI- and ML-ready datasets with transparent provenance and governance.
Complete foundational work ahead of broad AI expansion, establishing governance, catalog, and identifier standards as prerequisites to scaling AI-enabled science.
Build trust and interoperability across institutional data ecosystems.
In collaboration with institutional leadership and key stakeholders, the Director of Research Data Governance will develop, implement, and enhance a comprehensive data governance program spanning foundational science, translational research, clinical research, clinical care, and enterprise analytics. The successful candidate will own the research data governance vertical (foundational and translational research) and collaborate with other institutional functions to support data governance across the remaining verticals. The candidate will align the research governance operating model with existing enterprise governance bodies and decision-rights structures to ensure consistent escalation paths and reporting across domains.
Reporting to the Vice President of Data Sciences & Chief of Artificial Intelligence, and partnering closely with the Senior Director of Data Science, this leader will:
Establish a culture of data stewardship for research by working closely with data generators and data custodians to develop data-sharing practices that couple access to data with the domain expertise of those who generated it.
Build a core team of 2-3 people within the Office of Data Science that acts as the central hub of a federated model, establishing, training, and empowering a network of departmental data stewards across departments and Shared Resources, and takes on data governance roles and duties, including the adoption of standards, education, and reporting.
Build and operationalize policies, processes, and technologies to ensure data is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR), secure, and compliant.
Foster the medallion system for data maturity (bronze, silver, gold) and encourage a shared mindset among researchers to prioritize and generate high-quality, reusable data products.
Lead institutional efforts to standardize governance across research domains.
Align governance practices with institutional IS, privacy, security, and compliance standards.
Promote a culture of data stewardship, education, and accountability to support research excellence.
Collaborate with institutional leaders to embed governance practices into scientific workflows and analytics programs.
Co-design with institutional leadership incentives at the department, program, and institution levels to foster data stewardship that accelerates the translation of research into tangible patient outcome improvements and operational efficiencies.
Key Relationships
Senior Vice President and Chief Data Scientist
Senior Vice President and Deputy of the Scientific Director, responsible for Shared Resources
Executive Vice President and Scientific Director
Key personnel running Data-Intensive Projects and Data Governance programs, including
Vice President of Analytics and Information Services
Director of Data and Analytics Program Governance
Chief Information Security Officer
Institutional Review Board Chair
Chief Data Protection Officer
St. Jude Global Data Governance Lead
Biomedical Library
Senior Vice President of Technology Commercialization
Office of General Counsel and functions therein
Chair of the St. Jude Unique Identifier Committee
St. Jude Unique Identifier Governance Council members
Chair of the Data Brokers Committee
International Data Access Governance Council members
Clinical Research Informatics
Chief Information Officer
Chief Medical Informatics Officer
Vice President of Research Information Services
Key Personnel Who Generate Data, Including
All St. Jude Centers of Excellence and Shared Resources, in particular:
Biorepository and Tissue Bank
Biostatistics Shared Resource
Center for Applied Bioinformatics
Center for Biomedical Informatics
Center for Proteomics and Metabolomics
Center for Spatial Omics
Hartwell Center
Microbial Biorepository
Biostatistics Department Chair
Center for Applied Bioinformatics Director
Clinical Genomics Division Director
Comprehensive Omics and Molecular Evaluation Team Leads
Computational Biology Department Chair
Developmental Neurobiology Department Chair
DISCOVER Directors
DIVIA / Planet9 Global Data Generators
Epidemiology and Cancer Control Department Chair
Good Manufacturing Practice Director
Hematology Department Chair
Imaging Sciences Department Chair
Pathology Department Chair
Radiology Department Chair
Radiation Oncology Department Chair
St. Jude Cloud Controlled Access Committee
St. Jude Cloud Technical Leads
All stakeholders of the Data Science Committee
The Director will be responsible for:
Governance: Define the research data governance strategy, rooted in institutional scientific priorities and in the business processes and success metrics of key stakeholders, and scope the governance program to serve it. Drive business case development, value-realization tracking, and executive advocacy for foundational data initiatives, translating governance activities into measurable institutional impact (e.g., accelerated study startup, reduced data-wrangling overhead, and cross-departmental data reuse). Map institutional Data Governance Efforts. Develop and implement a Research Data Governance Charter aligned with institutional and regulatory standards (FAIR, HIPAA, GDPR, DAMA-DMBOK, NIST). Constitute a cross-functional Research Data Governance Working Group (spanning ODS, Information Services, Compliance, Legal, Clinical Operations, and departmental representatives), operating within the Data Science Committee, and endorse the governance charter within 90 days of the Working Group convening. Publish a cross-domain operating model for decision rights, escalation, and reporting that interfaces cleanly with enterprise and domain governance. Maintain a multi-year governance roadmap supporting mission and compliance objectives.
Data Catalog: Create and maintain the Research Data Catalog to ensure consistent data definitions, quality, and stewardship practices, and to establish a standard RACI for owner, steward, and custodian responsibilities for priority datasets. Where possible, generalize proven governance and operational practices from existing institutional projects as reference implementations to reduce duplication rather than building new systems from scratch.
Engagement: Advise on research data governance, privacy, and ethics. Facilitate stakeholder workshops and deliver data education and governance training. Represent St. Jude in external standards organizations and collaborate with institutional partners to uphold ethical and legal standards.
Technology Enablement: Lead adoption of governance technologies (e.g., Microsoft Purview, ServiceNow). Make the catalog the default front door for research data discovery by defining a minimum metadata standard for priority datasets and a publication checklist. Integrate access request workflows with catalog asset identifiers, routing to recorded owners and stewards, with audit-ready logging. Define metadata and automation standards across research systems. Drive convergence on consistent patient, specimen, study, and project identifiers across major clinical and research systems as a prerequisite to integration. Monitor and report key governance metrics. Partner with architects to embed governance in solution development. Extend discoverability beyond datasets to tools, platforms, and subject-matter expertise through lightweight registries or directories that connect data, resources, and experts.
Data Ethics & Compliance: Create and enforce policies for compliant data use, supporting privacy and reproducibility frameworks. Enable compliant data sharing and collaboration by implementing risk tiering for access requests (for example, low-risk aggregated, de-identified, limited datasets, and sensitive datasets) with clear approval paths, plus periodic access review and recertification for sensitive datasets. Publish and track a Data Access Service Level Agreement with target cycle times by risk tier (for example, 5, 15, and 30 business days) and report performance against those targets.
Team Leadership & Talent Development: Build and mentor a high-performing data governance team. Provide professional growth opportunities and conduct performance reviews. Foster a culture of inclusion, transparency, and service excellence.
Training & Change Management: Develop tailored governance training materials and programs. Lead change management efforts to drive research data governance adoption and engagement across the organization. Operate this as an iterative, transparent process, regularly sharing progress, pilots, and lessons back to the research community to sustain momentum and shared ownership.
Minimum Education and/or Training:
Bachelor's degree in business administration, computer science, data science, information science, or related field required.
Master's degree preferred.
Minimum Experience:
Minimum requirement: 10+ significant years experience in an IT functional area with experience managing mid-large teams with focus on both achievement of objectives as well as critical skill-building.
Experience having led large-scale projects/processes through to implementation.
Experience with operational mgmt., budget planning & vendors and resource mgmt.
Prior experience in building external connections with peers, emerging technology communities, and vendor networks.
Proven performance in earlier role/comparable role.
Preferred Qualifications
Advanced degree in Information Science, Biomedical Informatics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field.
10+ years of experience in data governance, data management, or research informatics.
5+ years in leadership roles overseeing cross-functional governance or stewardship programs.
Demonstrated experience in research data cataloging.
Demonstrated success with metadata management, cataloging, and stewardship using tools such as Microsoft Purview, or comparable platforms.
Strong knowledge of data governance frameworks, data quality principles, and compliance standards (such as HIPAA, FAIR, or similar).
Experience with healthcare or biomedical research environments preferred.
Proven ability to translate technical concepts for senior faculty and executives, manage conflict, and negotiate consensus.
Proven track record of building compelling business cases for data governance and communicating value propositions to executive leadership, department chairs, and principal investigators.
Experience recruiting, mentoring, and inspiring data talent pools.
Experience with AI/ML model governance, research reproducibility, or metadata registries (ISO 11179).
Familiarity with ontologies and data standards (e.g., FHIR, SNOMED, UMLS, LOINC, Gene Ontology, NIH Common Data Elements, or others).
Experience with research data management plans.
Knowledge of Agile project management and experience leading enterprise governance initiatives.
Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP) or equivalent credential.
Compensation
In recognition of certain U.S. state and municipal pay transparency laws, St. Jude is including a reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role. This is an estimate offered in good faith and a specific salary offer takes into account factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets, experience and training, licensure and certifications, and other business and organizational needs. It is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the salary range and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current salary range is $138,320 - $262,080 per year for the role of Director Research Data Governance.
Explore our exceptional benefits!
We are committed to a human-centered hiring experience. Technology may support portions of our process, but recruiting decisions involve human review and engagement. Learn more about our approach to AI.
St. Jude is an Equal Opportunity Employer
No Search Firms
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. Please do not call or email. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee or other representative at St. Jude via email, the internet or in any form and/or method without a valid written search agreement in place and approved by HR will result in no fee being paid in the event the candidate is hired by St. Jude.