EY - GDS Consulting - AI and DATA - GDS DO Green Lanes Lead - Executive Director

Role title: GDS DO Green Lanes Lead

About the AI Ready Data Function:

EY aspires to become the world’s most trusted AI-powered professional services firm, delivering transformative value to clients and employees. Leveraging its extensive data across finance, legal, HR, and core business operations, EY is uniquely positioned to accelerate its data strategy and unlock new opportunities for growth and protection of its business.

To achieve this vision, all Service Lines and global regions must collaborate on strategic priorities aligned with EY’s “All In” goal: safeguarding the current US$50B revenue base while generating the next US$50B. Central to this effort is advancing data management across its lifecycle to enhance existing services and create innovative offerings.

EY’s AI Ready Data Strategy—led by Applied Innovation (Joe Depa) and the Global Data Office (CDO - Richard Clough)—is the foundation for this transformation. The Data Office drives applied innovation by redefining how data is discovered, managed, utilized, and scaled. A key enabler is the development of an enterprise data platform supported by robust governance, unlocking the full potential of EY’s data assets to fuel innovation and deliver next-level client service.

About the Delivery Team:

The Green Lanes delivery team sits at the intersection of governance, risk, and innovation enablement within the Global Data Office. The team’s mandate is to operationalize governance controls across the full data lifecycle, enabling speed, scale, and compliance for the EY.ai Marketplace and broader data ecosystem.

This role represents a foundational leadership position, responsible for establishing the Green Lanes capability, defining operating models, and scaling a dedicated governance delivery team within GDS. This role offers a unique opportunity to design and implement new governance processes and “green lane” mechanisms where no mature playbooks currently exist, while leveraging EY’s existing governance, risk, and control frameworks.

Position Summary:

• The GDS DO Green Lanes Lead is a strategic governance execution leader responsible for designing, operationalizing, and scaling governance mechanisms that enable safe and accelerated data usage across EY’s AI and data platforms.
• This role works in close partnership with Trusted Data Governance and enterprise stakeholders to translate policy, risk, and control requirements into practical, scalable operating models, ensuring governance acts as an enabler of innovation rather than a constraint.
• The role will initially operate in a hands-on, individual contributor capacity, establishing frameworks, processes, and controls, with a clear mandate to build and lead a dedicated team as adoption and demand scale.
• The position directly supports EY’s AI Ready Data Strategy by increasing speed to market, expanding scope of governed data usage, and strengthening trust in the data marketplace.

Key Objectives & Scope

• Lead Global Data Office implementation of governance controls for the EY.ai Marketplace.
• Establish Green Lanes as a repeatable, trusted governance execution model across the data lifecycle.
• Drive measurable improvements in speed, scalability, and operational efficiency of governance processes.
• Build and scale a high-performing governance delivery team within GDS.

Strategic Impact

This role directly supports EY’s AI Ready Data Strategy by:

• Increasing speed and scope of governed data adoption.
• Enabling scalable use of data across the EY.ai Marketplace.
• Strengthening trust and control across the full data lifecycle.
• Establishing a new, durable governance capability within the Global Data Office.

Essential Responsibilities of the Job:

• Act as the primary owner for Green Lanes governance execution within the Global Data Office.
• Design and implement end-to-end governance operating models, including intake, review, approval, exception handling, and ongoing monitoring.
• Translate stakeholder-defined governance and risk requirements into practical, auditable, and scalable controls.
• Partner with the Data Stewardship Office, General Counsel’s Office, Risk Management, Service Line Quality, Service Line Data Offices, and Super Region Data Officers to ensure alignment and consistency.
• Collaborate closely with Trusted Data Governance to ensure controls are embedded into platform and marketplace operations.
• Provide hands-on leadership during the initial phase while supervising and developing a team of Green Lanes resources.
• Define future-state team structure, capability requirements, and scaling roadmap as AI Ready Data adoption expands.

Analytical/Decision Making Responsibilities:

• Convert high-level governance and control expectations into workable operational solutions.
• Apply sound judgment to balance risk, compliance, speed, and business enablement.
• Identify gaps, inefficiencies, or blockers in current governance execution and drive continuous improvement.
• Influence senior stakeholders through fact-based, solution-oriented recommendations.

Knowledge and Skills Requirements:

• Strong experience in data governance, risk, or enterprise control environments.
• Demonstrated ability to design and operationalize governance frameworks, not limited to policy creation.
• Proven experience implementing and testing risk and control frameworks in complex, global organizations.
• Experience working closely with legal, risk, and quality functions, without being a pure legal or privacy specialist.
• Prior people leadership experience, with the ability to build and scale a team.
• Strong stakeholder management skills across global and matrixed environments.

Education & Experience:

• Background in Data Governance, Data Protection/Privacy, Risk, or Enterprise Governance frameworks
• Experience within large professional services organizations strongly preferred.
• Track record of translating governance strategy into execution at scale.