VP Data

As a Senior Leader reporting directly to the Chief Product and Technology Officer, this role will be responsible for owning and driving RWS’s global data strategy and operating model. The successful candidate will lead the transformation towards a modern, data and AI-first approach, treating data as a product and enabling scalable analytics, Machine Learning and AI capabilities through a self-serve platform and robust governance. This position will play a pivotal role in shaping how data is leveraged across the organisation to unlock insights, accelerate innovation and deliver measurable business value at scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Set security standards and policies based on risk and regulation
• Provide tools and guidance to help teams meet them
• Monitor compliance and report on gaps
• Prevent threats via secure access, encryption, and controls
• Detect issues through logging, monitoring, and alerting
• Implement procedures for continuous improvement with a no-blame culture
• Define non-functional requirements (e.g. SLAs, uptime, performance)
• Monitor and analyse metrics to increase each performance, iterate on vision and roadmaps and provide insights to senior leadership.
• Oversee budget allocation, optimizing resource utilization for maximum ROI.
• Deliver accurate forecasting, performance reporting, and strategic insights to senior leadership and take responsibility for weekly/monthly/quarterly reporting to leadership
• Respond to incidents quickly and effectively
• Ensure compliance with company policies and regional regulations, mitigating potential risks.
• Identify and mitigate risks proactively.
• Lead and develop to achieve targets and foster professional growth
• Recruit, train, and/or develop the department’s personnel to facilitate long term success for RWS
• Lead division’s succession planning
• Coach and mentor team members to deliver excellence levels of service
• Define and execute staffing and cross-training plans using forecasting data.
• Conduct performance reviews, manage team performance, and support career development

Skills & Experience

Essential:

• Extensive track record delivering Data Mesh or decentralised data operating models at enterprise scale
• Strong product mindset applied to data as a product, with domain SLAs and documentation.
• Depth in modern data platforms (Lakehouse/streaming, catalogue/lineage, privacy, governance)
• Proven experience in senior leadership within a global organisation
• Ability to demonstrate a rich blend of analytical, creative, and strategic problem-solving talents
• Take advantage of possible opportunities that can occur to advance the company
• Possess a high degree of professional and personal integrity
• Ability to lead effectively in a group setting and to move a group in a unified direction
• Experience inspiring, leading and developing teams including cross-functional teams
• Experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise relationships across regions and business units.
• Expertise in strategic and tactical planning, financial management, and leading a department
• Outstanding customer and partner facing communication skills
• Excellent negotiation, communication, and presentation skills

Desired:

• Experience in localisation/language technology data (terminology, translation memory, content pipelines).
• Familiarity with data privacy regulations and security best practices (e.g. GDPR).
• Experience of or able to rapidly acquire ability to navigate complex global and matrix managed environments
• Excellence in complex change management

Our purpose is to unlock global understanding. This means our work fundamentally recognizes the value of every language and culture. So, we celebrate difference, we are inclusive and believe that diversity makes us strong. We want every employee to grow as an individual and excel in their career. 

In return, we expect all our people to live by the values that unite us: to partner, putting clients fist and winning together, to pioneer, innovating fearlessly and leading with vision and courage, to progress, aiming high and growing through actions and to deliver, owning the outcome and building trust with our colleagues and clients.

RWS embraces DEI and promotes equal opportunity, we are an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. RWS is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at RWS are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, sex, age, disability, or sexual orientation. RWS will not tolerate discrimination based on any of these characteristics. 

RWS Values 

Get the 3Ps right – Partner, Pioneer, Progress – and we´ll Deliver together as RWS.

Recruitment Agencies: RWS Holdings PLC does not accept agency resumes.  Please do not forward any unsolicited resumes to any RWS employees.  Any unsolicited resume received will be treated as the property of RWS and Terms & Conditions associated with the use of such resume will be considered null and void.