Principal, AI Governance

Principal, AI Governance

Salary: Starting at $190k + bonus

Location: Chicago, IL

Hybrid: 3 days onsite, 2 days remote

Qualifications

• Experience operating in a regulated industry required; financial services strongly preferred.
• 10+ years of experience across data, data governance, risk management, technology governance, or compliance, with at least 4 years focused on AI/ML.
• Hands-on experience in data governance is required, including data quality, metadata management, data lineage, and data classification.
• Deep understanding of the AI/ML lifecycle, including model development, validation, deployment, and monitoring.
• Strong knowledge of AI regulatory and ethics frameworks such as NIST AI RMF.
• Experience with privacy regulations and their intersection with AI and data governance.
• Proficient with SQL
• Proficient with Microsoft Office desktop tools (Word, Excel, etc.)
• Database experience a plus (e.g., Oracle, SQL Server, DB2)

Responsibilities

• Design, own, and continuously evolve the enterprise AI governance framework, including policies, standards, and controls for AI development, deployment, and monitoring.
• Serve as the subject matter expert on AI risk, ethics, explainability, and regulatory compliance, providing guidance across business and technology teams.
• Extend and align existing data governance practices to cover AI-specific requirements, ensuring data quality, lineage, classification, and usage controls are embedded into AI workflows and model development processes.
• Establish and maintain a centralized AI use case inventory, ensuring appropriate risk classification, approval workflows, and oversight across all AI initiatives.
• Define and enforce guardrails to ensure responsible and compliant use of AI and data across the organization.
• Partner with Security, IT, and Compliance teams to implement monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, including detection and remediation of policy violations.
• Incorporate AI risk into the enterprise risk taxonomy and maintain an AI risk register, ensuring visibility into AI-related risk exposure across the organization.
• Conduct risk assessments for new and existing AI solutions, including pre-implementation reviews of vendor AI tools in partnership with Third-Party Risk Management.
• Coordinate with the AI Product Management and AI Engineering groups on employee awareness initiatives, training programs, and development of practical guidance and templates for safe and responsible AI use across the organization.
• Coordinate cross-functional governance bodies and working groups, driving alignment on AI policy, use case decisions, and governance priorities.