200 Data Governance Manager jobs in the United Arab Emirates

We are seeking a highly skilled Data Protection Specialist to lead our organization's data protection initiatives, ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations.

• Develop, implement, and manage effective data protection policies and frameworks in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
• Evaluate and ensure data processing activities align with legal and contractual obligations.
• Act as the primary point of contact for regulatory authorities, respond to inquiries, and provide guidance on data protection matters.
• Identify and assess potential risks related to data protection and advise senior leadership on mitigation strategies.
• Conduct thorough Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) and oversee risk mitigation efforts.

• A law degree with specialization in data protection and privacy certification.

• 10-15 years of experience in European Union and global data protection laws and regulations.

A major player in the UAE is looking to set up a brand-new Data Governance function.

• Develop and execute a comprehensive strategy for establishing a data governance function within the organisation.
• Define the data governance vision, mission, and core principles, aligning them with business goals and regulatory requirements.
• Implement a data governance framework that facilitates self-service data access while ensuring data integrity and responsible use.
• Develop and execute a robust communication strategy to educate stakeholders across the organisation on data governance principles and best practices.
• Foster a collaborative data-centric culture where business units understand the value of data governance and actively participate in data stewardship.
• Work with business leaders to identify and prioritise data initiatives that align with strategic objectives.

• Bachelor's degree in business administration, Information Technology, or a related field with minimum 8 years of experience in data governance and strategy.
• Proven track record of successfully establishing and leading data governance programs in large-scale organisations.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and stakeholder management skills.
• The ability to influence and build consensus across diverse business stakeholders, IT teams, and senior leadership.
• A strategic mindset with a focus on business outcomes and data-driven decision making.

Job Requisition ID:

Established in the 1930s as a trading business, Al-Futtaim Group today is one of the most diversified and progressive, privately held regional businesses headquartered in Dubai, United A"rab Emirates. Structured into five operating divisions; automotive, financial services, real estate, retail and healthcare; employing more than 35,000 employees across more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Al-Futtaim Group partners with over 200 of the world's most admired and innovative brands. Al-Futtaim Group's entrepreneurship and relentless customer focus enables the organisation to continue to grow and expand; responding to the changing needs of our customers within the societies in which we operate.

By upholding our values of respect, excellence, collaboration and integrity; Al-Futtaim Group continues to enrich the lives and aspirations of our customers each and every day.

Overview Of The Role
In a rapidly evolving data and AI landscape, Al-Futtaim Retail is committed to leading transformation across the retail sector by harnessing the strategic power of data and artificial intelligence.

The Chief of Data Strategy & Analytics will be responsible for driving Retail enterprise-wide initiatives that leverage data and AI to enhance business performance, elevate customer engagement, and unlock new growth opportunities.

This role is centered on enabling business transformation—not just through technical execution, but by shaping and steering data-driven strategies that align with Retail Division's commercial objectives. The Chief of Data Strategy & Analytics will lead the development of AI-enabled products and services across the organization's portfolio, ensuring that data becomes a core enabler of innovation, operational excellence, and competitive advantage.

The individual will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams—including business leaders, marketing, data practitioners, and the Group Technology & Digital Platforms (GTDP) team—to translate strategic priorities into scalable data and AI initiatives. They will ensure that business needs are clearly articulated, and that solutions are designed to deliver measurable impact.

This role also involves engaging with executive leadership, functional heads, external partners, and vendors to foster alignment, drive adoption, and ensure successful delivery of data-led transformation programs.

What you will do:
Description of Accountability:

Financial Dimensions:
The Chief of Data Strategy & Analytics of Retail will play a pivotal role in shaping and executing Al-Futtaim Retail's data and AI strategy to unlock new sources of business value. By embedding data and AI capabilities across the business portfolio, this role directly contributes to both
top-line growth
and
bottom-line efficiency
Through strategic planning and leadership of data-driven transformation initiatives, the role will enable

• Revenue Expansion: By identifying and activating AI-powered opportunities that enhance customer engagement, personalize offerings, and open new service lines.
• Cost Optimization: By streamlining operations, improving decision-making, and automating processes through data intelligence.
• Value Realization: By ensuring that data assets are leveraged to drive measurable business outcomes across functions such as sales, leasing, asset management, and customer experience

This role is not only responsible for guiding the strategic direction of data and AI initiatives but also for ensuring their financial impact is tracked, reported, and aligned with division's broader commercial goals.

• Strategic Leadership Lead the development and execution of a data and AI strategy that supports business growth, operational efficiency, and customer-centric innovation.
• Transformation Enablement Champion data-driven transformation initiatives, ensuring that data and AI capabilities are embedded into core business processes, decision-making, and service delivery.
• Business Alignment Collaborate with senior leadership to identify high-impact opportunities where data and AI can deliver measurable business outcomes, such as revenue growth, cost optimization, and risk mitigation.
• Portfolio Oversight Oversee a portfolio of data and AI programs, ensuring alignment with business priorities and managing cross-functional dependencies to deliver value at scale.
• Stakeholder Engagement Act as a bridge between business units and data teams, translating strategic objectives into actionable data initiatives and ensuring stakeholder buy-in and adoption.
• Governance & Ethics Establish and uphold data governance frameworks, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and promoting ethical use of AI across the organization.
• Innovation & Thought Leadership Stay ahead of industry trends and emerging technologies, providing strategic guidance on how innovations in data and AI can be leveraged to maintain competitive advantage.
• Culture Building Foster a culture of data literacy, innovation, and continuous improvement, empowering teams to use data as a strategic asset.

Required Skills To Be Successful

• Strategic Leadership: Ability to define and execute a data and AI strategy that aligns with business transformation goals.
• Business Acumen: Deep understanding of Retail business operations, value drivers, and how data can unlock efficiencies and growth.
• Data Governance & Ethics: Expertise in establishing governance frameworks, ensuring compliance, and promoting ethical AI use.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Skilled in translating business needs into data initiatives and securing cross-functional buy-in.
• Change Management: Proven ability to lead cultural and operational shifts toward data-driven decision-making.
• AI Literacy & Enablement: Familiarity with AI concepts (LLMs, ML, GenAI) and ability to guide non-technical teams in their adoption.
• Portfolio Oversight: Experience managing a portfolio of data and AI initiatives across multiple business units.

What Equips You For The Role

• Master's degree in business administration, Data Science, Economics, or a related field
• Participation in executive data literacy programs and AI strategy workshops is highly valued.
• 12–15 years in data strategy, analytics, or transformation roles, with at least 5 years in a senior leadership capacity.
• Experience in Retail or adjacent sectors with complex data ecosystems.
• Transformation Leadership: Demonstrated success in leading enterprise-wide data modernization or AI-driven transformation programs.
• Proven track record of working with finance, operations, marketing, and technology teams to deliver business outcomes.

We're here to provide excellent service but a little help from you can ensure a five-star candidate experience from start to finish.

Before you click "apply": Please read the job description carefully to ensure you can confidently demonstrate
why
this opportunity is right for you and take the time to put together a well-crafted and personalised CV to further boost your visibility. Our global Talent Acquisition team members are all assigned to specific businesses to ensure that we make the best matches between talent and opportunities. We not only consider the requisite compatibility of skills and behaviours, but also how candidates align with our Values of Respect, Integrity, Collaboration, and Excellence.

As part of our candidate experience promise, we also want to make ourselves available to you throughout the application process. We make every effort to review and respond to every application.

Established in the 1930s as a trading business, Al-Futtaim Group today is one of the most diversified and progressive, privately held regional businesses headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Structured into five operating divisions; automotive, financial services, real estate, retail and healthcare; employing more than 35,000 employees across more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Al-Futtaim Group partners with over 200 of the world's most admired and innovative brands. Al-Futtaim Group's entrepreneurship and relentless customer focus enables the organisation to continue to grow and expand; responding to the changing needs of our customers within the societies in which we operate.

By upholding our values of respect, excellence, collaboration and integrity; Al-Futtaim Group continues to enrich the lives and aspirations of our customers each and every day.

Overview of the role

In a rapidly evolving data and AI landscape, Al-Futtaim Retail is committed to leading transformation across the retail sector by harnessing the strategic power of data and artificial intelligence.

The Chief of Data Strategy & Analytics will be responsible for driving Retail enterprise-wide initiatives that leverage data and AI to enhance business performance, elevate customer engagement, and unlock new growth opportunities.

This role is centered on enabling business transformation—not just through technical execution, but by shaping and steering data-driven strategies that align with Retail Division's commercial objectives. The Chief of Data Strategy & Analytics will lead the development of AI-enabled products and services across the organization's portfolio, ensuring that data becomes a core enabler of innovation, operational excellence, and competitive advantage.

The individual will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams—including business leaders, marketing, data practitioners, and the Group Technology & Digital Platforms (GTDP) team—to translate strategic priorities into scalable data and AI initiatives. They will ensure that business needs are clearly articulated, and that solutions are designed to deliver measurable impact.

This role also involves engaging with executive leadership, functional heads, external partners, and vendors to foster alignment, drive adoption, and ensure successful delivery of data-led transformation programs.

What you will do:

Description of Accountability:

Financial Dimensions:

The Chief of Data Strategy & Analytics of Retail will play a pivotal role in shaping and executing Al-Futtaim Retail's data and AI strategy to unlock new sources of business value. By embedding data and AI capabilities across the business portfolio, this role directly contributes to both top-line growth and bottom-line efficiency .

Through strategic planning and leadership of data-driven transformation initiatives, the role will enable

• Revenue Expansion : By identifying and activating AI-powered opportunities that enhance customer engagement, personalize offerings, and open new service lines.
• Cost Optimization : By streamlining operations, improving decision-making, and automating processes through data intelligence.
• Value Realization : By ensuring that data assets are leveraged to drive measurable business outcomes across functions such as sales, leasing, asset management, and customer experience

This role is not only responsible for guiding the strategic direction of data and AI initiatives but also for ensuring their financial impact is tracked, reported, and aligned with division's broader commercial goals.

• Strategic Leadership
  Lead the development and execution of a data and AI strategy that supports business growth, operational efficiency, and customer-centric innovation.
• Transformation Enablement
  Champion data-driven transformation initiatives, ensuring that data and AI capabilities are embedded into core business processes, decision-making, and service delivery.
• Business Alignment
  Collaborate with senior leadership to identify high-impact opportunities where data and AI can deliver measurable business outcomes, such as revenue growth, cost optimization, and risk mitigation.
• Portfolio Oversight
  Oversee a portfolio of data and AI programs, ensuring alignment with business priorities and managing cross-functional dependencies to deliver value at scale.
• Stakeholder Engagement
  Act as a bridge between business units and data teams, translating strategic objectives into actionable data initiatives and ensuring stakeholder buy-in and adoption.
• Governance & Ethics
  Establish and uphold data governance frameworks, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and promoting ethical use of AI across the organization.
• Innovation & Thought Leadership
  Stay ahead of industry trends and emerging technologies, providing strategic guidance on how innovations in data and AI can be leveraged to maintain competitive advantage.
• Culture Building
  Foster a culture of data literacy, innovation, and continuous improvement, empowering teams to use data as a strategic asset.

Required Skills to be successful

• Strategic Leadership: Ability to define and execute a data and AI strategy that aligns with business transformation goals.
• Business Acumen: Deep understanding of Retail business operations, value drivers, and how data can unlock efficiencies and growth.
• Data Governance & Ethics: Expertise in establishing governance frameworks, ensuring compliance, and promoting ethical AI use.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Skilled in translating business needs into data initiatives and securing cross-functional buy-in.
• Change Management: Proven ability to lead cultural and operational shifts toward data-driven decision-making.
• AI Literacy & Enablement: Familiarity with AI concepts (LLMs, ML, GenAI) and ability to guide non-technical teams in their adoption.
• Portfolio Oversight: Experience managing a portfolio of data and AI initiatives across multiple business units.

What equips you for the role

• Master's degree in business administration, Data Science, Economics, or a related field
• Participation in executive data literacy programs and AI strategy workshops is highly valued.
• 12–15 years in data strategy, analytics, or transformation roles, with at least 5 years in a senior leadership capacity.
• Experience in Retail or adjacent sectors with complex data ecosystems.
• Transformation Leadership: Demonstrated success in leading enterprise-wide data modernization or AI-driven transformation programs.
• Proven track record of working with finance, operations, marketing, and technology teams to deliver business outcomes.

We're here to provide excellent service but a little help from you can ensure a five-star candidate experience from start to finish.

Before you click "apply": Please read the job description carefully to ensure you can confidently demonstrate why this opportunity is right for you and take the time to put together a well-crafted and personalised CV to further boost your visibility. Our global Talent Acquisition team members are all assigned to specific businesses to ensure that we make the best matches between talent and opportunities. We not only consider the requisite compatibility of skills and behaviours, but also how candidates align with our Values of Respect, Integrity, Collaboration, and Excellence.

As part of our candidate experience promise, we also want to make ourselves available to you throughout the application process. We make every effort to review and respond to every application.

In a rapidly evolving data and AI landscape, Al-Futtaim Retail is committed to leading transformation across the retail sector by harnessing the strategic power of data and artificial intelligence.

The Chief of Data Strategy & Analytics will be responsible for driving Retail enterprise-wide initiatives that leverage data and AI to enhance business performance, elevate customer engagement, and unlock new growth opportunities. This role is centered on enabling business transformation—not just through technical execution, but by shaping and steering data-driven strategies that align with Retail Division's commercial objectives. The Chief of Data Strategy & Analytics will lead the development of AI-enabled products and services across the organization's portfolio, ensuring that data becomes a core enabler of innovation, operational excellence, and competitive advantage.

The individual will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams—including business leaders, marketing, data practitioners, and the Group Technology & Digital Platforms (GTDP) team—to translate strategic priorities into scalable data and AI initiatives. They will ensure that business needs are clearly articulated, and that solutions are designed to deliver measurable impact. This role also involves engaging with executive leadership, functional heads, external partners, and vendors to foster alignment, drive adoption, and ensure successful delivery of data-led transformation programs.

• Strategic Leadership: Lead the development and execution of a data and AI strategy that supports business growth, operational efficiency, and customer-centric innovation.
• Transformation Enablement: Champion data-driven transformation initiatives, ensuring that data and AI capabilities are embedded into core business processes, decision-making, and service delivery.
• Business Alignment: Collaborate with senior leadership to identify high-impact opportunities where data and AI can deliver measurable business outcomes, such as revenue growth, cost optimization, and risk mitigation.
• Portfolio Oversight: Oversee a portfolio of data and AI programs, ensuring alignment with business priorities and managing cross-functional dependencies to deliver value at scale.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Act as a bridge between business units and data teams, translating strategic objectives into actionable data initiatives and ensuring stakeholder buy-in and adoption.
• Governance & Ethics: Establish and uphold data governance frameworks, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and promoting ethical use of AI across the organization.
• Innovation & Thought Leadership: Stay ahead of industry trends and emerging technologies, providing strategic guidance on how innovations in data and AI can be leveraged to maintain competitive advantage.
• Culture Building: Foster a culture of data literacy, innovation, and continuous improvement, empowering teams to use data as a strategic asset.

• Strategic Leadership: Ability to define and execute a data and AI strategy that aligns with business transformation goals.
• Business Acumen: Deep understanding of Retail business operations, value drivers, and how data can unlock efficiencies and growth.
• Data Governance & Ethics: Expertise in establishing governance frameworks, ensuring compliance, and promoting ethical AI use.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Skilled in translating business needs into data initiatives and securing cross-functional buy-in.
• Change Management: Proven ability to lead cultural and operational shifts toward data-driven decision-making.
• AI Literacy & Enablement: Familiarity with AI concepts (LLMs, ML, GenAI) and ability to guide non-technical teams in their adoption.
• Portfolio Oversight: Experience managing a portfolio of data and AI initiatives across multiple business units.

• Master's degree in business administration, Data Science, Economics, or a related field
• Participation in executive data literacy programs and AI strategy workshops is highly valued.
• 12–15 years in data strategy, analytics, or transformation roles, with at least 5 years in a senior leadership capacity.
• Experience in Retail or adjacent sectors with complex data ecosystems.
• Transformation Leadership: Demonstrated success in leading enterprise-wide data modernization or AI-driven transformation programs.
• Proven track record of working with finance, operations, marketing, and technology teams to deliver business outcomes.

We're here to provide excellent service but a little help from you can ensure a five-star candidate experience from start to finish. Before you click "apply": please read the job description carefully to ensure you can confidently demonstrate why this opportunity is right for you and take the time to put together a well-crafted and personalised CV to further boost your visibility. Our global Talent Acquisition team members are all assigned to specific businesses to ensure that we make the best matches between talent and opportunities. We not only consider the requisite compatibility of skills and behaviours, but also how candidates align with our Values of Respect, Integrity, Collaboration, and Excellence.

As part of our candidate experience promise, we also want to make ourselves available to you throughout the application process. We make every effort to review and respond to every application.

As a Lead Data Architect, you will play a crucial role in developing and implementing a data architecture strategy that enables enterprise-wide interoperability, AI/ML readiness, and regulatory compliance.

• Data Platform Leadership: Develop and implement a data architecture strategy to drive business growth and innovation.
• Lead the evolution of our cloud-based data lake architecture to support structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data types, including FHIR-formatted JSON healthcare data.
• Cloud Data Lake & Storage Optimization: Design scalable, secure, and cost-effective data lakes using Amazon S3, AWS Glue, Athena, Redshift, and Lake Formation.
• Leverage Mountpoint for S3 to enable high-performance access to S3 objects, including vectorized data files.
• Optimize data storage and retrieval strategies for performance and cost-efficiency.
• Ai/ML Enablement and Vector Infrastructure: Collaborate with data science teams to implement embedding models, vectorization pipelines, and real-time inference architectures.
• Design and manage vector storage systems (e.g., S3-based, FAISS, Pinecone) for semantic search and intelligent data access.
• E nsure vectorized data pipelines align with model training, evaluation, and deployment strategies.
• Healthcare Data Architecture & Interoperability: Architect systems to ingest, process, and store FHIR-compliant JSON data from EHRs, APIs, and HL7 sources.
• Ensure conformance with healthcare interoperability standards and optimize for queryability and downstream analytics.
• Implement data normalization and enrichment pipelines for use in both clinical and operational contexts.
• Security, Compliance & Governance: Lead efforts to ensure data security at rest and in transit using AWS-native encryption, IAM, VPC controls, and bucket policies.
• Implement and manage data access controls, audit logging, and role-based security models across AWS environments.
• Oversee data governance, including lineage, cataloging, and stewardship with tools such as AWS Glue Data Catalog or third-party platforms.
• Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration: Build and lead a high-performing team of data architects and engineers.

• Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or related field.
• 8–12+ years of experience in data architecture with 3–5 years in a technical leadership role.
• Proven experience architecting AWS-based data lakes and analytics pipelines.
• Deep understanding of healthcare data standards (FHIR, HL7) and working with FHIR JSON objects in large-scale systems.
• Expertise with embedding and vectorization models, semantic search, and managing vector storage solutions.
• Hands-on experience with Amazon S3, Mountpoint for S3, and optimizing S3-based workloads for performance and cost.
• Strong background in data security, encryption, access control, and compliance frameworks (HIPAA, HITRUST).

The ideal candidate will have experience in statistical and data mining techniques, as well as knowledge of machine learning tools and statistical techniques.

Responsibilities:

• Work closely with the team to identify issues and use data to propose solutions for effective decision making
• Build algorithms and design experiments to merge, manage, interrogate and extract data to supply tailored reports to colleagues or customers
• Use machine learning tools and statistical techniques to produce solutions to problems
• Test data mining models to select the most appropriate ones for use on a project
• Maintain clear and coherent communication, both verbal and written, to understand data needs and report results
• Create clear reports that tell compelling stories about how customers work with the business
• Assess the effectiveness of data sources and data-gathering techniques and improve data collection methods
• Horizon scan to stay up to date with the latest technology, techniques and methods
• Conduct research from which you'll develop prototypes and proof of concepts

Required Skills and Qualifications:

• Experience and knowledge in statistical and data mining techniques using (e.g., Python, R, SQL)
• Experience and knowledge in applying advanced Machine Learning techniques (e.g., Neural networks, supervised and unsupervised ML, computer vision and image processing, text analysis)
• Experience and knowledge in big data analysis and management and distributed computing tools (e.g., Hadoop, Hive, Spark)
• Experience and knowledge in one or more programming languages (C, C#, Java)
• Experience and knowledge in web development frameworks (javascript, React, node.js)
• Experience analyzing data from 3rd party providers: (e.g., Google Analytics, Site Catalyst, Facebook Insights)
• Experience visualizing/presenting data for stakeholders using: Periscope, Business Objects, D3, ggplot, etc.
• Experience working with and creating data architectures
• Knowledge of a variety of machine learning techniques (clustering, decision tree learning, artificial neural networks, etc.) and their real-world advantages/drawbacks
• Knowledge of advanced statistical techniques and concepts (regression, properties of distributions, statistical tests and proper usage, etc.) and experience with applications
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for coordinating across teams
• A drive to learn and master new technologies and techniques
• Willingness to learn new technology
• Able to work independently on researching solutions and applying findings

Overview

We are looking for a highly analytical and business-minded Business Analyst with 2–3 years of experience, ideally with a background in market research and operational analysis. In this role, you will partner closely with cross-functional teams to turn complex data into actionable business insights that drive decision-making, operational efficiency, and strategic growth.

• Analyze internal and external data to identify trends, assess performance, and support business strategy
• Conduct in-depth market research and competitive analysis to inform product and growth decisions
• Translate data insights into clear, actionable recommendations that support execution across product, marketing, and operations
• Build and maintain dashboards, business reports, and performance metrics to monitor KPIs and key initiatives
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define data requirements and support business planning
• Participate in forecasting, scenario modeling, and business case development
• Provide ad hoc insights and data support for strategic and operational projects

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Economics, Data Science, Statistics, or a related field
• 2–3 years of experience in data analytics or business analysis, with strong exposure to market research
• Proficient in SQL and at least one analytical tool (e.g., Python, R, Excel)
• Experienced with BI platforms such as Tableau, Power BI, or Looker
• Strong business acumen and ability to connect data findings to real-world decisions and outcomes
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence stakeholders across departments

• Experience in a crypto exchange, fintech, or fast-growing tech company
• Familiarity with user behavior data, growth metrics, and financial KPIs
• Understanding of web or mobile analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, Mixpanel)