Senior Manager, Data Products & Governance

INTRODUCTION

At Burberry, we believe creativity opens spaces. Our purpose is to unlock the power of imagination to push boundaries and open new possibilities for our people, our customers and our communities. This is the core belief that has guided Burberry since it was founded in 1856 and is central to how we operate as a company today.   

We aim to provide an environment for creative minds from different backgrounds to thrive, bringing a wide range of skills and experiences to everything we do. As a purposeful, values-driven brand, we are committed to being a force for good in the world as well, creating the next generation of sustainable luxury for customers, driving industry change and championing our communities. 

JOB PURPOSE

The Senior Manager, Data Products & Governance establishes and leads a product-led approach to data across Burberry, ensuring investment focuses on data products that solve priority business problems and deliver measurable outcomes. The role line-manages five Data Product Managers who work with domain stakeholders and cross - functional squads to understand user needs, define product vision and outcomes, shape roadmaps, prioritise backlogs and drive adoption. It is also accountable for enterprise data governance through the Data Governance Manager, ensuring governance is centrally facilitated but business led and that ownership, quality, metadata, lineage, stewardship, privacy and classification are embedded by design. Working with Enterprise Data leadership, Data Engineering & Platforms, Architecture, Delivery and business leaders, the role connects business value, product priorities and governance into a coherent enterprise data portfolio.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead and develop the Data Products & Governance capability, line-managing five Data Product Managers and the Data Governance Manager, with accountability for performance, capability development, succession and resource allocation.

• Define and maintain Burberry's data product management operating model and lifecycle, covering discovery, vision, roadmaps, prioritisation, launch, adoption, improvement and retirement.

• Own the coherence of the enterprise data product portfolio, ensuring each product addresses a clear business problem or opportunity and has target users, a business sponsor, measurable outcomes, roadmap and clear ownership.

• Coach and challenge Data Product Managers to discover user needs, define product outcomes, translate needs into clear requirements and acceptance criteria, maintain healthy prioritised backlogs and make evidence-based trade-offs.

• Lead portfolio-level demand shaping and prioritisation with Enterprise Data leadership, Data Engineering & Platforms and Delivery, balancing strategic alignment, business value, risk, dependencies and available engineering capacity.

• Ensure Product Managers partner effectively with Delivery Managers / Scrum Masters and engineering leads; Product Management owns the what and why, while Delivery and Engineering lead execution, flow and technical implementation.

• Establish product performance and value management using measures such as adoption, usage, business outcomes, data quality, reliability and stakeholder satisfaction to guide investment, improvement, consolidation and retirement decisions.

• Act as a senior partner to business leaders, building sponsorship and business ownership, resolving competing priorities and promoting reusable enterprise data products and common definitions over duplicated point solutions.

• With the Data Governance Manager, own Burberry's enterprise data governance framework, including policies, standards, ownership and stewardship roles, governance forums and operating rhythms.

• Embed governance by design across the data product lifecycle, including data quality, catalogue, business glossary, metadata, lineage, classification, access, privacy, security and regulatory requirements, in partnership with Risk & Cyber Security.

• Provide clear portfolio and governance reporting to Enterprise Data leadership and relevant forums, covering product roadmaps, value and adoption, data quality and governance maturity, key decisions, risks, dependencies and improvement priorities.

PERSONAL PROFILE

• Proven experience leading data product management, digital product management or data and analytics product teams within a complex, multi-function organisation.

• Strong understanding of product management practices, including discovery, user needs, product vision, roadmaps, prioritisation, outcome definition, adoption, value measurement and lifecycle management.

• Experience operating a data product model in which Product Managers work with cross-functional engineering and delivery squads in an Agile or product-led environment.

• Strong understanding of data governance and data management, including ownership and stewardship, data quality, metadata, lineage, business glossaries, catalogue management and governance operating models.

• Demonstrated ability to prioritise a portfolio of competing data demands and make transparent trade-offs based on strategic alignment, business value, risk, dependencies and capacity.

• Strong people leadership experience, including coaching and developing Product Managers and data management / governance professionals within a matrix organisation.

• Demonstrated ability to influence senior stakeholders (VP / Director level), establish accountability without direct authority and translate business priorities into clear data product outcomes.

• Strong understanding of the modern data and analytics landscape, including how data products connect to data platforms, engineering, architecture, BI / visualisation, AI, privacy and security.

• Effective communicator across business and technical settings, able to simplify complex data concepts, facilitate prioritisation decisions and communicate product value and governance requirements clearly.