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About the Role

We are seeking a Data Protection Managing Director to define, govern, and scale the firm's enterprise-wide data protection strategy. This senior leadership role will establish a modern, risk-based data security program to protect critical information assets while enabling digital, cloud, AI, and data transformation objectives. The ideal candidate is a visionary security leader who can balance business enablement with strong security outcomes, driving the evolution towards an intelligence-driven program focused on data discovery, classification, retention, access governance, AI security, and automated protection controls.

Responsibilities

Define and execute the firm's multi-year Enterprise Data Protection Strategy, ensuring alignment with business priorities, regulatory obligations, cloud transformation initiatives, and AI adoption.
Establish a comprehensive framework for protecting sensitive information throughout its lifecycle, including data discovery, classification, access governance, retention and disposal, encryption and key management, and monitoring and protection controls.
Drive a modern security model focused on protecting data regardless of location, platform, user, or technology stack.
Develop executive-level metrics and reporting that quantify data risk, control effectiveness, and remediation progress.
Lead enterprise initiatives to know, understand, and reduce data risk at scale.
Establish programs to identify and continuously inventory sensitive customer and firm data, regulated and restricted information, secrets and credentials, legacy data stores, high-risk repositories, and shadow data environments.
Create risk-based approaches to classify, prioritize, and remediate high-risk data concentrations across on-premises, cloud, SaaS, and emerging AI environments.
Develop actionable intelligence that enables business leaders and technology teams to understand where sensitive data resides and how it is exposed.
Lead the firm's strategy for protecting data from emerging AI-related threats and misuse, establishing controls and protections against prompt injection attacks, model misuse, data leakage through AI systems, RAG data exposure, adversarial AI attacks, model manipulation, and AI-enabled social engineering.
Partner closely with AI, Engineering, and Security Architecture teams to ensure AI capabilities are deployed using secure-by-default configurations, approved usage patterns, security guardrails, automated controls, and enterprise-approved AI platforms.
Develop data protection requirements for AI models, agents, copilots, and emerging autonomous systems.
Establish rigorous enterprise-wide data lifecycle management and retention programs designed to minimize unnecessary data exposure.
Drive initiatives to eliminate obsolete and redundant data, reduce data longevity where business value no longer exists, improve defensibility and regulatory compliance, and reduce attack surface through data minimization.
Partner with Legal, Compliance, Privacy, and business stakeholders to implement practical retention schedules and automated disposal capabilities.
Ensure retention policies are enforced through technology controls rather than manual processes whenever possible.
Lead enterprise efforts to analyze, govern, and continuously monitor access to sensitive information.
Develop and implement data-centric access control models, risk-based authorization frameworks, privileged access controls, continuous entitlement reviews, excessive permissions identification, and access anomaly detection.
Partner with Identity and Access Management teams to strengthen least-privilege principles across business and technology environments.
Ensure access decisions are informed by data sensitivity, business context, user risk, and regulatory requirements.
Establish a comprehensive view of the firm's data protection control environment.
Conduct enterprise-wide assessments to map existing controls, identify security gaps, measure control effectiveness, assess residual risk, and prioritize remediation activities.
Develop risk-based roadmaps that focus resources on the most significant data protection exposures.
Drive accountability across technology and business stakeholders to ensure timely remediation of material risks.
Partner closely with the Data organization to ensure security is embedded throughout the data ecosystem.
Influence the design of data platforms, data pipelines, analytics environments, governance frameworks, AI and ML platforms, and data products.
Promote security-by-design principles that enable innovation while reducing operational friction.
Establish scalable security patterns that integrate directly into engineering workflows, automation pipelines, and platform services.
Lead strategic modernization initiatives supporting the future state of data security.
Drive improvements across enterprise encryption programs, key management services, automated key rotation, secrets management, ephemeral infrastructure, and machine identity controls.
Partner with Infrastructure, Cloud Engineering, and Enterprise Architecture teams to strengthen cryptographic hygiene and reduce operational risk.
Develop forward-looking strategies that support emerging technology requirements and evolving regulatory expectations.
Ensure data protection capabilities align with applicable regulatory and industry expectations, including FFIEC, NYDFS, GDPR, SEC requirements, NIST frameworks, and ISO standards.
Serve as the executive leader for data protection reviews involving regulators, auditors, clients, and control assurance functions.
Provide defensible and transparent reporting on the firm's data protection posture and remediation activities.

Requirements

Serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership, including the CISO, CIO, CDO, Risk leadership, and business executives.
Translate complex technical and data risks into clear business decisions and investment priorities.
Build strong partnerships across Security, Technology, Data, Legal, Privacy, Compliance, and Risk organizations.
Champion a culture where protecting sensitive data is viewed as a business imperative rather than a compliance exercise.
Build and lead a high-performing global Data Protection organization.
Develop teams responsible for Data Security Engineering, Data Discovery & Classification, Data Governance Security, Data Loss Prevention, Data Access Governance, and Encryption & Key Management.
Mentor future leaders and establish a culture focused on innovation, accountability, automation, and measurable outcomes.
Recognized leader in Data Security and Data Protection.
Strategic thinker with the ability to execute and deliver measurable outcomes.
Strong business acumen and executive presence.
Deep understanding of modern cloud, AI, and data architectures.
Passion for automation, scale, and simplification.
Ability to influence organizational boundaries and drive enterprise-wide change.
Data-driven decision maker with strong risk management instincts.
Customer-first mindset focused on trust, resilience, and protection of critical information assets.
Demonstrated success leading enterprise-scale data protection programs within large, highly regulated organizations.
Deep expertise in data discovery, classification, DLP, encryption, key management, data governance, and access controls.
Proven experience securing cloud-native data ecosystems and modern data platforms.
Strong understanding of AI security risks and data protection requirements associated with GenAI and AI-enabled business processes.
Experience partnering with Data, Engineering, Privacy, Legal, Compliance, and Risk organizations.
Track record of driving large-scale transformation and modernization initiatives.
Experience presenting to executive leadership, boards, regulators, and auditors.

Skills

Data Protection Strategy
Data Security Program Management
Risk-Based Security
Data Discovery
Data Classification
Data Access Governance
Data Retention
Data Disposal
Encryption
Key Management
Monitoring and Protection Controls
Cloud Security
AI Security
Prompt Injection Attacks
Model Misuse
Data Leakage
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
Adversarial AI Attacks
Model Manipulation
AI-Enabled Social Engineering
Secure-by-Default Configurations
Security Guardrails
Automated Controls
Data Lifecycle Management
Data Minimization
Data Access Control Models
Risk-Based Authorization
Privileged Access Controls
Continuous Entitlement Reviews
Excessive Permissions Identification
Access Anomaly Detection
Least-Privilege Principles
Data Protection Control Environment Assessment
Risk Management
Data Governance
Data Platforms
Data Pipelines
Analytics Environments
AI and ML Platforms
Data Products
Security-by-Design
Enterprise Encryption
Secrets Management
Machine Identity Controls
Cryptographic Hygiene
Regulatory Compliance (FFIEC, NYDFS, GDPR, SEC, NIST, ISO)
Executive Leadership
Stakeholder Engagement
Team Leadership
Team Development
Data Security Engineering
Data Loss Prevention
Strategic Thinking
Business Acumen
Executive Presence
Cloud Architectures
Data Architectures
Automation
Scale
Simplification
Organizational Influence
Enterprise-Wide Change Management
Data-Driven Decision Making
Risk Management Instincts
Customer Focus
Trust
Resilience
Information Asset Protection

Location

Primary location specified

Work Type

Full-time

Experience Level

15+ years of progressive leadership experience in cybersecurity, data protection, data security, or related disciplines.

Education Level

Bachelor's degree in Information Security, Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or related discipline.
Advanced degree preferred.
Relevant certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CCSP, CDPSE, or cloud security certifications strongly preferred.

Salary/Compensations

$170,000 - $282,500 Annual

Benefits

Retirement savings plan (401K) with company match
Insurance coverage including basic life, medical, dental, vision, long-term disability, and other optional additional coverages
Paid-time off including vacation, sick leave, short term disability, and family care responsibilities
Access to Employee Assistance Program
Incentive compensation including eligibility for annual performance-based awards
Eligibility for certain tax advantaged savings plans

About the Company

Across the globe, institutional investors rely on us to help them manage risk, respond to challenges, and drive performance and profitability.
We keep our clients at the heart of everything we do, and smart, engaged employees are essential to our continued success.
We are committed to fostering an environment where every employee feels valued and empowered to reach their full potential.
As an essential partner in our shared success, you’ll benefit from inclusive development opportunities, flexible work-life support, paid volunteer days, and vibrant employee networks that keep you connected to what matters most.
Join us in shaping the future.

Equal Opportunity

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we consider all qualified applicants for all positions without regard to race, creed, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, age, disability, genetic information, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, citizenship, marital status, domestic partnership or civil union status, familial status, military and veteran status, and other characteristics protected by applicable law.
It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.