Head of Governance & Design

Title: Head of Governance & Design

Contract Type: FTC until 30th September 2027, Full-Time, 35 hours

Salary: Starting from £78,544 per annum (London weighted salary) or £68,571 per annum (Regional salary), dependant on experience

Grade: 12

Reporting Office: London, Stratford or Manchester, Trafford

Persona: Agile Worker: 20% - 40% of contractual hours to be worked from reporting office/working location (hybrid working)

Closing Date: 14th May 2026

Interview Dates: 8th June 2026 *Please note that in person interviews will be held for at least one of the interview stages for this role.

Please click here for the role profile - Head of Governance & Design Role Profile.docx

Benefits include: Excellent pension plan (up to 6% double contribution), 28 days Annual Leave rising to 31 days with length of service + Bank Holidays, Westfield Health Cash Plan, non-contributory life assurance, up to 21 hours volunteering paid days, lifestyle benefits, Employee Assistance Programme and many more…

Early applications are encouraged as we reserve the right to close the advertisement and interview earlier than stated.

With effect from February 2026, L&Q reserve the right to not shortlist applications from candidates with 3 or more unsuccessful applications within the last 24 months.

Join our Team at L&Q:

We’re on an exciting journey at L&Q — with big ambitions, bold data plans, and a clear mission to create trusted, accurate data that powers confident decision‑making across the organisation.

As we elevate our Data & Analytics capability, we’re looking for a Head of Data Governance and Design who can do more than manage processes. We need someone who can champion the value of data across the business, inspire others, build strong relationships with senior stakeholders, and bring the technical backbone to make it all real.

If you’re as comfortable selling the vision as you are designing the solution — this is your moment.

If this sounds like you, we would love for you to apply!

Your impact in the role:

• Leading our Data Governance and Data Design teams to deliver high quality, consistent, well structured data across L&Q.
• Driving the development and embedding of our data governance and data quality framework — ensuring one version of the truth.
• Overseeing enterprise data modelling (conceptual, logical and dimensional) and ensuring data products meet agreed standards.
• Partnering closely with Data Owners, IT, and senior stakeholders to improve organisational data maturity.
• Championing data quality improvement plans and ensuring timely, accurate regulatory returns.
• Chairing the Data Governance Forum and ensuring effective decision making, communication, and alignment across the business.
• Acting as an ambassador for data — building engagement, trust, and enthusiasm across all levels of the organisation.
• Supporting the Director of Data & Information in delivering our data strategy and ensuring it’s understood, adopted, and delivered.

What you'll bring:

• A natural ability to influence, inspire and “sell” the value of data — even to sceptical audiences — with a strong track record of working collaboratively with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong technical credibility, including a strong experience across data modelling, master and reference data, data quality frameworks, and data governance best practice.
• Proven experience embedding data governance frameworks (DGF) and data quality processes (DQP) at senior and executive level, ensuring clear ownership, accountability, and decision-making.
• Demonstrable experience managing regulatory and statutory data returns, with a strong understanding of accuracy, assurance, and audit requirements.
• Experience within the housing sector or local government, with a solid understanding of the regulatory, operational, and cultural context.
• Proven experience leading high-performing data teams and working at senior level to solve complex, organisation-wide data challenges.
• A genuine passion for raising data maturity, improving data culture, and enabling better decisions through trusted, high‑quality data.

A Recruitment Advocate will join this recruitment process as a panel member. This is part of an internal scheme supporting our recruitment process to be fair, transparent and consistent.

If you require any reasonable adjustments at any stage during this process, including application stage, please email lqcareers@lqgroup.org.uk

About L&Q:

We’re one of the UK’s leading housing associations and developers. We were founded on a simple belief: high quality housing is vital for people’s health, happiness and security. Everyone deserves a quality home that gives them the chance to live a better life.

250,000 people call our properties ‘home’, and we’re proud to serve diverse communities across London, the South East and North West of England.

People are at the heart of our business and our success depends on employing the best people and getting the best from them. The foundation of everything that we are is built on our corporate values, which outline our core expectations and should be demonstrated at all times, and all levels, when representing L&Q – click here to read more.

At L&Q, we know that diversity and inclusion make us stronger – and they’re at the heart of everything we do.

When we recruit, we look at what really matters: your skills, experience, and potential. We’re proud to be recognised for creating an inclusive workplace. We’re a Disability Confident Leader (Level 3) and we’ve introduced our own Recruitment Advocate scheme to make sure every step of our hiring process is fair, transparent, and consistent. It’s all part of our commitment to ending discrimination and making L&Q a place where everyone feels welcome. Find out more here.

Sustainability is also at the heart of what we do. We recognise the responsibility we hold as one of the UK’s largest housing associations.

Click here to find out more about L&Q and why you should join us!