Head of Data

As Head of Data, reporting to the Chief Operating Officer (COO), you’ll own the data agenda for the Bridges Group. As the Bridges Group has grown, so has the range of systems, entities and data sources it draws on - and with it the opportunity to bring that data together more effectively. Your initial priority will be to build on Bridges’ existing systems to create a joined-up data foundation - shaping where data lives, how it flows and how it is governed, and building the platform and reporting capability the firm needs as it continues to grow.

Beyond that initial work, you’ll look for opportunities to make greater use of Bridges’ data, ensuring it supports investment decision-making, impact measurement, investor reporting and regulatory obligations, and positioning Bridges to take advantage of emerging technologies, including AI, on well-managed foundations. We see data as a commercial asset: the quality of our data and reporting bears directly on investor confidence, fundraising and the cost of running the business, and you’ll help make that case across the firm.

This is a senior, hands-on Director-level role, and a varied one. To begin with you’ll largely be working on your own, so you’ll need to be as comfortable writing a query or building a pipeline as you are setting direction with Partners. Over time, you’ll build and lead in-house data resource, giving Bridges a lasting capability to make the most of new technologies.

You’ll work with colleagues at all levels and across all Bridges Group entities, programmes and initiatives, helping to build a culture in which data is trusted, well-governed and actively used, so that data becomes a key driver of Bridges’ future growth.

You’ll be a trusted adviser to the COO, Partners and entity leadership, and will build strategic and credible relationships across the Bridges Group, with external providers and, where relevant, with investors, government counterparties and delivery partners.

It’s a role for someone who enjoys both the strategy and the detail, likes making things work in practice, and wants to see their work used day to day.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Here’s a flavour of what you’ll do.

Data strategy and leadership

You’ll set the direction for data across Bridges and make the case for investing in it.

• Own and evolve the Bridges data strategy, aligned to the firm’s investment, impact and growth objectives, and secure buy-in from Partners and entity leadership.

• Act as the senior point of accountability for data across the Bridges Group, advising the COO and leadership on data-related opportunity, risk and investment.

• Own the data budget and business cases for data investment, including build-vs-buy decisions, framing investment cases in commercial terms: efficiency savings, risk reduction and revenue protection.

Building our data foundations

This will be the main focus of your early months, working closely with colleagues and external partners.

• Lead the design and delivery of Bridges’ data platform: assess current data assets, systems and flows across entities; define the target architecture; and deliver the core build.

• Develop, with external support where needed, data structures that enable consolidated reporting across the organisation and related projects - including integration across core systems: deal management / CRM (DealCloud), portfolio and impact data (iLevel), finance ([new finance system?]) and document management (Egnyte) where relevant.

• Establish a single source of truth for priority data domains, streamlining datasets and automating processes where it adds value.

• Select, commission and manage external consultants and vendors, ensuring value for money - negotiating contracts and licensing on sound commercial terms and avoiding unnecessary vendor lock-in - monitoring progress and ensuring knowledge transfer so that capability is retained in-house.

Governance, quality and security

We want governance that is proportionate and practical, and that people actually follow.

• Design and embed a proportionate data governance framework - ownership, stewardship, quality standards and documentation - appropriate to a firm of Bridges’ size.

• Place data security and protection at the heart of all data work, ensuring Bridges meets the relevant standards, including GDPR and, where relevant, FCA expectations and investor due diligence requirements.

• Ensure data processes and approaches are clearly documented.

Analytics, reporting and insight

This is where the foundations start to pay off for colleagues, investors and partners.

• Lead the development of management, investor and impact reporting - dashboards and analytics serving Partners, investment teams, LPs, government and other external counterparties.

• Work with investment and impact teams to strengthen how data supports origination, portfolio monitoring, impact measurement and value creation.

• Ensure the data underpinning Bridges’ work, including investor reporting and valuations, is robust and auditable.

• Develop ways of measuring the benefits of data and digital change.

Adoption, capability and change

Better data only helps if people use it, so this part of the role is as much about people as technology.

• Proactively engage the wider Bridges Group to identify where better use of data and technology could help, and to develop solutions and ways of working that complement the data strategy.

• Identify and manage risks associated with data and digital change. Communicate regularly with staff and stakeholders on progress and benefits to the organisation.

• Support colleagues to make effective use of existing and new tools, and to identify and participate in relevant training and development.

• Over time, build and lead Bridges’ data capability - whether through direct reports, embedded analysts or managed external resource.

A proven track record of leading a data function or major data capability build, including establishing a well-governed, platform-based approach to data across an organisation.

• Significant experience of designing and delivering data architecture, integration and reporting solutions, including standing up a cloud data platform from an early stage.

• Experience of integrating data from SaaS and API-based business systems (e.g. CRM, portfolio and impact platforms, HR, finance) into a consolidated, auditable reporting layer.

• Change and programme management experience: creating new ways of working, translating strategic objectives into practical delivery plans and seeing them through to benefits realisation.

• Experience of data governance design and implementation, including GDPR / data protection in practice and the handling of sensitive personal, financial and commercially confidential data in a regulated environment.

• Strong understanding of digital and technology trends, including practical awareness of AI and what it takes to deploy it responsibly on real organisational data, and a track record of identifying and deploying innovative data solutions.

• Commercial experience of scoping, negotiating and managing vendor and licensing contracts, and of managing budgets for data or technology work.

Desirable Experience

• Experience in financial services, investment management or an adjacent regulated environment.

• Contextual experience of impact investing, or of groups combining fund management with programme or service delivery.

• Experience of private markets data - fund and portfolio reporting, LP reporting, or impact / ESG data and associated frameworks (e.g. SFDR, Operating Principles for Impact Management).

• Experience with private-markets and investment systems such as iLevel, DealCloud or equivalents.

• Experience of building or managing a small team.

Essential Technical Skills

• Hands-on capability across the data lifecycle (querying and modelling data, building pipelines and integrations, producing reporting) using SQL and at least one general-purpose data language, Python preferred.

• Practical experience with a modern cloud data platform (Microsoft Azure / Fabric preferred, or equivalent such as AWS, GCP, Databricks or Snowflake) and with Power BI or an equivalent BI tool.

• Practical use of generative AI tools in day-to-day data work, e.g. AI-assisted development, analysis and documentation.

Desirable Technical Skills

• Applied machine learning or statistical analysis (e.g. Python ML libraries, R) for forecasting, segmentation or portfolio analytics.

• Experience deploying generative AI on organisational data (retrieval-augmented generation, agents, governance of AI outputs), in particular with Claude.

• Specific experience of Microsoft Fabric, Synapse or Data Factory.

Personal qualities

• A self-starter. For much of the early period you’ll be working on your own, so you’ll need to drive change and innovation and bring colleagues with you.

• Good at building relationships. You’ll develop and maintain strategic relationships, and influence and constructively challenge at all levels, up to and including Partner and Board level, while being equally comfortable with the day-to-day and administrative work a standalone role involves.

• A clear communicator. You can convey complex and technical information simply and clearly to non-technical senior audiences, including investors and boards, in writing and in person.

• Commercially minded. You understand how data creates and protects commercial value, and can make that case clearly to senior stakeholders.

• Trustworthy. You act with personal integrity, respect and empathy for others, and are consistent, open and honest.

• Pragmatic. You have sound judgement on proportionality, and can design governance and architecture that fit a firm of our size rather than replicating the overhead of a larger institution.

• Curious. You keep up with how data and AI are developing, and enjoy working out what is genuinely useful for a firm like ours.

• Collaborative and credible. You bring fresh ideas and a positive influence on the culture at Bridges.

Bridges is a specialist private markets investor, focused on the transition to a more sustainable planet and a more inclusive economy.

Founded in 2002, Bridges has raised over £1.7bn across our platform of fund strategies. We are recognised globally for our pioneering role in the development of impact investing - delivering attractive financial returns alongside positive social and environmental outcomes.