Governance and Operations Lead

Position Title: Governance and Operations Lead Position Type: Regular - Full-Time ​ Requisition ID: 43985 In every role, McCainers are ambitious, curious, and passionate about creating exceptional work experiences - together. With a customer-first mindset, we make doing business with McCain easy. About the role. The Governance & Operations Lead is accountable for establishing and maintaining McCain’s Responsible AI governance framework, evaluation standards, risk classification methodology, portfolio reporting, and stage-gate quality processes across the AI organization. Reporting to the VP, Artificial Intelligence, this role serves as the independent authority responsible for ensuring AI use cases are safe, reliable, compliant, and ready to scale. The position partners closely with AI, technology, risk, privacy, and architecture stakeholders while maintaining clear separation from demand intake and prioritization activities to ensure objective governance and oversight. What you’ll be doing. • Own and continuously evolve McCain’s Responsible AI standards across fairness, accuracy, reliability, transparency, privacy, and accountability. • Define evaluation methodologies, quality thresholds, and stage-gate criteria for AI use cases throughout their lifecycle. • Lead and operate governance reviews from solution design through deployment and post-production monitoring. • Maintain evaluation frameworks, red-teaming practices, golden datasets, and testing processes across the McCain AI technology stack. • Oversee the Green, Yellow, and Red (RAG) risk classification framework and ensure consistent application across the AI portfolio. • Partner with Enterprise Risk, Privacy, and Architecture teams to align governance standards, policies, and compliance requirements. • Provide portfolio-level reporting on AI use case status, quality metrics, value realization, adoption, model accuracy, drift, and incident trends. • Drive continuous improvement initiatives that strengthen quality, operational excellence, and responsible AI practices. • Lead and develop governance team members, including Responsible AI and evaluation specialists, portfolio analysts, and future governance resources. • Ensure audit readiness through comprehensive documentation, model cards, decision logs, regulatory support, and external assessment coordination. What you’ll need to be successful. • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Risk Management, or a related field; advanced degree preferred. • 10+ years of experience in AI/ML governance, model risk management, technology audit, risk management, or a closely related discipline. • 2+ years of people leadership and team management experience. • Hands-on experience with AI/ML evaluation, testing methodologies, and performance validation practices. • Strong knowledge of Responsible AI frameworks such as NIST AI RMF, EU AI Act, ISO/IEC 42001, or equivalent standards. • Experience designing and operating risk classification frameworks, model governance processes, and stage-gate review methodologies. • Proven ability to establish rigorous quality standards while enabling delivery speed and business value. • Experience developing executive-level reporting, portfolio analytics, and governance dashboards. • Strong communication and stakeholder management skills with the ability to engage senior leaders, auditors, regulators, and cross-functional teams. • Experience within consumer packaged goods (CPG), regulated industries, or large enterprise environments is considered an asset. • Familiarity with modern AI ecosystems, cloud platforms, enterprise data environments, and AI application governance practices. About the team. The Governance & Operations team serves as the independent quality, risk, and governance function within McCain’s Artificial Intelligence organization. Reporting to the VP, Artificial Intelligence, the team partners closely with AI Platform & Engineering, Knowledge Engineering, Forward Deployment Engineering, Enterprise Risk, Privacy, and Architecture stakeholders. The team is responsible for defining governance standards, conducting evaluations, managing portfolio reporting, and enabling responsible, scalable AI adoption across the organization while maintaining clear separation from demand intake and prioritization activities. About McCain. Click Here to learn more about McCain and how we provide opportunities to make an impact that matters. Leadership principles. At McCain, our leadership principles guide how we engage with customers, collaborate as a team, and achieve success. We focus on understanding customer needs, driving innovation, empowering people, and taking ownership to clear obstacles and deliver results. AI & Digital Capabilities. At McCain, AI and digital capabilities are part of how we work and innovate. We value curiosity toward emerging technologies and the thoughtful, responsible use of AI-enabled tools to improve outcomes as part of our future-ready culture. The McCain experience. We are McCain. This statement is a testament to our collective strength and our individual value. Your contributions play a vital role in our success. Our winning culture is rooted in authenticity and trust, empowering us to bring out the best in one another. Here, you’ll find opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive. Join us and experience why we’re better together. Our purpose is grounded in building meaningful relationships. We’re big believers in the power of working together in person—it helps us stay connected, collaborate more effectively, and grow as a team. At the same time, we recognize the importance of flexibility. Most office-based roles follow a hybrid model, with the option to work remotely two days a week. There may be exceptions depending on the role and location, so we encourage you to speak with your recruiter for more details. McCain Foods is an equal opportunity employer. As a global family-owned company, we strive to be the employer of choice in the diverse communities around the world in which we live and work. We recognize that inclusion drives our creativity, resilience, and success and makes our business stronger. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. McCain is an accessible employer. If you require an accommodation throughout the recruitment process (including alternate formats of materials or accessible meeting rooms), please let us know   and we will work with you to find appropriate solutions. Your privacy is important to us. By submitting personal data or information to us, you agree this will be handled in accordance with McCain’s Global Privacy Policy  and Global Employee Privacy Policy , as applicable. McCain leverages AI in the hiring process, though all final decisions are made by humans. You can understand our approach to AI and how your personal information is being handled here . Job Family: Information Technology Location(s): IN - India : Haryana : Gurgaon Company: McCain Foods(India) P Ltd