Data Acquisition Assistant Lead

EY aspires to become the world’s most trusted AI-powered professional services firm, delivering transformative value to clients and employees. Leveraging its extensive data across finance, legal, HR, and core business operations, EY is uniquely positioned to accelerate its data strategy and unlock new opportunities for growth and protection of its business.

To achieve this vision, all Service Lines and global regions must collaborate on strategic priorities aligned with EY’s “All In” goal: safeguarding the current US$50B revenue base while generating the next US$50B. Central to this effort is advancing data management across its lifecycle to enhance existing services and create innovative offerings.

EY’s AI Ready Data Strategy, led by Applied Innovation and the Global Data Office, is the foundation for this transformation. The Data Office drives applied innovation by redefining how data is discovered, managed, utilized, and scaled. A key enabler is the development of an enterprise data platform supported by robust governance, unlocking the full potential of EY’s data assets to fuel innovation and deliver next-level client service. 

The Data Acquisition team plays a critical role within this function, enabling EY to source, manage, and optimize strategic data needed to support global service lines, regions, and client engagements. 

About the Delivery Team:

The Data Acquisition team consists of Category Managers, Inventory & Finance specialists, and work with colleagues in the wider Data Office and other teams such as Procurement. Together, the team delivers an integrated approach to sourcing and managing data across EY. Category Managers work directly with business stakeholders and collaborate with Procurement, GCO, Finance, Risk and other global functions to meet enterprise data needs efficiently and compliantly.

The opportunity

The Data Acquisition Assistant Leader acts as the primary deputy and right hand to the Head of Data Acquisition, strengthening leadership capacity, operational discipline and execution effectiveness across the function.

This role blends strategic support, operational leadership, team management, and category oversight, ensuring the global sourcing of external data operates consistently, efficiently and in alignment with enterprisewide priorities.

You will help translate strategy into execution, coordinate daytoday team operations, support key vendor and stakeholder relationships, and enable value realization from externally sourced data across service lines, sectors and geographies.

This role is ideal for a senior sourcing professional ready to take on leadership of a global, virtual team and drive operational excellence.

Your key responsibilities

• Strategic & Operational Support
  
  • Act as the primary deputy to the Head of Data Acquisition, supporting the design, execution and continuous improvement of EY’s global external data sourcing strategy.
  • Translate data strategy into actionable execution plans, operating models and delivery roadmaps.
  • Contribute to the global vision and strategic direction for enterprise external data acquisition.
  • Support monitoring of sourcing outcomes, usage insights, consumption patterns and ROI to guide renewal recommendations and prioritization. 
• Team & Assistant Leadership Responsibilities
  
  • Manage daytoday operations of the global Data Acquisition team, including workload planning, prioritization, delivery oversight and issue resolution.
  • Serve as the first point of escalation for operational, vendor or delivery challenges.
  • Provide people leadership including coaching, mentoring, onboarding and skills development support.
  • Partner with the Head of Data Acquisition and counsellors to support performance management, capability building and resource planning across the team.
• Category Strategy & Vendor Management
  
  • Support development and maintenance of category strategies based on demand, market insights and EY’s data strategy
  • Identify emerging opportunities, risks and market trends shaping future category direction.
  • Partner with stakeholders across regions and service lines to clarify priorities and align sourcing decisions.
  • Support vendor evaluations, onboarding, lifecycle management, renewals and performance monitoring. 
  • Participate in commercial negotiations ensuring alignment with licensing, IP, privacy and usage requirements.
  • Maintain segmentation frameworks and scorecards to track vendor performance and product value.
• Commercial & Financial Management
  
  • Support budget planning, cost transparency and financial risk assessments across categories.
  • Assess TCO, ROI and financial implications of sourcing decisions.
  • Collaborate with Procurement, Finance, GCO and Risk to optimize commercial terms, compliance and cost efficiency.
• Execution, Governance & Value Delivery
  
  • Support development of business cases, sourcing recommendations and funding requests.
  • Coordinate deployment of sourced content, catalogue updates and practitioner communications.
  • Support design and tracking of usage, adoption and value metrics for external data.
  • Help ensure consistency in processes, governance, tools and reporting across geographies and service lines.

Analytical/Decision Making Responsibilities: 

• Apply strong judgment when reviewing vendor proposals, commercial options and data products. 
  
• Use insights from usage, adoption and ROI data to guide decisionmaking. 
  
• Balance business value, cost efficiency and governance requirements when shaping recommendations.

Knowledge and Skills Requirements:

• Strong understanding of external data sourcing, data management and vendor ecosystems (e.g., LSEG, S&P, IDC, Gartner). 
  
• Ability to support strategic planning while maintaining disciplined operational execution. 
  
• Experience supporting or managing globally distributed virtual teams. 
  
• Strong negotiation, relationship management and crossfunctional collaboration skills. 
  
• Analytical mindset with ability to interpret usage, cost and value data. 
  
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with strong stakeholderfacing presence. 
  
• Proficiency in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint and Teams; familiarity with Power BI preferred.

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• Significant experience in data sourcing, data management, content acquisition or related fields. 
• Experience in vendor evaluations, RFP processes, contract management and renewals. 
• Proven ability to collaborate across Procurement, Finance, Knowledge, Risk and Technology. 
• Ability to manage competing priorities, ambiguity and complex delivery environments.

Ideally, You’ll Also Have:

• Experience acting as a deputy, secondincommand or lead support within a global function.
• Exposure to enterprise data platforms, data fabrics or cloudbased data solutions.
• Strong commercial acumen with understanding of cost, value and ROI considerations.
• Experience supporting large, complex, crossborder initiatives.
• A proactive, selfstarter mindset with strong ownership and accountability.