The Chief Data Officer (CDO) has the responsibility for identifying and creating value from data assets – “increasing data value” is the credo of the ISCDO. The CDO’s mission is to enable and leverage information so that the organization can move toward a data-driven business model whereby critical business decisions are supported with trusted data, business intelligence and advanced analytics. The CDO accountable for assimilating, cataloguing, inventorying, governing, and finding new sources of the organizations’ data and business metadata. The CDO articulates the vision and strategy for data management within the organization, and they are a champion for global data management, governance, quality, and vendor relationships across the enterprise.
The CDO must be an extremely effective communicator, working as a trusted advisor, to the board, Csuite, customers, and other stakeholders to align information with business initiatives and needs as well as ensuring the organization’s information is trusted, readily available, and that the right people see the right data at the right time. The CDO’s role is to drive business outcomes utilizing data and as such making data readily accessible so that the right people, see the accurate data, at the appropriate time, for the exact purpose, with the right intent is a key to success. The CDO is responsible for organizational compliance with data regulations and education regarding best practices in utilizing data with ethics and the correct intent.
Data Strategy
Alignment with Business Outcomes & Corporate Strategy
Creating Value while Reducing Risk
Opportunities and Areas of Investment
Data Democratization & Self-Service Enablement
Measuring Business Value
Execution / Roadmap
Data Platform
Data Management
Data Analytics
Data Privacy, Security and Governance
Cultural / Other
Driving Data Literacy
Building & Maintaining Relationships
Data Driven Decision Making
Skills Development & Training
Leadership Qualities
Develop an Enterprise Data Vision, Value Proposition & CDO Office Value Proposition
Create an artifact that describes the value to the organization and areas of accountability for the CDO including the mission, vision, and values, and the domains for which they areresponsible for providing a trusted advisory service to the enterprise.
Develop the Enterprise Data Strategy
Establish and implement a vision with goals and enabling objectives for how the organization can leverage its data to better deliver products and services with transparency, security and respect of privacy
Develop a Plan for Data Investments
In tandem with the development of the organizations data strategy, the CDO is responsible for the development of a three to five year plan of required budget in order to achieve the mission and goals as presented in the strategic plan
Develop or Adopt Data Standards, Classifications & Policies and Ensure compliance
Recommend open data technical standards and terminologies for use by departments/agencies, by partners, weighing the impact of variables including privacy, security, compliance, ownership, and performance questions tied to cloud storage.
Develop and Govern the Use of Data Technologies and Toolsets to Improve Data Quality
The CDO must direct the data quality efforts to show that data quality is improving under their administration and be able to present the evidence of this to the organization to demonstrate successes.
Establish and Implement Enterprise Data Management
The CDO will lead the development, implementation, and maintenance of the enterprise data inventory, in consultation with departments/agencies, describing the data purchased, created, collected by, or in the custody/control of each respective business unit within the organization.
Build Effective Stakeholder Relationships
Coordinate with the lead Enterprise Architect and architecture teams to facilitate the development of an enterprise data model, plan for master and reference data, governance and data interoperability.
Mature the Data Literacy and Data Culture of the Enterprise
The Office of the CDO has the responsibility to create a charter and definition of the data governance structures (with roles and accountabilities), including data owners and sponsors at the C-Level.
Lead the development of enterprise Analytics, AI/ML, Business Intelligence, Data
Visualization, and Storytelling strategies.
The CDO will create and lead a data science capability within the organization which includes providing insights to the enterprise utilizing advanced analytics, AI/ML, BI and data visualization and storytelling.
IT Knowledge/Skills
Basic user applications interface (front-end) knowledge and significant experience with popular database programming languages.
Significant experience of working across multiple deployment environments, including cloud, on-premises and hybrid, multiple operating systems, and through containerization techniques.
Significant experience using BI and data analytics tools to provide valuable insights into the enterprise’s operations, distributed data and computing tools.
Machine Learning and Data Science Knowledge/Skills
Experience in one or more data discovery, analysis, ETL/ELT platforms, and advanced analytics toolsets.
Knowledge and understanding of (experience preferred where direct supervision of data scientists is required) statistical and data mining techniques; including generalized linear model (GLM)/regression, random forest, boosting, trees, text mining, hierarchical clustering, deep learning, convolutional neural network (CNN), recurrent neural network (RNN), T-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE), and graph analysis.
Additional Leadership and Management Skills
Business and/or Industry process or operational experience preferred. Demonstrated team building abilities, with a focus on defining job roles, recruiting talent, and nurturing a supportive and innovative team culture.
Proven ability to balance team and individual responsibilities, build teams and consensus, get things done through others not directly under supervision. Ability to work ethically and with integrity. A strong commitment to building a diverse and inclusive team culture. Accountability, Communication, Empowerment, Flexibility, Integrity, Respect, and Teamwork.
Education
The candidate would typically have acquired the skills required through formal education at the bachelor’s level in engineering, computer science, or other scientific discipline, however, equivalent direct experience may be considered. Certifications preferred including: CDO (i.e.: MIT), CDMP, CBIP and CPMP. Business Management Degree (MBA) or equivalent business degree is desirable.
Experience
Experience leading cross-functional teams and managing enterprise-wide data programs, operating, and influencing effectively across the organization. A demonstrable history of influencing others through consensus building in a cross functional environment. Experience in leading and delivering (data led organizational ) change. Significant experience implementing Data Management and Analytics solutions. Demonstrated ability to manage large data science projects and diverse teams .Understanding of relevant privacy laws, including GDPR and CCPA. Knowledge of data ethics and ensuring that teams/functions and areas of responsibility deliver their outputs within the constraints of data protection laws. Demonstrated experience developing and managing data governance policies and deployments. Experience in integrating complex, cross-corporate processes, information strategies, and/or designing strategic metrics and scorecards .Strategy and management consulting experience is highly desirable. Adept in agile methodologies and well-versed in applying DevOps/ML Ops methods to the construction of ML and data science pipelines is desired.
