The Chief Data Officer (Cdo) Role & Responsibilities

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a successful organization that is not data-driven in some capacity. In the era of big data, becoming data-driven is an imperative. Whether data is collected from customers, clients, internal processes, financials, etc., a business can use their data to:

• Improve product performance
• Strengthen their competitive edge

The prevalence of technology in business makes the collection of data easier than ever, but with all that data comes great responsibility.

That’s where the Chief Data Officer (CDO) comes in. Let’s take a look at this role.

What’s a Chief Data Officer?

The Chief Data Officer (CDO) first appeared in the early 2000s. Originally, the role was focused on data governance and compliance, but now the CDO utilizes data to drive business outcomes.

An integral member of the C-suite, the CDO (not to be confused with Chief Digital Officer) has many data-related functions, including:

• Overseeing data management, data analytics, and data governance
• Ensuring data quality
• Spearheading data and information strategy

The CDO leads the utilization and governance of data across an organization. As CDO, you’re an executive that understands strategy as well as how to use data to drive a business in the desired direction. The best CDOs are then able to justify that direction to investors and stakeholders.

A Chief Data Officer supports good data operations, or DataOps. DataOps is an emerging concept that takes a process-oriented, automated, and collaborative approach to designing, implementing, and managing data workflows and a distributed data architecture.

(Learn more: DataOps Explained.)

Chief Data Officer summary

We’ll look at more specific tasks in a moment, but here’s a brief summary. A successful CDO will:

• Create a data management system that facilitates the secure collection and processing of data.
• Establish a culture within your organization that normalizes sharing this data and making informed decisions on how to improve future business outcomes.
• Implement proper data analytics to identify and, hopefully, reduce pain points at all stages of the business process, increasing not only profit, but also trust in the eyes of stakeholders and clients.