Chief Data Officer
Role lens
Chief data officers manage companies' enterprise-wide data administration and data mining functions. They ensure data are used as a strategic business asset at the executive level and implement and support a more collaborative and aligned information management infrastructure for the benefit of the organisation at large.
As a chief data officer, you’ll be a key executive leader focused on the entire data lifecycle within a company. Your days will involve collaborating with various departments, from IT and marketing to finance and operations, to define data strategy, governance policies, and analytical capabilities. You’ll be responsible for ensuring data quality, security, and compliance, while also identifying opportunities to use data to improve business performance and gain a competitive advantage. This role requires a blend of technical expertise, business acumen, and strong leadership skills.
- • Developing and implementing a comprehensive data strategy aligned with business goals.
- • Establishing and enforcing data governance policies and standards.
- • Overseeing data quality management and ensuring data accuracy and reliability.
Where this occupation is in demand
Reported labour shortages and surpluses, by year. Published for occupation groups, not for individual job titles.
Figures cover Production and specialised services managers — 186 jobs including this one.
In shortage: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia and 3 more.
Longest-running shortage: Belgium, 4 years.
Select a place on the map to see its figures.
About this source›
Source: ELA/EURES labour shortages and surpluses. Readings are published at occupation-group level, and cover Europe. Editions differ in annex layout and country coverage, so a change between years does not always mean the labour market changed. Countries in grey were not reported, which is not the same as being in balance.
What these words mean
The four things this section reports
- Reported demand
- Whether employers report needing people in this job — a judgement published by a national or EU body, not a count.
- Where it is heading
- Which way employment in this job is expected to move over the coming years, from an official projection.
- Openings
- Roughly how many openings arise — from growth and from people leaving the job.
- Typical pay
- What people in this job typically earn where the source publishes it. Blank does not mean unpaid; it means nobody publishes it for that place.
A measure is left out when nobody publishes it for that place, rather than shown as zero.
Which way the market leans for you
- In your favour
- More openings than people looking — employers are competing for candidates.
- Balanced
- Openings and candidates are roughly matched.
- Competitive
- More people looking than openings — expect to compete.
- Mixed evidence
- Sources disagree, or the same occupation group is short in one part and oversupplied in another.
Every source resolves to one of these four, so there is a single vocabulary to learn. What differs is the evidence behind it, which is printed underneath each verdict — a measured ratio of openings to jobseekers, or an assessment published by a national body.
How this job compares with other jobs in the same country
- Strong
- Among the strongest in that country
- Good
- Stronger than most jobs in that country
- Mixed
- About typical for that country
- Weak
- Weaker than most jobs in that country
This is a rank within one country, not a score you can carry across borders — the registers behind two countries count different people, so the same number means different things in each. It is also why a job can be among the strongest in a country and still show as Competitive: it leads the field in a market that is crowded overall.
Where these come from
Every figure is published by a national statistics office, a public employment service or an EU body, and each card names its source and the period it covers. Some places are counted monthly, others assessed once or twice a year, so two places on the same map can be describing different moments — the date is always shown.
None of this predicts one person’s chances. It describes a market.
Reported demand · Typical pay · Where it is heading (United States, Ireland, Australia, Malta, United Kingdom)
| Reported demand | Typical pay | Where it is heading | |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Not reported | $139,500 2025-05 | +8.7% 2024–2034 · BLS 2024-2034 |
| Ireland | Shortage reported ELA/EURES 2023 * | — | +57.4% 2023–2035 · Cedefop 2026 * |
| Australia | Assessed as balanced Jobs and Skills Australia 2025 * | — | — |
| Malta | Shortage reported ELA/EURES 2024 * | — | — |
| United Kingdom | Not reported | £90,081 2025-provisional | — |
* Published for occupation groups, not for individual job titles.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS)
Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Open Government Licence v3.0
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Future Outlook for chief data officer
The outlook for chief data officer reflects a balanced mix of automation exposure and durable, human-led work.
How are these scores calculated?
The Resilience Score (0–100) estimates how structurally protected this occupation is from automation and AI disruption, based on task-level analysis. Higher scores mean more human-judgment-intensive tasks. AI Exposure shows the estimated percentage of task hours that current AI capabilities could affect. These are model-derived structural indicators, not predictions about individual job security.
How could chief data officer change as AI adoption grows?
Several task areas may shift toward AI-assisted workflows, so reskilling becomes more important.
Illustrative scenario based on task automatability — not a forecast. Values are rounded the further ahead you look.
Several task areas may shift toward AI-assisted workflows, so reskilling becomes more important.
Illustrative scenario based on task automatability — not a forecast. Values are rounded the further ahead you look.
Model-based estimate. Use it as a planning signal, not a guarantee.
Compare this to your profile
How AI may change this role
Deterministic, model-based interpretation of current role signals — not a guarantee of replacement.
What still depends on people
- apply information security policies
- define technology strategy
- define data quality criteria
Where AI may become a co-pilot
- make data-driven decisions
- utilise decision support system
- manage ICT data architecture
Tasks most exposed to automation
- manage ICT data classification
- manage data
Vital Signs & AI Vectors
AI Exposure Vectors
0-100%Exposure to AI-assisted analysis, pattern recognition, and predictive modelling tasks
Exposure to content generation, creative augmentation, and large language model tools
Exposure to workflow automation, decision-support software, and process digitisation
Exposure to physical automation, robotics, and sensor-driven task displacement
Technical Details
NexFuture v3.0 estimates automation exposure natively from ESCO essential-skill groups, weighted by skill mass and calibrated against expert anchors. Scores are probabilistic estimates, not guarantees. See the NexFuture Methodology White Paper for full details.
Measures automation exposure. It does not measure pay, demand, or how many jobs exist near you.
What people in this role usually do
Digital Technology
A typical day as a chief data officer
09 09:00 · Morning define technology strategy
10 10:30 · Mid-morning apply information security policies
12 12:00 · Midday define data quality criteria
14 14:00 · Afternoon manage data
15 15:30 · Late afternoon manage ICT data architecture
17 17:00 · Wrap-up manage ICT data classification
Task order is illustrative. Individual days vary.
What you need to do this work
The skills, knowledge and tools this role calls for — and the traits and rewards that come with it.
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manage ICT data classification
Oversee the classification system an organisation uses to organise its data. Assign an owner to each data concept or bulk of concepts and determine the value of each item of data.
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define technology strategy
Create an overall plan of objectives, practices, principles and tactics related to the use of technologies within an organisation and describe the means to reach the objectives, taking into account analyses and relevant regulations.
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manage ICT data architecture
Oversee regulations and use ICT techniques to define the information systems architecture and to control data gathering, storing, consolidation, arrangement and usage in an organisation.
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define data quality criteria
Specify the criteria by which data quality is measured for business purposes, such as inconsistencies, incompleteness, usability for purpose and accuracy.
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apply information security policies
Implement policies, methods and regulations for data and information security in order to respect confidentiality, integrity and availability principles.
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manage data
Administer all types of data resources through their lifecycle by performing data profiling, parsing, standardisation, identity resolution, cleansing, enhancement and auditing. Ensure the data is fit for purpose, using specialised ICT tools to fulfil the data quality criteria.
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make data-driven decisions
Collect data such as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for an organisation and use the information to formulate actions and strategies.
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utilise decision support system
Use the available ICT systems that can be used to support business or organisational decision making.
data mining
The methods of artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics and databases used to extract content from a dataset.
data storage
The physical and technical concepts of how digital data storage is organised in specific schemes both locally, such as hard-drives and random-access memories (RAM) and remotely, via network, internet or cloud.
decision support systems
The ICT systems that can be used to support business or organisational decision making.
information structure
The type of infrastructure which defines the format of data: semi-structured, unstructured and structured.
visual presentation techniques
The visual representation and interaction techniques, such as histograms, scatter plots, surface plots, tree maps and parallel coordinate plots, that can be used to present abstract numerical and non-numerical data, in order to reinforce the human understanding of this information.
CA Datacom/DB
The computer program CA Datacom/DB is a tool for creating, updating and managing databases, currently developed by the software company CA Technologies.
cloud technologies
The technologies which enable access to hardware, software, data and services through remote servers and software networks irrespective of their location and architecture.
data models
The techniques and existing systems used for structuring data elements and showing relationships between them, as well as methods for interpreting the data structures and relationships.
data quality assessment
The process of revealing data issues using quality indicators, measures and metrics in order to plan data cleansing and data enrichment strategies according to data quality criteria.
- business processes
- data ethics
- data science
Path to become a chief data officer
What it typically takes to qualify: education level, where it is a regulated profession, and where to study.
Master's or equivalent level
463 programmes in 25 countries teach the core skills of this job. Plus 241 short courses that build single skills.
A few examples, taught in the language of this page:
Bachelor of Information Technology (Data Engineering)
Technical and Further Education Commission · Australia
South Africa
These are 6 of 704.
Sources
- 1. Source: Commonwealth of Australia (Department of Education), CRICOS, data.gov.au, CC BY 2.5 AU. Data as at 01/09/2026. Adapted by NexPath.
- 2. Source: South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), All Qualifications and Unit Standards (allqs.saqa.org.za).
- 3. Source: Study in Korea, National Institute for International Education (NIIED) (studyinkorea.go.kr).
- 4. Source: YÖK Atlas, Council of Higher Education (yokatlas.yok.gov.tr).
- 5. Contains information from MySkillsFuture Course Run accessed on 2026-09-28 from data.gov.sg which is made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0 (https://data.gov.sg/open-data-licence)
Growth Pathways & Similar Roles
Explore typical career progression paths, adjacent skills, and similar roles to plan your next transition.
Where does chief data officer fit?
Similarity scores based on skill overlap from ESCO data.
For organisations
The data on this page, working for your students, clients and staff.
Frequently asked questions
What kind of background is typically needed to become a chief data officer?
How does the role of a CDO differ from a Chief Information Officer (CIO)?
What are the most important skills for a chief data officer to possess?
Is there a shortage of Chief Data Officer in Europe?
How much does Chief Data Officer pay in the United States?
Sources: ESCO O*NET ELA/EURES Cedefop BLS Data updated October 3, 2026 About our data