Position Summary
The Interim Chief Data Officer (CDO) will serve as the senior-most leader responsible for stabilizing, organizing, and advancing the company's Data & Analytics function during a critical period of transformation. This individual will bring disciplined execution, strong business alignment, and deep experience leading data modernization efforts within a Consumer-focused organization.
The ideal candidate is an accomplished, pragmatic operator who excels in environments with lower digital maturity and can quickly establish credibility with executive stakeholders. This role requires a leader capable of translating complex data initiatives into clear, actionable business value, while also providing hands-on direction to a lean, evolving team.
Key Responsibilities
Leadership & Organizational Stabilization
- Provide steady, experienced leadership to a core Data & Analytics team of approximately nine employees across engineering, architecture, data science, and business intelligence.
- Establish structure, prioritize initiatives, and create sustainable operating rhythms to ensure clarity and accountability.
- Manage and align work across both internal teams and outsourced delivery partners.
Execution & Business Value Delivery
- Lead with an execution-first approach, emphasizing measurable outcomes over theoretical or long-horizon strategy.
- Translate technical initiatives into tangible business benefits that can be easily understood by stakeholders across Corporate and Brand organizations.
- Build trust quickly through consistent communication, transparent decision-making, and realistic expectation-setting.
Business Alignment & Change Leadership
- Serve as a key partner to senior business leaders, strengthening alignment between data initiatives and enterprise priorities.
- Act as a change agent to guide a low digital-maturity organization through modernization efforts.
- Improve adoption of data capabilities by ensuring solutions are practical, reliable, and closely tied to business needs.
Data Modernization & Architecture
- Lead efforts to centralize existing data sources and create a unified, well-governed data foundation.
- Shape and oversee the transition to a federated data model over the next 18-24 months, ensuring appropriate architecture, governance, and scalability.
- Ensure alignment with the organization's AWS-based technology environment.
Business Intelligence Enablement
- Formalize and scale a modern BI program, including governance, training, and ongoing operating standards.
- Drive enterprise-wide rollout of new BI tools while accelerating the decommissioning of legacy platforms such as Tableau and Hyperion.
- Improve BI adoption by ensuring dashboards and reporting tools meet business expectations for accuracy, timeliness, and usability.
AI Readiness & Enablement
- Establish the foundational data quality, governance, and accessibility required for future AI capabilities.
- Identify practical, business-aligned opportunities for AI enablement as the organization matures.
Qualifications
- Demonstrated success leading a data transformation within a Consumer-focused organization utilizing the AWS stack.
- 15+ years of progressive leadership experience spanning data engineering, analytics, BI, or enterprise data architecture.
- Track record of leading teams in low digital-maturity environments and strengthening organizational alignment around data priorities.
- Experience building and modernizing BI programs and retiring legacy analytics platforms.
- Strong executive presence and communication skills, with the ability to simplify complex topics for senior business audiences.
- Proven ability to lead both strategic modernization efforts and hands-on operational execution.
Leadership Competencies
- Execution-Oriented: Strong focus on delivery, prioritization, and operational discipline.
- Credible & Composed: Able to quickly earn trust and instill confidence across a broad set of stakeholders.
- Business-Minded: Adept at connecting data initiatives to tangible business outcomes.
- Change Leader: Skilled in guiding organizations through modernization and capability-building.
- Collaborative: Operates effectively across Corporate and Brand teams with a low-ego, partnership-driven approach.
