Chief data officer jobs · CDO vacancies · Permanent, interim and fractional

Chief data officer jobs · permanent, interim and fractional

Chief data officer jobs are CDO roles: the most senior seat for a company’s data, setting its data strategy, owning data quality and governance, and making sure data is used well, lawfully and safely to run the business. They come as permanent full-time posts, interim assignments and fractional or part-time seats. The board below shows the chief data officer and related data leadership roles on our board, with permanent roles first where the posting says full-time.

We recruit permanent, interim, fractional and part-time data and technology leaders, and non-executive directors. Hiring rather than looking? On every brief we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.

Brief us on a chief data officer hire →See the roles

How a brief runswhat we undertake

01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief

Shortlist3–5

3–5

Shortlist · with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 set out

Vetting · stages before a candidate reaches a client

£110,250

Full-time chief data officer salary, median · 50th percentile

Robert Half, 2026

15 minutes · video or phone

Book 15 minutes to hire a chief data officer

Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Chief Data Officer candidates, their day rates and availability.

0115 minutes, video or phone
02We scope the role and the days a week
03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs

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On the board · last 3 months

Chief data officer jobs jobs on the board

0 on the board · 0 confirmed open

No Chief data officer jobs roles on the board right now.

We only show real vacancies from the last three months, each marked whether we could confirm it is still open — we never pad the board. New Chief data officer jobs roles appear here as our pipeline finds them.

Browse every role on the board →Talk to us about hiring

Current chief data officer roles on our board

Fractional recruitment works differently from a permanent search — shorter, scoped by days a week, and priced on the engagement. Send a Chief Data Officer brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.

01/ the role

Chief data officer jobs: what the board holds

The board on this page holds the chief data officer roles on our board, in every mode of work. Roles whose posting says full-time come first. Interim, fractional and part-time roles follow, and where a posting states how the role is engaged, the listing says so. When there are few chief data officer roles, the board widens to the technology and AI leadership seats beside it, and says that it has.

What the seat does

The Government Digital and Data framework says a chief data officer makes sure the organisation can use data to make better decisions, policies and services, balancing data protection and privacy with access, sharing and innovation. Its list of duties runs from the data strategy and data quality to ethical, lawful use, data literacy across the organisation, and working with cyber security to keep data secure while staying accessible. For the day-to-day picture, see what a chief data officer does.

One seat, several ways to hold it

A permanent chief data officer is employed full-time and owns data for years. An interim CDO holds the seat for a fixed period, to set up governance, clean up after a migration or prepare for a regulator or a sale. A fractional CDO holds it for agreed days a week, often in a growing business that needs a data strategy before it can carry a full-time salary. The job title is the same; the contract, the days and the tax position are not.

Chief data officer, DPO or CIO?

A data protection officer has a statutory role under UK GDPR: the ICO says a DPO must be independent, an expert in data protection and report to the highest management level, and monitors compliance rather than running data. A CDO runs data as an asset and is accountable for it, so the two are distinct roles. A CIO runs the systems data sits in; see CIO jobs. Where the seat is about AI, see fractional CAIO jobs.

02/ scope

How to get a chief data officer job

1. Lead a data function first

Most chief data officers come up through analytics, data engineering, data governance or data science, then lead a data team as head of data or data director before taking the whole seat. Breadth matters more than depth in one discipline: a CDO answers for strategy, quality, governance and value. Fractional data science jobs are one way to hold the seat below it.

2. Know the law and the frameworks

A CDO shortlist tests whether you can use data boldly and lawfully. The ICO’s guidance on the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 sets out how the Act amends UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and PECR, with all its data protection provisions now in force. In the public sector, the Data and AI Ethics Framework guides responsible use of data and AI, and the government’s data ownership model formalises who is accountable for data through its life cycle.

3. Show the board work

A CDO is judged on what data changes: decisions made faster, costs cut, products built, risk reduced. Bring numbers you can stand behind from your own work. Boards also ask about data security; the NCSC’s Cyber Security Toolkit for Boards is what directors use to frame those questions.

4. Pick the route in

Not every chief data officer job is permanent. Fractional chief data officer jobs hold the seat for set days a week, and interim CDO roles cover a gap or a programme for a set period. If you work through your own company, the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply: status turns on how the engagement runs, and a medium or large client makes the determination. Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.

03/ related roles

Chief data officer jobs by type

Every page we keep for the chief data officer seat and the data seats beside it, one per kind of role or question. We recruit permanent, interim, fractional and part-time data leaders.

Fractional CDO jobsFractional chief data officer jobsFractional CDO servicesWhat is a chief data officer?Fractional data science jobsFractional DPO jobsFractional CAIO jobsFractional chief digital officer jobs

04/ vetting

How we vet chief data officers

What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.

01
Qualification screen
Verify Chief Data Officer tenure, sector context and stage fit.
SOURCING
02
Mandate fit
Match to your situation — stage, board dynamics, timing.
MATCHING
03
Reference deep-dive
We take references ourselves, from recent past clients — real outcomes, not titles.
VERIFY
04
Shortlist
Three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5

05/ cdo jobs

CDO jobs which CDO, and what the postings ask

CDO jobs can mean two different seats. Chief data officer is the data seat this page covers. Chief digital officer is a separate seat, leading digital change and digital products; those roles are listed under fractional chief digital officer jobs. Read the posting before you apply: the two ask for different records.

A chief data officer posting is also advertised as chief data and analytics officer, head of data, data director or, in some firms, chief data and AI officer. Read it for what the seat owns: data strategy, governance and quality, the data platform, analytics and data science, or all of them. Ask who it reports to (the CEO, the COO, the CFO or a CIO) and whether it owns a budget and a team.

Ask how the seat sits beside the data protection officer and the security lead. The ICO expects a DPO to be independent, which is hard to square with running the data the DPO checks; see fractional DPO jobs for that seat.

06/ permanent chief data officer jobs

Permanent chief data officer jobs the market and the pay

Permanent chief data officer jobs are full-time employed roles, and they are the ones listed first on this page. Robert Half’s 2026 UK salary guide puts a full-time chief data officer at £88,250 at the 25th percentile, £110,250 at the median and £132,500 at the 75th percentile. Robert Half is a recruiter, and these are its own starting-salary projections.

Base pay is one part of a permanent package. Bonus, equity, pension and notice period vary with the size of the business and its sector, and regulated sectors such as financial services and health ask more of the seat. For contract and fractional pay, see fractional CDO services.

If the work fills a day or two a week, a fractional CDO may be the honest answer for the business; fractional CDO jobs lists that seat.

07/ questions

Chief data officer jobs FAQ

The questions people ask before bringing in a chief data officer.

On this page: the board shows the chief data officer roles on our board, permanent roles first where the posting says full-time, then interim, fractional and part-time. Fractional chief data officer jobs have their own page.

Both use the initials. A chief data officer leads data strategy, quality and governance; a chief digital officer leads digital change and digital products. This page covers the data seat; the digital seat is listed under fractional chief digital officer jobs. Read each posting before applying.

Robert Half’s 2026 UK salary guide puts a full-time chief data officer at £88,250 (25th percentile), £110,250 (median) and £132,500 (75th percentile). Interim and fractional CDOs are paid by the day; see fractional CDO services.

Lead a data function first, usually as head of data or data director, with a record across data strategy, governance, the data platform and analytics. Know UK data protection law as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. Interim and fractional CDO roles are another way into the seat.

A DPO has a statutory role: the ICO says a DPO monitors compliance, advises on data protection obligations and must be independent and report to the highest management level. A chief data officer runs data as an asset. See fractional DPO jobs for that seat.

The CIO runs the systems and IT the business runs on; the chief data officer is accountable for the data in them, its quality and its use. In smaller companies one person may hold both. See CIO jobs and CTO jobs for those seats.

It depends on how the engagement runs in practice, not on its label. In most cases a medium or large client makes the determination; for a small client outside the public sector, the worker’s own company decides (HMRC). We set out each candidate’s IR35 position on the shortlist and do not promise an outcome.

Decide whether the seat is permanent, interim or for set days a week, then write down what it owns, who it reports to and how it sits beside the DPO. For a fractional seat, start with fractional CDO jobs. On every brief we send a shortlist of 3–5 after five-stage vetting.

Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5

Bring the brief. We architect the team.

A shortlist of 3–5 with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting.

Book a call →Submit a brief