Chief data officer salary · 2026
What a chief data officer earns, nationally and in London
The chief data officer salary depends on whose figures you read.
In Robert Half’s 2026 figures, the range runs from £88,250 to £132,500, median £110,250, and from £120,000 to £180,250 in London, median £150,000.
Exec Capital puts base pay at mid-market businesses at £140,000–£240,000.
All of these are base salary; bonus comes on top.
Experience, sector and the size of the data estate move the number.
When you hire a chief data officer through us, we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay, availability and IR35 position set out.
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
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
Pick a day that suits · live availability
On the board · last 3 months
Chief data officer jobs on the board
No Chief data officer roles on the board in the last three months. Showing technology and data leadership roles instead.
Chief data officer roles on the 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
What a chief data officer does, and what sets the pay
A chief data officer makes sure the organisation can use its data to make better decisions.
The government’s Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework lists the work: a data strategy aligned with the organisation’s objectives, data architecture, data governance, data risk management and innovation in data and technology.
In the Civil Service the role is graded at Senior Civil Service 1 or 2.
For the role in full, see what a chief data officer does.
Three things set the salary.
Location: Robert Half’s London median is £150,000, against £110,250 nationally.
Sector: Exec Capital puts base pay at financial services and other data-heavy regulated firms at £180,000–£320,000, against £140,000–£240,000 at mid-market businesses.
And the remit: a chief data officer who owns the data platform, the analytics team and the governance programme holds a bigger job than one who sets policy for others to run.
A chief data officer is not the data protection officer.
The ICO’s guidance on data protection officers says a DPO must be independent, expert in data protection and report to the highest level of management, and any other duties must not create a conflict of interest.
Some organisations need both roles; pay the one you are hiring.
02/ scope
How to hire a chief data officer
1. Scope the seat
Write down what the role owns: the data strategy, the data platform, the analytics and data science teams, governance and quality, or a mix.
Say who it reports to: the chief executive, the CTO, the CIO or the COO.
A brief that does not say whether the platform is in scope draws an analytics shortlist.
2. Choose the route
A permanent chief data officer suits an organisation whose data needs an owner every day.
If the need is a strategy and a governance framework, set for part of the week, a fractional chief data officer may fit; for full-time cover over a fixed period, an interim chief data officer.
For every role on the board, permanent first, see chief data officer jobs.
3. Set the whole package
Salary is the start.
The CIPD’s introduction to reward separates fixed base pay from variable pay such as bonuses, which is not guaranteed.
Every figure on this page is base pay, so decide the bonus, pension and benefits before you compare offers.
4. Assess against the work
Give candidates a real problem: your data estate as it stands, and the decision the board most wants data for.
Ask how they would sequence the strategy, the platform and the governance, and what they would stop doing.
Take references yourself, from people the candidate reported to.
What we do on a chief data officer brief
We recruit permanent, fractional, interim, part-time and temporary executives, and non-executive directors.
We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, and every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
03/ the board
What the board holds.
A read of the roles on the board on this page, counted as they stand: how each is engaged, whether the posting gives the days and the rate, and where the work happens.
On this board, last 90 days · 1 role · technology and data leadership
Engagement
- Fractional1
Days a week
- Stated in the posting1
- Not stated0
Day rate
- Verified rate0
- Estimated (est)1
- Rate not stated0
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote0
- Hybrid1
- On-site0
Newest posting on the board: 8 Oct 2026.
04/ the route
Fractional, interim or permanent?
Four taps. The answer names the route for the seat and the page that covers it.
The route · Fractional
A fractional chief data officer.The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.
A fractional chief data officer holds the seat on agreed days for as long as the seat is needed, and works for other clients on the rest.
The route · Interim
An interim chief data officer.The work fills the week, and it has an end: a programme, a cover, a transaction.
An interim chief data officer takes the seat full time for that stretch and hands it over when it is done.
The route · Interim, then permanent
Interim now, a permanent chief data officer after.The seat is full time and long term, and the need is now.
An interim chief data officer holds it while the permanent search runs, so the seat is not left empty.
The route · Permanent
A permanent chief data officer.A full-time seat that sits at the table for years is a permanent hire.
There is time to run a search, so run one.
05/ rates by stage
Chief data officer salary by source, location and level
Permanent base pay as each publisher states it. Robert Half publishes 2026 starting-salary projections as a range with a median. Robert Walters reports advertised roles by region and company size; outside London it groups the chief data officer with the CIO. Exec Capital, a search firm, publishes its own benchmarks by business type. Henderson Scott, a recruiter, publishes bands by level from 2025 data, and prints the same bands for the CTO and the chief digital officer.
06/ economics
The cost to employ: salary, National Insurance and pension
An employer pays employer’s National Insurance at 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year in 2026–27, and must put eligible staff in a workplace pension with an employer contribution of at least 3% on qualifying earnings, between £6,240 and £50,270 a year.
On Robert Half’s national median of £110,250, that is about £15,800 of National Insurance and about £1,300 of minimum pension, so about £127,400 a year before any bonus or benefits (our arithmetic).
On the London median of £150,000 it is about £173,100 (our arithmetic).
Many employers pay more than the pension minimum.
07/ 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
08/ chief data officer salary UK
Chief data officer salary in the UK: why the sources disagree
The chief data officer salary in the UK has no single figure.
Robert Half’s national range runs from £88,250 to £132,500, median £110,250.
Exec Capital puts mid-market base pay at £140,000–£240,000.
Henderson Scott’s bands run from £120,000 at mid-level to £200,000 at manager level.
Robert Walters’ 2026 survey puts a combined CIO or chief data officer role at £100,000–£175,000 in the Midlands and £100,000–£150,000 in the South.
They measure different things.
Robert Half projects starting salaries from its own placements and third-party vacancy data.
Robert Walters analyses roles advertised over a year.
Exec Capital reports the seats its search practice fills, which skew to larger and regulated firms.
Henderson Scott prints one band for the CTO, the chief digital officer and the chief data officer alike.
Read the remit, not the title.
A head of data with a governance brief is often called chief data officer in a mid-sized firm; a bank’s chief data officer may run hundreds of people.
For an official view of pay by occupation, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings reports earnings by occupation, but no occupation code matches the chief data officer alone.
09/ chief data officer salary London
Chief data officer salary in London: the premium over the national figure
On Robert Half’s 2026 London figures, the chief data officer salary in London runs from £120,000 to £180,250, median £150,000.
The national range runs from £88,250 to £132,500, median £110,250.
Robert Walters’ 2026 survey, built from advertised roles, puts a London chief data officer or chief data scientist higher: £170,000–£260,000 in a medium enterprise and £185,000–£310,000 in a large one.
Use London figures for a London seat and national or regional figures elsewhere; both publishers report London separately.
10/ head of data salary
Head of data salary: the tier below the chief data officer
Robert Half benchmarks the head of data and analytics as the nearest related position.
Its 2026 head of data salary range runs from £65,500 to £85,000 nationally, median £75,750, and from £89,000 to £115,500 in London, median £103,000.
The gap to the chief data officer is the step from running the analytics team to owning the organisation’s data strategy and governance.
In a mid-sized company the head of data is often the most senior data role and carries some of a chief data officer’s work.
Beside the chief data officer sit the CTO and CIO.
On Robert Half’s 2026 national figures the CTO median is £160,500 and the CIO median £150,250.
For those seats in full, see the CTO salary and CIO salary pages.
11/ the other routes
Permanent salary, interim or fractional pay: comparing like with like
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A permanent chief data officer is paid a salary and package, with employer’s National Insurance and pension on top.
An interim is paid by the day for full-time cover over a fixed period; see interim chief data officer salary.
A fractional chief data officer is paid by the day or a monthly retainer for part of the week; we know of no market source for that rate, so we print none.
For the permanent salary spread across part-week days (our arithmetic, not a market rate), see fractional chief data officer salary.
Compare the total cost for the days the work needs, not the headline figures.
12/ questions
Chief data officer salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a chief data officer.
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.
