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CHIEF DATA OFFICER / CHIEF DATA & ANALYTICS OFFICER
CDO and CDAO executive search
Before searching for a senior data leader, decide what the organisation needs them to own.
Data leadership is changing as analytics and AI become more closely connected to enterprise decision-making. The result is increasing overlap between CDO, CDAO, CIO and Chief AI Officer responsibilities.
Lucent starts by clarifying what the executive needs to own, what needs to change and which decisions the role must have the authority to make.
Do you need a CDO, CDAO or Chief AI Officer?
The titles are not standardised, so the distinction should start with what the organisation needs the executive to own.
CDO
A Chief Data Officer is often centred on enterprise data strategy, governance, quality, ownership and organisational capability.
CDAO
A Chief Data & Analytics Officer usually combines data responsibility with analytics, insight and increasingly AI.
CHIEF AI OFFICER
A Chief AI Officer may be appropriate where AI requires distinct enterprise ownership and authority beyond the data function.
The useful questions are who owns enterprise data, who owns analytics, who owns AI, who is accountable for value and where the decision rights sit.
The title is less important than the accountability beneath it.
Combining data and AI can create clearer ownership where the capabilities, operating model and decision rights genuinely belong together.
A combined CDAO remit may make sense where AI depends heavily on enterprise data capability, analytics and AI are already closely integrated, and one executive can credibly own both the capability and the outcomes.
A separate AI leader may be stronger where AI has become a distinct enterprise agenda, responsibility extends well beyond data, or the executive needs wider authority across technology, risk, operations and business leadership.
DATA + AI OWNERSHIP
Should data and AI sit under the same executive?
Sometimes.
Operating model
How central teams, technology and business units work together, and what leadership, skills and structure are needed underneath the role.
Value & adoption
How data and analytics investment translates into business use, adoption and measurable outcomes.
AI remit
Where AI sits within the remit, what the CDO/CDAO is accountable for and where responsibility belongs elsewhere.
Analytics & insight
How data is converted into better decisions, performance and measurable business outcomes.
Governance & ownership
Who owns critical data, how quality, access and use are governed, and where decision rights sit.
Data strategy
What data capability the organisation needs, where investment should go and how priorities support the business.
ROLE SCOPE
What should a CDO or CDAO actually own?
The role should be designed around the outcomes the organisation needs rather than absorbing every unresolved data, analytics and AI responsibility into one job.
The reporting line should give the executive enough authority to achieve the outcomes they are being held accountable for.
A COO reporting line may be appropriate where operational performance and implementation are central to the remit.
COO
Reporting to the CIO may work where the role is tightly integrated with enterprise technology, architecture and platforms.
CIO
Reporting to the CEO may make sense where data, analytics and AI are major enterprise priorities requiring broad influence.
CEO
REPORTING LINE
Where should the CDO or CDAO report?
The right reporting line depends on the work the executive is expected to do and the authority required to do it.
CEO, CIO and COO reporting lines can all be credible, but each implies a different role.
01
OWNERSHIP
Establish clear enterprise data ownership.
Reduce fragmentation between data teams.
Clarify AI and data accountability.
02
CAPABILITY
Improve confidence in critical data.
Establish governance proportionate to the organisation.
Build the right leadership structure beneath the role.
03
VALUE & ADOPTION
Create a credible data and analytics investment agenda.
Improve adoption by business teams.
Connect data and analytics work to measurable business outcomes.
FIRST 12–24 MONTHS
What should a CDO or CDAO deliver in the first 12–24 months?
The right outcomes depend on the organisation’s starting point.
A senior data leader needs to connect data capability to business decisions, adoption and measurable value.
A strong CDO or CDAO should be able to explain which business problems matter, why investment is justified, where value will come from, which compromises are necessary, how adoption will happen and how results will be measured.
The role needs enough data and technical credibility to make sound decisions, alongside the commercial judgement and influence to make those decisions matter beyond the data function.
COMMERCIAL JUDGEMENT
How commercial should a senior data leader be?
Rebecca looks at what the executive personally owned, what data or analytics capability existed when they arrived, what changed and how those changes affected the business.
The assessment tests whether adoption actually happened, how governance improved, how the executive influenced business leaders, how AI altered the remit, what resistance they encountered and how value was measured.
ASSESSMENT
How do you assess whether a data leader has genuinely created value?
Building a data platform is not the same as changing how the organisation performs.
How did AI alter the remit?
07
How did you measure value?
06
What failed?
05
Where did governance slow delivery and where did it protect the organisation?
04
Which decisions had the biggest business impact?
03
How did you establish meaningful business ownership of data?
02
What did you personally change?
01
Rebecca can help the client build interviews around the specific outcomes and risks identified during the search.
INTERVIEW
What should you ask a CDO or CDAO candidate at interview?
The most useful questions test evidence rather than invite polished descriptions of a data strategy.
Lucent conducts retained executive search for senior data, analytics and AI leadership in established, complex organisations.
Rebecca Hastings leads each assignment personally, from leadership diagnostic and role definition through market search, assessment and appointment.
CDO & CDAO EXECUTIVE SEARCH
CDO and CDAO executive search with Lucent
JESSICA IGOE
HR Director
Rebecca has an incredible amount of knowledge in recruitment and supporting businesses to define the role that is required. Recently, she provided invaluable insight into the market, the role, and relevant industry information.”
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RESEARCH & EVIDENCE
AI & Data Leadership Report 2025–2026
Lucent’s AI & Data Leadership Report 2025–2026 is based on research with more than 100 AI and data leaders and provides additional evidence on the organisational conditions affecting data and AI delivery.