Chief Data Officer - #2159189

£160,000 - £180,000
London (Hybrid - 1 Day per Week in Office)

This is a high-growth, private equity-backed financial services organisation. As part of an ambitious growth strategy, the business is making significant investments across technology, data, and product, creating an exciting opportunity for a senior data leader to shape the future of the organisation's data capabilities.

This is a critical executive appointment, with a mandate to modernise the data estate, enhance engineering capability, and maximise the impact of data across the end-to-end customer journey.

As Chief Data Officer, you will be responsible for defining and delivering the organisation's data vision while leading a large-scale transformation of its data and analytics function. Working closely with the executive leadership team, you will play a pivotal role in establishing data as a strategic business asset.

Key responsibilities include:

• Reviewing and reshaping the current data function, operating model, and organisational structure.
• Defining and executing a long-term data strategy aligned to business growth objectives.
• Leading the design and implementation of a modern data platform, including data lake and warehousing capabilities.
• Building a scalable, self-service data environment that empowers teams to access and leverage data effectively.
• Driving improvements in data engineering, governance, architecture, and analytics capabilities.
• Partnering with product, technology, and business leaders to embed data-driven decision-making across the organisation.
• Leveraging AI and emerging technologies to improve engineering productivity, accelerate software development, and enhance operational efficiency.
• Leading data initiatives focused on customer onboarding, personalisation, insight generation, and overall customer experience optimisation.
• Establishing best-in-class data practices, ensuring scalability, security, and long-term value creation.

• Proven experience operating in a senior data leadership role, ideally at Data Director, VP Data, or Chief Data Officer level.
• Strong background within a technology-driven or digitally enabled organisation.
• Demonstrated success building, scaling, or transforming enterprise-wide data functions.
• Deep understanding of data engineering, architecture, cloud platforms, analytics, and modern data ecosystems.
• Experience designing and implementing data lakes, cloud data platforms, and modern warehouse architectures.
• Strong track record of delivering self-service data and reporting capabilities that drive business adoption.
• Credibility operating at both strategic and technical levels, with the ability to challenge and influence stakeholders.
• Hands-on understanding of modern data technologies and engineering best practices.
• Experience with Azure and the Microsoft data ecosystem would be highly advantageous.
• Strong appreciation of AI, automation, and their application to software engineering productivity and business performance.
• Proven ability to collaborate effectively with architecture, engineering, product, and executive leadership teams.
• Commercially minded leader who can balance long-term strategy with practical execution.
• Experience within financial services, fintech, lending, payments, or another regulated environment would be beneficial.