CDO résumés: 5 tips for landing a chief dat a officer role

CDO résumés: 5 tips for landing a chief data officer role

Chief data officers are on the rise as businesses embrace data-driven strategies. But you’ll want to follow these five tips to write the perfect CDO résumé to get the job.

As companies start to adapt data-first strategies, the role of chief data officer is becoming increasingly important, especially as businesses seek to capitalize on data to gain a competitive advantage. A role historically focused on data governance and compliance, the scope of responsibilities for CDOs has since grown, pushing them to become strategic business leaders, according to data from IDC.
According to the survey, 80% of the top KPIs that CDOs report focusing on are business oriented. The top five KPIs for CDOs include operational efficiency, data privacy and protection, productivity and capacity, innovation and revenue, and customer satisfaction and success. And 87% of CXOs said that “becoming a more intelligent enterprise is their top priority by 2025,” with 52% of CDOs reporting to a business leader.
If you’re looking to embark on an executive career as a CDO, you’ll need a strong résumé. But you don’t need to feel intimidated when writing your executive-level CV; you just need to do a little research. Here are tips from technology résumé experts on how to write the ideal résumé for chief data officer positions, along with one shining example.

1. Focus on transformation

Data has become a top priority for businesses large and small, and while some companies have already established a digital strategy, many of them are just getting started. As CDO you’ll likely be tasked with some type of digital or data transformation, whether it’s a complete overall of a company’s data practices, or helping a company improve or advance their data strategy to the next level.
“When preparing a résumé for CDO roles, each candidate must consider their audience, as different companies include a range of duties into each role. However, the ability to drive digital technology transformation is going to be the focus,” says Stephen Van Vreede, résumé expert at IT Tech Exec.
To demonstrate your ability to lead data transformations, you’ll want to highlight relevant skills such as business strategy, strategic planning, business operations, data governance, goal alignment, data security, data sourcing, technology roadmap development, change management, communication, and team leadership.
Look to job listings to help you find a focus or theme for your résumé. Some positions will focus more heavily on security or emerging technology, while others will focus more on data and analytics. For CDO roles that are focused on transformation, you can make that the central theme of your résumé and demonstrate how your background, expertise, and skills make you a strong fit for the job.
Highlight any experience you have with helping companies build or transform their data science and analytics strategies. For example, you should include examples of any time you helped implement new data or analytics technologies, assisted in maintaining or building databases, found new insights with data, or informed the overall data and analytics strategy in a past role. It’s important to demonstrate that you know how to successfully support or implement digital transformation, especially as it applies to overall business goals.

2. Create a flexible résumé

3. Keep ATS in mind

4. Highlight your soft skills

5. Avoid being too tactical

CDO résumé example

We recently paired up Van Vreede with an aspiring CDO to overhaul her résumé for an executive-level position. As part of that process, Van Vreede helped the candidate, whose identity has been changed in the below final résumé, transform her résumé from a lengthy history of her career with data and analytics to a vivid picture of how her experience and skills lead inevitably to the CDO role.