A chief data officer (CDO) is a corporate officer responsible for enterprise-wide governance and utilization of information as an asset, via data processing, analysis, data mining, information trading and other means. CDOs usually report to the chief executive officer (CEO), although depending on the area of expertise this can vary. The CDO is a member of the executive management team and manager of enterprise-wide data processing and data mining.

The chief data officer title shares its abbreviation with the chief digital officer, but the two are not the same job. The chief data officer has a significant measure of business responsibility for determining what kinds of information the enterprise will choose to capture, retain and exploit and for what purposes. However, the similar-sounding chief digital officer or chief digital information officer often does not bear that business responsibility, but rather is responsible for the information systems through which data is stored and processed. A chief data officer's purpose is to connect the technological results to the needed business results. Various other roles entail having an understanding of the business value. It means using data to derive business outcome. It can be achieved by knowing the team members and activities performed, the stakeholder values and understanding customer needs. Some responsibilities include the governance, advising & monitoring enterprise data. In terms of operations it means enabling data usability along with efficiency and availability. They have to innovate which means driving the business towards digital transformation innovation, cost reduction, and revenue generation. Their role is also to provide supporting analytics with reports on products, customers, operations, and markets. They need to protect the data and eliminate data territorialism while also promoting data ethics.
Can you summarize the responsibilities of a Chief Data Officer?
Below are the key responsibilities of a Chief Data Officer,
Making sure the business can achieve its results by effective use of data processed within the enterprise.
Establish enterprise-wide governance on data collection, data processing, data analysis, and mining and sharing of data across teams and outside the enterprise.
Guiding teams within the enterprise on best practices, compliance standards, and company responsibility in collecting and using data.
Establish monitoring standards for making sure how data is accessed, who access the data, and having a catalog of all data assets.