Deputy Chief Data Officer (Remote)

About the role

Social Discovery Group (SDG) is a group of social discovery companies whose products connect people online across cultures and regions. It is looking for a Deputy Chief Data Officer for its Research Center, described as the second role in a data function that directly drives company P&L. The Deputy CDO is seen as a full-fledged successor to the CDO, owning execution across the function, leading part of the strategic initiatives personally and working directly with C-level executives.

Key responsibilities

• Lead part of the Research Center's strategic initiatives end-to-end, from business case and prioritization to delivery and measurable impact.
• Work with C-level executives and business heads to align priorities, negotiate resources and timelines with numbers-based arguments.
• Own execution of key cross-functional initiatives: data platform and BigQuery migration, ML projects, experimentation process, AI for analytics, UX research, data quality, SLA and freshness.
• Unblock stalled projects by defining scope, owners and next steps, escalating early and driving delivery.
• Manage resources and backlog across teams, prioritizing by business value and allocating capacity.
• Build and run the function's operating system: monthly reviews, quarterly planning, project reviews, retros, commitment tracking, escalations and a single status dashboard.
• Measure initiatives in business terms, tracking ROI and results against plan.
• Support team leads (Product Analytics, Data Engineering, ML, UX Research) in setting goals, prioritizing and growing as managers.
• Own operational health: data freshness, platform uptime, ML platform stability, delivery predictability and experimentation throughput.

Required profile

• 7+ years in data, analytics or ML in product technology companies, including 4+ years in leadership roles managing specialists and team leads.
• Experience as a CDO, Deputy CDO or Head of Data / Analytics in a mid-size or large product organization is highly desirable.
• Readiness and ambition to grow into the CDO role.
• Proven track record of delivering complex cross-functional data / ML projects to measurable results.
• Strong operational management skills: project decomposition, planning, resource and backlog management, risk management, clean escalation and running parallel initiatives.
• Business leader mindset: thinks in numbers, benefits and business impact, understands trade-offs between speed, quality, value and risk.
• Experience working with and negotiating with C-level executives; influence without formal authority.
• Fluent Russian and English are a must.

Required skills

• Broad understanding of product and marketing analytics, A/B testing and experimentation, the ML lifecycle, data platforms, data quality and SLA, BI / self-service and unit economics, with hands-on depth in at least one.

What we offer

• Full-time remote work.
• Vacation of 28 calendar days per year and 7 wellness days per year.
• Kindergarten or school fee compensation for your child.
• Bonuses up to $5,000 for recommending successful applicants.
• 50% payment for professional training, international conferences and meetings, and a corporate discount for English lessons.
• Health benefits, with up to $1,000 gross per year per employee available for health insurance or medical fees.
• Equipped workplace in offices or co-working locations, or reimbursement of workplace costs up to $1,000 gross once every 3 years.
• An internal gamified gratitude system with rewards from colleagues.