The Federal Chief Data Officer Council (CDOC) continues to grow and now has nearly 90 members from both CFO and non-CFO Act agencies. The CDOC conducted a 2022 survey of its membership to help understand the evolving state of Federal CDOs - their positions in agencies, their responsibilities, and information about CDOs themselves. This builds on the survey that the council conducted last year which helped our community and our stakeholders learn how the role of CDO is being implemented across the government.
The survey gathered information on experience, tenure, and education of members and responses indicated that:
- The majority of medium and large agency respondents have focused on data and analytics for 10 years or more.
- Respondents have been in the public sector for 10 years or more, with more small agency respondents reporting shorter tenures.
In addition, the survey showed changes in the role of CDO from 2021 to 2022. In particular, CDOs reported they have a significant increase in responsibility in data analytics.
It was also discovered that organizational structures vary by agency size:
- Small agency respondents are more likely to report to a COO, Head or Deputy Head of an Agency, or Chief of Staff. Nearly a third of large agency respondents report to a CIO.
- From 2021 to 2022 those who report to a COO doubled from 10% to 20%. The percentage of CDOs reporting to a CIO declined from about 30% to 20%.
- Small and medium agencies do not have performance measures for the office, while over half of large agencies do.
We are pleased to share the 2022 responses (anonymized) and 2022 survey instrument, slides analyzing the data, as well as the 2021 responses and 2021 survey instrument.