Big data the hot skill for 2015

Nov 05 2014 by Brian Amble Print This Article

Specialists in big data, cyber-security and corporate governance will not be short of job offers in 2015 and beyond according to the latest annual ‘hot jobs’ predictions produced by executive search firm, CTPartners.

CTPartners CEO, Brian Sullivan, said that executives with high-level ‘big data’ experience are now in particular demand as organizations try to make sense of the massive amounts of information available to them and identify the threats and opportunities that come as a result of this.

Analytical roles such as head of personalization and head of people analytics, alongside risk and cybersecurity positions, are also among the most ‘in-demand’ roles for 2015, he added.

“Overall, the market remains highly competitive for top talent right now, with nearly three-quarters of our partners describing today’s environment as ‘fierce,’” Sullivan said. “The war for talent is definitely going to continue throughout 2015. In the U.S. alone, a record number of IPOs this year means that newly-public companies will need to develop a range of management and leadership positions to grow and compete successfully.”

As the full list shows, the influence of digital channels and big data now reach far beyond IT and are fast becoming must-have skills in many other areas of organizational life.

Digital & Marketing

Chief Marketing Officer: Along with the traditional skillset, today’s CMO must embrace data analytics to work effectively and measure performance.

Digital Marketing / Chief Creative Officer: The marketing executive is leading the way as companies continue their shift from traditional to online advertising platforms that allow closer tracking of return on investment.

Chief Digital Officer: Chief Digital Officers are being called upon to develop effective strategies for mobile and digital platforms.

Retail

Analytics Practice Leader: A key competitive priority is being able to capture and synthesize massive amounts of data now available from customer interactions, supply chain feedback and other sources.

Chief Growth Officer: Includes initiatives aimed at identifying growth opportunities across digital media and technology as well as borrowing ideas from the startup world.

Head of Personalization: Must be an expert at integrating the knowledge gained from customer behavior analytics into highly-targeted engagement and marketing strategies.

Cyber Security & Risk

Chief Information Security Officer: The most in-demand cyber security experts will have a defense sector or federal government background.

Digital Risk Officer: Businesses in all industries will turn to DROs to meet the ever-growing need for consistent, organization-wide responses to digital business risk.

Conduct Risk Officer: A subset of operational risk, conduct risk incorporates treatment of customers, remuneration of staff and a firm’s response to conflicts of interest.

Life Sciences & Healthcare

Head of Customer Engagement: Pharmaceutical and other healthcare organizations are taking a digital approach to engaging with and responding to an increasingly influential customer bases of patients and payers.

Chief Patient Officer: Patient empowerment will be a defining theme, particularly as the opportunities inherent in the convergence of healthcare and technology materialize.

Head of Population Heath Management: Along with disease management expertise, this role will possess a sophisticated understanding of the data and analytic tools available as well as business priorities across the spectrum of healthcare providers and payers.

Chief Innovation Officer: This emerging life sciences sector role encompasses both product development and strategic direction responsibilities.

Human Resources

Chief Human Resources Officer: CEOs are looking for much more out of their HR leader and from a global perspective. The CHRO of today and tomorrow will act as a true counselor and reliable sounding-board to the CEO.

Head of People Analytics: With the richness of data and analytic tools at hand to CEOs, they want deeper and more meaningful information about human capital, their most valuable asset.

Financial Sector

Private Equity CFO: With increasingly robust private equity activity underway on a global basis, this financial leader has the capacity to move quickly when making decisions.

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