This is a seat at the top table of a data function that drives company profit. Social Discovery Group is hiring a Deputy Chief Data Officer for the Research Center of its Core Business Unit: the number two role, and a future successor to the CDO. The role is fully remote and open to candidates in any location, which includes senior data leaders based in the UAE.
About the Role
✔ Own execution across the Research Center and lead strategic initiatives end to end.
✔ Work directly with C-level executives and business heads.
✔ Go deep into analytics, ML, data engineering, marketing analytics and experimentation.
✔ Turn strategy into measurable business results, not just shipped tasks.
Career Opportunity
✔ A clear path toward the CDO role.
✔ Lead teams across product analytics, data engineering, ML and UX research.
✔ Drive major projects including a data platform and BigQuery migration.
✔ Work in a remote-first company recognised by Great Place to Work and FlexJobs.
Deputy CDO Position Overview
This is not a chief of staff or programme manager job. You will personally lead part of the strategy while keeping the whole function moving: unblocking stalled projects, prioritising the backlog by business value, managing dependencies between ML, backend, product and analytics, and stopping work that does not deliver. You will build the operating rhythm too, with monthly reviews, quarterly planning, escalation paths and a single status dashboard. Every initiative is measured in business terms, such as benefits, ROI and impact against plan.
Key Responsibilities
What You Will Do Day to Day
- Lead strategic initiatives from business case to delivery and measurable impact.
- Align priorities, commitments and trade-offs with C-level executives.
- Own key cross-functional work: data platform and BigQuery migration, ML projects, experimentation, AI for analytics, UX research and data quality.
- Unblock stalled projects by defining scope, owners and next steps.
- Manage resources and backlog across teams.
- Run the function’s operating system: reviews, planning, retros and escalation.
- Track ROI and results against plan.
- Coach team leads and help them grow as managers.
- Keep data freshness, platform uptime and delivery predictability healthy.
Qualifications & Requirements
- 7+ years in data, analytics or ML at product tech companies, with 4+ years leading strong specialists and team leads.
- Highly desirable: experience as CDO, Deputy CDO or Head of Data or Analytics.
- Broad understanding of product and marketing analytics, A/B testing, the ML lifecycle, data platforms, data quality, BI and unit economics.
- Hands-on depth in at least one of those areas.
- Proven delivery of complex cross-functional data and ML projects.
- Strong planning, resource, backlog and risk management skills.
- Business-minded: thinks in numbers, benefits and trade-offs.
- Confident negotiating with C-level executives.
- Influence without formal authority; disciplined and comfortable with ambiguity.
- Fluent Russian and English.
About Social Discovery Group
Social Discovery Group is a group of social discovery companies building products that connect people online across cultures and regions. Its international team works remotely from all over the world, and it has been named a Great Place to Work in the USA and Japan (2024–2025) and a FlexJobs Top-5 company for work-from-anywhere jobs (2025)
Who Should Apply
Heads of data, analytics directors, ML leaders and VP-level data managers who want to move into an executive position. If you are as comfortable debating a dashboard as you are negotiating with a CEO, you will recognise yourself here.
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