A fractional Chief Data Officer is a senior data executive who joins your leadership team part-time — typically one to two days per week — to own your data strategy, architecture decisions, and governance without the cost or lead time of a full-time hire. One Big Table provides fractional CDO leadership to mid-market and enterprise organizations that have real data problems but no executive accountable for solving them: fragmented sources, dashboards nobody trusts, cloud spend without governance, and AI ambitions stalling at the data layer. You get a practitioner who has built these systems, embedded in your team.
Book a Discovery CallMost organizations between $20M and $500M in revenue have outgrown ad-hoc analytics but can't justify — or can't attract — a full-time data executive. The work still needs an owner.
Your analysts are talented but nobody owns the architecture. Every team builds its own pipelines, defines its own metrics, and ships its own dashboards — and the numbers no longer agree in the boardroom.
A full-time CDO is a $300K–$500K+ commitment before you've defined the role. A fractional engagement gives you the strategy, the architecture decisions, and the executive accountability now — and helps you scope the permanent hire later.
Vendors are pitching you platforms, migrations, and AI pilots. Without a senior practitioner on your side of the table, you're evaluating architecture decisions with nobody accountable for the ten-year consequences.
This is a delivery role, not an advisory subscription. Every engagement produces specific, inspectable artefacts — the same standard we hold in our project engagements.
A written data strategy and target-state architecture blueprint delivered within the first 30 days, covering sources, modeling approach, semantic layer, and platform direction.
A governed KPI dictionary with owned definitions per metric, plus a prioritized roadmap for the executive dashboards that will run on top of it.
A pragmatic governance operating model — data ownership, quality standards, and role-based access control — sized to your organization, not lifted from an enterprise playbook.
Independent evaluation of platforms, tools, and implementation partners — Snowflake vs. Databricks vs. Fabric, build vs. buy — with a recommendation you can defend to the board.
A monthly executive readout tracking the roadmap against outcomes — architecture shipped, cost trajectory, risk register — in language the board actually reads.
Role scoping, job descriptions, and technical interviewing for the analysts, engineers, and eventual full-time data leader who will carry the architecture forward.
Fractional CDO engagements are retained monthly, remote-first with on-site options, and typically run one to two days per week. The cadence is structured: standing leadership sessions, architecture reviews with your team, vendor calls where you need weight on your side of the table, and a monthly executive readout.
Our approach is built on the 30/60/90 roadmap — foundation by day 30, build by day 60, intelligence by day 90. That means the first quarter of the engagement is not discovery theatre; it follows a pre-built framework mapped to five architecture pillars, with named deliverables at each gate.
Terms are monthly with no lock-in. Not sure a fractional model fits yet? Start with our free readiness assessment and get an honest read on where you stand first.
A full-time Chief Data Officer typically costs $300,000-$500,000+ per year in salary, bonus, and equity — before you add a supporting team. A fractional engagement delivers the same seniority for a fraction of that, on a flat monthly retainer scoped to outcomes rather than an hourly timesheet, with no long-term employment commitment.
Most engagements run one to two days per week. The cadence flexes with the phase of work — heavier during the initial strategy and architecture sprint, lighter once the roadmap is in execution and your internal team is carrying delivery. The days are structured, not ad hoc: standing leadership sessions, architecture reviews, and a monthly executive readout.
A consulting firm sells you a team and a deck. A fractional CDO sits inside your organization with executive accountability — owning the data strategy, making the architecture decisions, managing vendors, and answering to the board for progress. You work directly with a senior practitioner, not a pyramid of juniors, and the mandate is to build capability you keep.
Most engagements run six to twelve months. The first 90 days follow our structured 30/60/90 roadmap — foundation, build, intelligence — and many clients then retain a lighter advisory cadence, or transition to a permanent hire we help them recruit. Terms are monthly with no lock-in.