Chief Data Officer

Sparteo

2d•Remote

About The Position

Sparteo is seeking a Chief Data Officer (CDO) to lead its entire Data & AI function, working closely with the CTO. This leadership role requires strong scientific and mathematical authority to guide senior data scientists and engineers, focusing on structuring the department, setting direction, and orchestrating synergy between infrastructure, AI (including Generative AI), and Business Intelligence. The CDO will be responsible for restructuring the Data department, defining an AI roadmap, establishing a single source of truth for data, ensuring data governance and compliance, managing the data budget, and representing the Data & AI function to the board and investors. The role involves holistic management of three pillars: Data Engineering & AI Infrastructure, Data Science, and Data Analytics & BI.

Requirements

Experience in very high-volume environments (High-Frequency Trading, Adtech) is crucial.
Proven experience scaling and optimizing data and ML infrastructure under tight cost discipline, ideally bare metal and Kubernetes.
Ability to own architecture decisions end to end.
Strong expertise in Machine Learning, from model design to real-time inference, with hands-on experience building continuous learning pipelines.
Advanced AI tooling: Builds own skills, plugins and artifacts with LLM assistants.
Proven ability to audit code, validate data architectures on self-operated infrastructure and master columnar databases and big data pipelines.
Master’s or Ph.D. in Mathematics, Statistics or Computer Science.
Confirmed experience as a CDO or VP Data managing multidisciplinary teams (Eng + Science + Analytics).
Writes POCs, pair-programs, lives the problems with the team rather than delegating from afar.
Direct, transparent communication and strong alignment with Sparteo's culture.
Ability to bring along senior experts who built the current systems.
Capable of high-level strategy while retaining the ability to “deep-dive” into technical specificities.
Pragmatic and analytical problem-solving skills.
Agility in a fast-moving environment.
Understanding of the 80-20 (Pareto) principle.
Ability to listen and challenge/improve oneself on an ongoing basis.

Nice To Haves

Deep understanding of Deep Learning, Transformers and GPU-based training and inference.

Responsibilities

Lead the entire Data & AI function, working hand-in-hand with the CTO.
Structure the Data department to support Sparteo’s growth and define organizational building blocks.
Define and execute the strategy for integrating LLMs and Agentic AI, including internal data agents and conversational analytics.
Establish a single set of KPI definitions, formulas, and naming across the group.
Own data governance across the group, including GDPR compliance, data retention, and minimization.
Manage the Data & AI annual budget and make decisions on automation and hiring.
Represent the voice of Data and AI to the board, investors, and external partners.
Holistically manage the Heads/Leads of each pillar to ensure coherence of the Data/AI value chain.
Validate technological choices for high-performance infrastructure to absorb massive ad-request volumes with minimal latency and cost discipline.
Ensure the availability of critical data flows for bidding, monetization, and real-time AI inference.
Own the data stack (ClickHouse, SQLMesh, Lightdash, Kubernetes) and CI/CD processes.
Drive innovation in yield management, floor pricing, throttling, bidding optimization, and audience scoring via advanced predictive models and reinforcement learning.
Validate strategies for auto-tuning, versioning, and A/B testing of algorithms.
Structure the Data Science team’s roadmap, objectives, and follow-up.
Audit mathematical models and maintain a standard of excellence.
Transform raw data and AI-generated insights into growth levers and revenue strategies for Sales and CSM teams.
Own the KPI access-rights policy with business owners.
Scale analytics through the internal data agent.
Act as a privileged point of contact for executive management and investors.
Guarantee the accuracy of dashboards.

Benefits

Unique opportunity to structure an entire Data & AI department within a fast-growing scale-up.
Reporting directly to the CEO.
Full ownership of the Data & AI budget.
Direct influence on global strategy and investment decisions.
Remote-first, from France.
English work environment.
AI at your fingertips (Claude available).
Close-knit Team.
Vibrant Social Events.
Rapid Growth environment.
Tailored Support for career development (training, check-ins, mobility, feedback).
Comprehensive health coverage.