Pete Williams, director of data, Penguin Random House UK

Describe your career to date

After a brief period of working outside this industry, I soon realised where I was meant to be and went back into education to restart a career in something I was interested in. If I relate how my in-role experiences have supported my career progression and enabled me, I’d consider the three vital skills of a CDO/data leader:

Data competency: I’ve had technical roles, including computer operator, programmer/senior programmer, BI developer, and technical BI tool lead. I’ve also had roles aligned to technical delivery, such as systems analyst and project manager, leading on building data warehouses and reporting systems. These roles allowed me to understand how to code, build a system and data environment and the “art of the possible”.

Commercial acumen: I’ve worked within the commercial line of business teams as well as technology functions, and in a variety of industries including retail, FMCG, facilities, local government and now publishing. Being able to understand and prioritise the levers that drive your organisation is crucial to gaining the trust of teams you wish to empower. 

Leading transformation: I’ve worked as a change agent on many projects and been the lead on enterprise change programmes. Understanding how to structure a transformation, lead the team and the organisation in these programmes, the dynamics of the change curve and communication strategies are vital when trying to define the change and transform effort.

As I worked, I realised I was more fascinated by helping people drive better, faster decisions through data than coding to generate the insight. I therefore sought out roles that enabled be to broaden my skill set in these areas. I feel it’s important to take time to be retrospective, understand what and how a role has enhanced you and to work out what you need from the next one.