6. Johanna Hutchinson, Chief Data Officer, BAE Systems

Describe your career to date

In August 2023 I moved into the Global Chief Data Officer role for BAE Systems. It is a new role for the organisation and sits in our global head office under the Chief Technology Innovation Officer.

BAE Systems is a FTSE 50 manufacturing firm, with a long history of delivering military platforms. The opportunity to mobilise, improve, and advance our data estate, while simultaneously embedding analytics and AI across a 90,000-strong workforce and delivering a huge backlog of orders is vast, complicated, and hugely exciting.

Prior to this post, I led data transformations and built data teams to enable analytics for decision making in government. During my 12 years in this role, I was able to implement significant change to public service: most notably leading the delivery of data and analytical products for decision making during the coronavirus pandemic.

Many of the metrics that became commonly understood at this time – such as R-value, prevalence curves, travel corridors, and roadmaps out of lockdown – came from my directorate.

Additionally, I built programmes in wastewater surveillance to detect disease across communities and the National Biosurveillance Network, designing the new network to mobilise insight from across government in the advent of a national security incident.

I have a PhD in Psychology from the University of Liverpool, and I am a firm believer that being trained as a scientist in behaviour is a superpower as a CDO.