Pakistan Digital Authority is hiring a founding Chief Data Officer, describing the role as one of the most consequential data leadership appointments in Pakistan’s public sector history. The position, based in Islamabad and open to applicants with a minimum of 15 years of progressive experience in data governance, data architecture, or data strategy, is a full-time on-site role that has already attracted over 100 applicants within five days of being posted. The Chief Data Officer will report directly to the Chairperson of Pakistan Digital Authority and will work alongside the Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer as part of the authority’s integrated technology governance team.
The scope of the role is explicitly framed as a sovereign infrastructure challenge rather than a conventional corporate data management appointment. The Chief Data Officer will be responsible for designing and owning Pakistan’s National Data Governance Framework, encompassing data classification, data quality standards, metadata standards, interoperability protocols, and data lifecycle management across government institutions at the federal and provincial level. Beyond the framework itself, the role involves leading the development of Pakistan Digital Authority’s full suite of data policy instruments, including a national data strategy, an open data policy, cross-border data flow frameworks, and sensitive data handling regulations that align with both the Personal Data Protection Act and international governance standards including the General Data Protection Regulation, Gulf Cooperation Council data protection regimes, and Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act.
The Chief Data Officer will also establish and chair the National Data Governance Council, coordinating data stewardship responsibilities across federal ministries, provincial governments, and regulatory bodies, and will drive the architecture and rollout of government-wide data infrastructure including national data exchanges, shared data platforms, and interoperable data registries. A significant component of the role involves developing the regulatory framework governing data sharing between government and the private sector, defining consent models, access tiers, and accountability mechanisms that balance openness with protection. The successful appointee will also be responsible for building Pakistan Digital Authority’s Data Governance Division from the ground up, hiring and developing a team of data architects, policy specialists, and standards engineers, and representing Pakistan in international data governance forums and bilateral digital cooperation engagements.
Preferred candidates will bring exposure to Digital Public Infrastructure principles including open standards, federated data models, and government data exchanges, as well as an understanding of artificial intelligence and machine learning data pipelines and the governance implications of large-scale artificial intelligence deployment in government settings. Experience building data governance functions from scratch within high-ambition, resource-conscious environments is specifically highlighted as a valued attribute, reflecting the scale and novelty of the institution-building challenge that Pakistan Digital Authority is undertaking. Compensation is benchmarked to Pakistan’s senior public sector reform appointments and international government technology norms, with the authority describing the role as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to define the data governance architecture of a sovereign digital nation.
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