About the Job Title "Chief Diversity Officer"

Chief Diversity Officer Job Description

A Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) plays a hugely meaningful part in any business. They are primarily responsible for an organization’s strategy for recruitment of diverse and underrepresented candidates.

Chief Diversity Officer Job Profiles: This is a general writeup based on our research into Chief Diversity Officer positions in the Executive career area. For individual, real-life job profiles of actual people with this type of job, check out our job profiles page.

  • Career Field: Executive
  • Salary Range: $136927 - $299506

What's it like to be a Chief Diversity Officer?

Duties and responsibilities

A Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) plays a hugely meaningful part in any business. They are primarily responsible for an organization’s strategy for recruitment of diverse and underrepresented candidates. Their typical duties and responsibilities include:

Qualifications

Ideally, a CDO will need a bachelor’s degree in a related field, such as business administration, public administration, law or liberal arts. To have the best opportunities, CEO’s will achieve a masters degree in business administration (MBA) or a diversity related field.

Skills and relevant work experience

As well as relevant experience, CDO’s will need skills such as:

    • Leadership skills, as CDO’s are top executives and must be able to lead others and implement their ideas confidently
    • Interpersonal skills, as CDO’s will deal with sensitive issues. They must be able to build trusting relationships
    • Organization skills, as CDO’s have a huge amount of responsibility and must be able to manage their time
    • Strategic thinking, as they must be able to implement plans and strategies based on data
    • Technology skills, as CDO’s will uses software to analyse numbers and data

Hours

Most CDO’s will work full time. They may often find themselves working overtime, long hours to meet deadlines. They may also travel a lot to attend meetings or meet with stakeholders.

Salary

According to salary.com the median annual salary for a CDO in the United States is $188,700. The bottom 10% can expect to earn less than $136,927 and the highest 10% earn over $299,506 per annum.

Progression

CDO’s progress from lower roles. Such roles include operation managers, operation directors, or other management roles. It takes years to progress to CDO level. Therefore, once you have reached CDO level, there is little further progression. However, you may choose to aspire to become a CEO, but your role will then be less focused on diversity and inclusion.

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