This is a remote position.

Chief Digital Transformation Officer / Digital Operating Model Leader

This Evergreen Career Profile invites senior leaders to register for consideration for the Rutherford Talent Guild™. It is an expression of professional interest in future opportunities, not an advertisement for a current vacancy. Registration is not an application for a specific role, and it does not confer membership or promise a placement.

Many organisations have invested in data, automation and new technology and still find that the way work is done has barely changed. Pilots multiply, costs persist and the people expected to use new tools work around them. The transformation leader closes that gap. They decide with colleagues which changes matter, build the case in the organisation's own financial terms, lead the change in processes, roles and incentives, and show, with Finance, what has actually improved.

We welcome chief digital, transformation and innovation officers; technology and information leaders whose remit includes changing how the business operates; operations and asset-management leaders who have led technology-enabled change; and transformation programme leaders preparing for enterprise responsibility. Registration records where you are now; curator review explores where you want to go and the evidence that supports it.

The mandate

The role's centre is change that lasts and can be measured: a clear operating model, a disciplined portfolio of initiatives, adoption in day-to-day work and benefits that Finance recognises. The form varies. Some organisations need an enduring leader who keeps developing the operating model. Some need a leader for a defined programme with a clear handover. Others combine transformation with technology, data or operations leadership in one seat. All three are in scope.

Authority depends on the organisation. Transformation leaders typically recommend investments and decide within delegated limits on priorities, pilots and process standards. Capital approval, risk acceptance and financial validation rest with the appropriate executives, committees and Finance.

Representative challenges

• Several technology pilots are running, none has scaled, and the executive team wants to know which to stop.
  

• A new platform has been installed across a portfolio, but property and operations teams still rely on spreadsheets.
  

• The board asks what an earlier technology investment actually delivered, and the figures are disputed.
  

• The technology, operations and finance leaders disagree about who owns a cross-functional change.
  

Representative work

• Shaping the digital operating model and transformation roadmap with the executive team
  

• Building investment cases with explicit assumptions, costs, risks and agreed baselines
  

• Stopping, reshaping or scaling initiatives on evidence
  

• Redesigning processes, roles and incentives so new ways of working take hold
  

• Directing and challenging technology, data, security and delivery specialists
  

• Agreeing benefit measurement with Finance and Operations and reporting results candidly
  

Accountability within the mandate

• Accountable work: the quality of business cases, delivery, integration and adoption within your authority.
  

• Shared outcomes: verified operating savings and new operating income, owned jointly with Finance and Operations.
  

• Outcomes you influence: wider financial and valuation results, which also depend on markets, leasing, capital structure and many other decisions.
  

Contexts we profile

We profile this function across sectors, with particular attention to real estate investment and operating organisations: listed and private real estate companies, investment managers, family offices and owners of large portfolios. Leaders from logistics, infrastructure, hospitality, financial services and other asset-intensive or multi-site sectors are equally welcome. We profile the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom first. Organisation size, title and budget are context, not thresholds for registration. Sector is recorded separately from function.

What we are asking

The question is not simply whether you could hold a transformation title. It is whether you have the demonstrated capability, or the assessed potential, to lead lasting, measurable change in an appropriate mandate, and what professional development may be needed to get there. Rutherford certifies potential for high performance. That is different from past performance, and different from readiness for a particular role today.

For accepted members, a curator leads the development of a Career Thesis: the organisational problem you are best placed to solve, the environments in which you have shown it, your contribution and authority, the evidence behind it and one development priority. It is not required at registration, and any summary is shared with an organisation only with your consent.

The Rutherford Talent Guild™

The Rutherford Talent Guild™ is for executives pursuing permanent appointments. Rutherford manages a longer-term career relationship: interpreting your assessment alongside your experience, clarifying the mandates in which you can contribute most, identifying development priorities and, where there is a credible fit and under applicable arrangements, introducing you selectively to organisations for specific roles, including through private talent pipelines and Rutherford & Company retained searches. An introduction is an event in the relationship, not the relationship itself.

If your work is mainly fractional or interim, tell us at registration; it is recorded separately and may be considered through the Rutherford Talent Clearinghouse™. If your mandate also covers enterprise systems and technology, you may register interest in our Chief Information Officer / Enterprise Information and Technology Leader profile as well. Each profile is reviewed on its own evidence.

How the process works

Registration → initial review → assessment invitation → assessment → curator review → membership decision. Completing the assessment, including any payment associated with it, does not in itself confer membership. Membership carries no promise of introductions, interviews, appointments or placement.

The RutherfordINTEL Assessment informs our evaluation of potential and leadership style. Present readiness is considered separately through experience, technical capability and the requirements of a specific mandate.

About the RutherfordINTEL Assessment. RutherfordINTEL reports that its assessment predicts performance potential with 85% predictive accuracy. That is a statement about the instrument, not a guarantee or a probability of success for any individual, role or mandate. Your results are always interpreted by a Rutherford curator alongside your experience, achievements and objectives.

What we look for

Evidence before titles. During curation we will explore:

• A change you led that people still use, and how you know.
  

• How you agreed baselines and benefits with Finance, and what you claimed and did not claim.
  

• An initiative you stopped or reshaped, and why.
  

• How far your own technical understanding goes, and how you used specialists beyond it.
  

• What you were accountable for, what you decided jointly and what you influenced.
  

• How you worked with security and risk colleagues when speed and control pulled in different directions.
  

How we consider your background

• Your title. A transformation or digital title is welcome but not essential. We consider the responsibility you carried.
  

• Your career path. No single pathway is expected. Leaders have come from operations, asset management, technology, consulting, finance and other asset-intensive sectors.
  

• Length of experience. No fixed minimum applies to this Evergreen profile.
  

• Credentials. Recorded and considered alongside demonstrated capability. None is required.
  

• Personality. The RutherfordINTEL Assessment measures 85 personality traits. From these, our research has identified 12 core personality types and 60 hybrid combinations of them: 72 personality types in all. Only a limited few of these correlate with high potential for success in any given role, so personality is an important part of our evaluation. Your results are interpreted by a curator alongside your experience, achievements and objectives, never in isolation.
  

To register

Registration is short: your essential details, your function (Chief Digital Transformation Officer / Digital Operating Model Leader), your sector and your current résumé. A LinkedIn profile is optional, and you do not need a Career Thesis. You will also answer three short written questions. Use an example you handled, or explain the approach you would take. Please do not include confidential information.

Learn more about Rutherford Talent Solutions™: https://www.rutherfordinternational.com/rutherford-talent-solutions/