Fractional Data & AI Leadership
Executive data leadership, sized to what you actually need.
Damon Clifford embeds senior data & AI leadership inside mid-market teams — so strategy gets set and decisions get made, without adding a full-time executive seat.
Engagements are scoped to a fixed cadence — 1–2 days a week, or a defined project sprint — so you get executive-level attention without executive-level overhead.
of AI initiatives underperform for leadership reasons — not technical ones. — RAND Corporation, enterprise AI adoption research
Why This Matters
Most mid-market teams don't have a data talent problem. They have a data leadership gap.
Engineers can build the pipeline. Analysts can build the model. What's usually missing is the senior voice who can prioritize the right problems, translate output into decisions, and hold the line when a project should be killed. That's a leadership function — and it doesn't require a full-time hire to fill it well.
Services
Four ways to bring in senior data & AI leadership.
Fractional CDO / Head of Data & AI
Ongoing embedded leadership, typically 1–3 days a week — owning data & AI strategy, roadmap, and stakeholder reporting as part of your leadership team.
AI Readiness & Strategy Audit
A focused 2–4 week engagement assessing data maturity, prioritizing AI use cases by real business value, and flagging governance and infrastructure gaps.
Data & AI Team Build-out
Structuring, hiring for, and managing a data or AI function from the ground up — so the team you build outlasts the engagement.
Board & Executive Advisory
Ad hoc advisory for leadership teams and boards facing a major data or AI decision — a build-vs-buy call, a vendor evaluation, a go/no-go.
How It Works
A short path from first call to embedded leadership.
Intro call
We talk through where things stand today and what's actually blocking progress.
Scoped engagement
A fit-for-purpose plan — fractional days per week, or a fixed-scope audit with a clear deliverable.
Embedded work
Working inside your team and your tools, reporting directly into your leadership.
Handoff or continuity
Either we build the internal capability to take over, or continue at a lighter, ongoing cadence.
Who This Is For
Built for mid-market companies weighing a first data or AI hire.
- You have data or engineering talent, but no one senior enough to set direction for it
- Your board or leadership is asking "what's our AI plan?" and you need a credible answer
- You're not ready — or don't need — to make a full-time C-suite data hire
- You want an outside, senior perspective before committing budget to a build-vs-buy decision
- You need someone who can talk to engineers and the boardroom in the same afternoon