Hottest 2015 Exec Jobs Will Be All About Data

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Want to rise to the C-suite in the new year? You're in luck: Companies everywhere are going to have to step up their executive hiring game if they want to stay ahead of the competition.

Global executive search firm CTPartners recently released its 20th annual "Hot Jobs" forecast of new and emerging executive roles. In 2015, leadership hiring will be driven primarily by the changing demands of the global business world, especially around big data.

"We are seeing a proliferation of executive-level roles borne out of the global influence of big data," CTPartners CEO Brian Sullivan said in a statement. "Businesses are looking for leaders who can not only understand the massive amounts of information available to them but also identify the threats and opportunities that come as a result of this evolving landscape."

Along with big-data demands, CTPartners identified three other trends influencing executive positions in the coming year: the digital landscape and the role it plays in marketing, an increase in disruptive new IPOs in the marketplace, and the need for more diverse customer and employee representation due to globalization.

CTPartners predicted the following 16 positions as 2015's top executive jobs. Here they are, along with their descriptions, broken down by industry:

Digital and marketing

• Chief Marketing Officer: Embrace data analytics to work effectively and measure performance.
• Digital Marketing/Chief Creative Officer: Lead companies through the shift from traditional to online advertising platforms that allow closer tracking of return on investment.
• Chief Digital Officer: Develop effective strategies for mobile and digital platforms.

Retail

• Analytics Practice Leader: Capture and synthesize massive amounts of data from customer interactions, supply-chain feedback and other sources.
• Chief Growth Officer: Identify growth opportunities across digital media and technology and borrow ideas from the startup world.
• Head of Personalization: Integrate the knowledge gained from customer behavior analytics into highly targeted engagement and marketing strategies.

Cybersecurity

• Chief Information Security Officer: Protect companies' digital assets, preferably by using a defense sector or federal government background.
• Digital Risk Officer: Meet the ever-growing need for consistent, organization-wide responses to digital business risk.
• Conduct Risk Officer: Incorporate treatment of customers, remuneration of staff and a firm's response to conflicts of interest into operational risk.

Science and health care

• Head of Customer Engagement: Engage with and respond to an increasingly influential customer base of patients and service providersin the pharmaceutical and health care space.
• Chief Patient Officer: Empower patients as the opportunities in the convergence of health care and technology materialize.
• Head of Population Health Management: Understand the data and analytics tools available, as well as business priorities across the spectrum of health care providers.
• Chief Innovation Officer: Lead product development and strategic direction responsibilities in the life sciences sector.

Human resources

• Chief Human Resources Officer: Serve as an adviser, counselor and reliable sounding board to the CEO, especially from a global perspective.
• Head of People Analytics: Provide deeper and more meaningful information about human capital, a company's most valuable asset.

Finance

• Private Equity CFO: Move quickly when making decisions in the face of increasingly robust private-equity activity around the globe.

Sullivan noted that companies hoping to maintain a competitive edge in 2015 will need to adjust their strategies to accommodate for these data-driven roles and trends.

"Overall, the market remains highly competitive for top talent right now, with nearly three-quarters of our partners describing today's environment as 'fierce,'" he said. "The war for talent is definitely going to continue throughout 2015. Companies will need to develop a range of management and leadership positions to grow and compete successfully."