What’s a CTO?

The chief expertise officer (CTO) is the senior govt who focuses on the technological necessities, alternatives, and challenges inside a company. The CTO function has emerged as a key participant within the enterprise C-suite, particularly with digital transformation being such a excessive strategic precedence for therefore many organizations.

What does a CTO do?

These executives, in lots of instances working in collaboration with CIOs, are oftentimes on the forefront of modern expertise services. And so they may help steer their organizations towards better efficiencies and higher efficiency by adopting these instruments.

As such, CTOs are among the many most vital hires organizations are making right this moment, and it may be difficult discovering the best one who possesses all the best abilities.

“When hiring a CTO, you’re on the lookout for a technologist, a expertise architect, an innovator, and somebody who can improve the corporate’s merchandise for purchasers whereas partnering with the CIO,” says Ash Athawale, senior vice chairman and senior group managing director for the chief search observe group at Robert Half.

CTO function and key tasks

As a senior govt centered on a company’s technical necessities and challenges, the CTO’s function might be just like that of the CIO. However whereas the CIO is tasked with overseeing the IT division, workers, and infrastructure to assist on a regular basis operations and dealing with enterprise leaders to align IT with enterprise targets, the CTO is answerable for the general expertise technique.

Some CTOs are additionally answerable for managing analysis and improvement initiatives and overseeing mental property at their organizations.

“The function of the CTO continues to evolve,” says Craig Stephenson, managing director for the North America Know-how Officers Observe at organizational consulting agency Korn Ferry.

“Sadly, [the role] means many issues to completely different industries and organizations,” Stephenson says. “Years in the past, the CTO most frequently led the infrastructure operate. This may increasingly nonetheless be true right this moment, however the title of CTO may imply a extremely strategic function which frequently incorporates engineering, expertise, and product improvement. The CTO title is tougher to outline right this moment than ever earlier than.”

[ Related: Career roadmap: Chief technology officer ]

CTO job description

CTOs oversee the effectiveness of expertise assets inside a company, together with every thing from telephone techniques to enterprise software program platforms. “Their duties embrace speaking with different executives, performing analysis on new applied sciences that might improve their enterprise, and monitoring the use and implementation of recent and present applied sciences throughout departments,” in response to on-line hiring platform Certainly.

As a result of the function is dynamic and tasks can differ relying on the sort and dimension of the group, business, and different components, there isn’t actually such factor as typical day for a CTO.

Certainly lists quite a few duties a CTO may be anticipated to hold out. These embrace presenting studies on the corporate’s expertise standing, targets, or progress; creating and implementing expertise methods; aligning the corporate’s expertise assets with its short- and long-term targets; serving on the chief committee to align expertise targets to different departmental and organizational goals; figuring out which applied sciences can be utilized to enhance the corporate’s services; creating and overseeing high-level key efficiency indicators; serving to with recruiting, onboarding, and coaching expertise professionals; and managing a finances.

“It’s tough to be exact [about job description] based mostly on the various definitions of the chief expertise officer title,” Stephenson says. “Nevertheless, if the CTO is overseeing infrastructure, the chief is probably going overseeing a balanced portfolio of strategic and tactical goals.”

These may embrace infrastructure modernization, resiliency, cloud companies, in depth interactions with safety groups, and continued partnership with the engineering/software program groups centered on high quality and launch administration, Stephenson says. Which means CTOs are doubtless spending plenty of time working in collaboration with others.

CTO vs. CIO

The tasks and day-to-day capabilities of the CTO and CIO may overlap relying on the group, the way it’s structured, its enterprise mannequin, and different components. Normally, nevertheless, it’s the CTO who’s charged with staying on prime of rising applied sciences that may be of worth to the group.

The CTO additionally creates insurance policies and procedures that leverage expertise to reinforce services delivered to exterior prospects.

When a company has each a CIO and CTO, the CTO often has extra technical know-how and experience, in response to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The CTO usually studies on to the CIO and is answerable for designing and recommending the suitable expertise options to assist the CIO’s insurance policies and directives, the bureau says. CTOs additionally work with numerous departments to implement the group’s expertise plans.

When an organization doesn’t have a CIO, the CTO determines the general expertise technique and presents it to prime executives, in response to the BLS.

[ Related: CIO vs. CTO: Chief collaborators in tech ]

CTO abilities

As a member of the C-suite, the CTO must possess pure management abilities, together with the flexibility to delegate duties and encourage workers of their work.

“As corporations push to successfully drive expertise transformation, we consider there’s a very robust push to search out expertise leaders [who] deliver expertise and capabilities from hands-on management and stewardship of such actions,” Stephenson says.

The CTO function naturally requires a powerful data of varied applied sciences, and “actual expertise acumen, particularly within the structure, software program, and expertise technique areas to handle legacy expertise challenges,” Stephenson says.

Understanding how expertise works is essential, but it surely’s additionally vital to have the ability to clarify the enterprise worth of a specific expertise to C-level colleagues who may not be technically inclined. It’s additionally important to have the ability to see how expertise matches with strategic enterprise targets.

“Know-how imaginative and prescient coupled with strategic pondering past expertise” is vital, says Ozgur Aksakal, president of the World CTO Discussion board, an impartial, world group for expertise professionals.

“There are plenty of expertise tendencies that don’t dwell as much as their guarantees,” Aksakal says. “Investing in improper strategic selections may even kill an organization. “A CTO shouldn’t be blinded by engineering superiority, however see how that engineering will match into the corporate targets and the market.”

CTOs additionally must have quite a few mushy abilities as nicely, together with robust communications and collaboration. These executives work with many individuals throughout numerous capabilities, and the flexibility to collaborate nicely is crucial.

Additionally they want the flexibility to understand what others within the group need to accomplish and the challenges they face, and to information them in how one can meet targets and tackle hurdles. “The CTO ought to persuade various stakeholders to commit and spend money on unknowns,” Aksakal says. “This requires robust conviction and empathy.”

Different mushy abilities CTOs ought to have embrace good problem-solving, time administration, multi-tasking, and artistic pondering.

[ Related: The skills and traits of elite CTOs ]

CTO background and necessities

CTOs want not less than a bachelor’s diploma in laptop science, info techniques, or a associated discipline, in response to Certainly. In some instances, a level in enterprise administration or administration is effective. Many CTOs have not less than a grasp’s diploma, and a few even have PhDs in IT or enterprise administration fields.

Most CTOs endure coaching all through their careers in IT departments, they usually may also earn certifications in improvement, programming, database administration, or different associated fields.

“CTOs usually want not less than 10 years of expertise in IT and administration,” Certainly says. “They often begin in entry-level roles in technical assist, improvement and programming, database and community administration, or engineering. After a number of years, they usually enter a administration or management function, the place they get the mandatory management abilities.”

Since CTOs must possess data of each division function, expertise in a number of completely different expertise positions is effective.

A CTO with out an engineering background is kind of uncommon, Aksakal says. “A CTO who doesn’t have expertise background is a no-go,” he says. “A CTO ought to perceive expertise, if attainable a really huge spectrum of the expertise.”

Organizations seeking to rent a CTO ought to search somebody who’s bold and daring, “somebody who can shake the established order, keep resilient, and switch expertise into one thing helpful for the group,” Aksakal says. These traits might be demonstrated by earlier profession selections and accomplishments.

Reporting construction

Relying on the organizational construction, CTOs can report to numerous different C-level executives. These embrace the CIO, CEO, COO, or CFO.

“If it’s the prime expertise management function inside a company, we consider the strategic method [is to] guarantee this function studies to the chief govt officer,” Stephenson says. “This conveys a vital message to the market, expertise operate, and potential candidate group to draw the most effective and brightest expertise to a company.”

In accordance with the 2024 State of the CIO Survey from Foundry/CIO.com, 56% of CTOs report on to the CEO, whereas 35% report back to the CIO or different prime IT govt and a couple of% report back to the CFO.

CTO wage

CTOs on common earn a base wage of $175,864 per 12 months, in response to PayScale, a agency that gives a compensation platform to calculate compensation charges. With bonuses starting from $5,000 to $75,000 and revenue sharing as much as $98,000, whole compensation for these positions ranges from $100,000 to $305,000 per 12 months.

CTO jobs

The job outlook for CTOs ought to stay robust, notably since so many organizations are present process digital transformations and are on the lookout for the most recent, most modern applied sciences and somebody to steer the cost in deploying these instruments.

The CTO job market is “extraordinarily sizzling,” Aksakal says. “We observe it on the World CTO Discussion board daily. [Being] an awesome CTO requires having a magnitude of abilities in a single individual. It is sort of a Swiss military knife. There isn’t a excessive variety of folks with the most effective mixture of expertise, folks, and enterprise abilities.”

This versatility offers alternatives for CTOs to advance to the best ranges of organizations. “As understanding of expertise turns into increasingly essential for each operate of an organization, the CTO can have a serious influence on [the] success of each operate of an organization — advertising, gross sales, product, HR, and even the CEO operate,” Aksakal says.