What Is a Chief Technology Officer CTO? How to Become One, Salary, Skills

The CTO is responsible for technologies that grow the business externally, implementing services and products that serve clients and customers. Today, as nearly every company strives to achieve digital transformation and deliver tech-driven customer experiences, the CTO has become much more of a chief strategy officer, often with the CIO as a direct report. But just when you think the matter is settled, along comes the chief digital officer (CDO) and even a chief experience officer (CXO), creating a veritable Venn diagram of tech-focused executives with overlapping spheres of influence. Of course, CTOs need to be up to date with the latest technology trends and able to identify the emerging technologies that could give their company a competitive advantage, but they also need well-developed softer skills. Gone are the days of building a hero culture where people push until they burn out.

Roughly 15+ years of experience in a tech role are critical to climbing the corporate ladder and becoming CTO. Generally, the more years of experience and knowledge in an industry, the higher your chances of reaching a C-suite position. Roles as software engineers, web development, or big data are some of the career positions a CTO may have held before their current role. Since innovation and technology go hand-in-hand, it is crucial for a CTO to have a creative mindset and stay on top of the latest technology trends. That way, their organization will be equipped to facilitate operations and development.

What is Innovation Leadership in a CTO Role?

But one thing is for sure, they need to have their finger on the “technological pulse,” and remain aware of new trends and technologies that could disrupt their business. That means innovation should be led by a CTO who not only adapts to changes well, but also knows what technology is most functional in their business. A strict top-down organization structure can hinder innovation and speed of delivery. At the same time, a purely bottom-up approach can impede learning, re-use, or the ability to scale. Every organization may need to operate across multiple operating modes simultaneously to address their business challenges. Leaders may need to adopt appropriate operating models based on scenarios and requirements.

Khalid has served as a trusted advisor to large, multinational clients, and has decades of experience helping technology leaders anticipate and plan for the impacts of new technology. His research has been widely featured in media outlets such as MSNBC, The Boston Globe, and CIO magazine. As the job description changes, we might see CTOs emerge from fields outside of traditional IT, such as R&D, data science or sales. In any case, versatility and flexibility will be key intangible attributes, because the role of CTO continues to evolve just as fast as technology itself. The CTOs of yesteryear tended to be geeks (in the most complimentary sense of the word).

Women in tech are cracking the industry’s glass ceiling, achieving double-digit gains in leadership roles

This CTO may oversee the company’s data, security, maintenance, and the network of a company and may implement (but not necessarily set) the company’s technical strategy. Keeping on top of technology trends and working out where to place big bets is a time consuming process. The OCTO provides additional leverage to the CTO, allowing them important time to think and formulate strategy. For example, an innovation-focused CTO might be measured on their product innovation, whereas an operation-focused CTO might be measured on defects or P1 incidents. The role of the Chief Technology Officer is complicated, and every CTO will have their own unique strengths to bring to the table.

DiLorenzo holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and BA from Colgate University. As the role of a CTO changes according to the stage of that company’s life-cycle, we’ll briefly detail how a CTOs responsibilities may change. Data security and compliance – Will your CTO be required to optimize and manage organizational data? In other industries, security and compliance usually take a much higher priority. Understanding enterprise risk and standards can be painful but extremely valuable knowledge.

How to Become a Chief Technology Officer

These executives, in many cases working in collaboration with CIOs, are oftentimes at the forefront of innovative technology products and services. And they can help steer their organizations toward greater efficiencies and better performance by adopting these tools. Haake says the CTOs she’s recruiting are expected to have deep technological knowledge, but their ability to move from a senior engineering position into the C-suite is dependent on softer skills, such as engagement and influence. This focus on technology, particularly in the creation of a firm’s products and services, helps to explain why increasing numbers of tech chiefs – such as Tarah Lourens at Rightmove – are taking on the chief product and technology officer role. The inherent strength of the CTO is their detailed understanding of systems and services.

If a small startup CTO works well, the company may grow quickly and the role of CTO will change significantly. Equally important as such personal qualities, however, is how the CTO role is configured for a given individual and a given company. For executing on the right combination of responsibilities listed above, we have identified four distinct potential CTO styles (Exhibit 4). CTOs on average earn a salary of $163,309 per year, according to PayScale, a firm that provides a compensation platform to calculate compensation rates.

A framework for managing an extended and connected workforce

Seventy-two percent have a chief information officer, 51% have a chief technology officer, and 47% have a chief information security officer. Nine percent of organizations surveyed had all three of these titles—a chief digital officer, a chief data officer, and a chief technology officer. Amid the alphabet soup of C-roles, is the CTO title destined to be pushed out and fade away forever? Because companies still need an executive whose job it is to keep an eye on the technology horizon and ensure the organization stays current, relevant and, ideally, ahead of the pack. Salary research specialist PayScale says popular skills for CTOs include expertise in software architecture, leadership, IT management, product development, and project management. However, CTOs are increasingly prized for their knowledge of pioneering areas of technology, such as digital products, technical vision and research and development (R&D).

• In order to do this, CTOs need to adopt many different personas within an organization—to the business, you’re the tech guy, and to the technology team, you’re the business guy.
• Establishes technology standards and communicates technical information to the organization.
• This is evidenced by the rise of the chief data officer, chief digital officer, and other senior technology leadership roles—all disciplines tech leaders should now master, coordinate, and integrate across the enterprise.
• Currently, in some organizations, the five competencies are expected to reside within a single role or position—the CIO or highest-ranking tech leader.
• The CTO typically reports directly to the CIO and is responsible for designing and recommending the appropriate technology solutions to support the CIO’s policies and directives, the bureau says.

Usually, “technology leadership” revolves around the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Knowing everything about technology will not help very much if you cannot communicate effectively when talking to stakeholders. Conversely, being a great public speaker will not save you if you need to explain heavy tech knowledge to a team of IT specialists.

What is a Chief Technology Officer (CTO)?

The most important role a CTO has is to use technology to generate value for a company and help it achieve its business objectives. At their core, they must develop a technology vision and strategy that will allow the company to thrive and build a solid competitive advantage. When these five competencies reside within the entire technology team—especially at a high level—transformation of the entire enterprise could become more possible. Tim is a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP and serves as the US leader for Monitor Deloitte’s Technology Strategy & Business Transformation practice. He has more than 20 years of cross-sector technology advisory and implementation experience in the United States and abroad. Tim works with clients to unlock the value within the technology estate via integrated choices across operating models, architectures, and ecosystems.

And they have a responsibility to their technical teams to ensure that they, in turn, have the right technology and tools to support this. Rather than simply focusing on efficiency, the CTO is critical in equipping businesses to deliver value to their clients and powering the future. The CTO is the person who leads the technology function, innovation and, increasingly, product management. In a sign of the increased expectations of top-class CTOs, the analyst says the role is moving beyond infrastructure management and towards driving technology innovation and leading digital product development.

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They will set the strategy, culture and technology in order to future-proof the business. They are the charismatic visionary, spokesperson and are chief technology officer roles an integral part of the leadership team. This versatility provides opportunities for CTOs to advance to the highest levels of organizations.

Besides making critical decisions alongside other company leaders, a CTO must develop policies regarding technology so that organizations run smoothly. A well-versed CTO is knowledgeable in roadmapping & development, innovation, leadership, strategic planning, AI, machine learning, cloud, DevOps, and budgeting, amongst other skills and technologies. The dizzily increasing speed of technological change makes it critical for companies to stay ahead of technology trends and be able to anticipate disruptions. They need to understand what products a business needs and measure product engagement and success. They need to be able to translate highly complex technical concepts and ideas to a nontechnical audience. They need to know when to embrace the right technology for their business and when to pass, when to tackle that legacy system and when to transform.

What is a Chief Technology Officer? Everything you need to know about the CTO

Today, networking is a key factor in obtaining a better position in most industries. Meeting new professionals and maintaining professional relationships with industry leaders can influence your career. As long as you have the education and experience under your belt, nurturing professional relationships can lead you to achieve the position you have always wanted. Management and leadership roles are the best steppingstones to obtaining the CTO role in an organization. Additionally, he needs to comprehend technology growth and trends and keep the company’s objectives in line with technology. He has to tackle team issues, debug machine learning codes, and technical debt accompanying often changing product necessities.

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